Religion at Harvard

A Harvard education is not what it used to be, at least that is what it seems. I’d have to agree, as an individual which studies religion, and as a faithful individual, they are right. I am amazed that when I mentioned I was going to a Good Friday Mass, people asked me what Easter was all about. I don’t expect you to know what the theological points in all their nuance are. You do, however, need to know something about why Easter is important. Harvard is creating the leaders of the future (again, that is what they tell me, I’m not sure I buy it). And these leaders will know nothing about religion.

I have to add, Stephen Pinker is an interesting character. “He argued that the primary goal of a Harvard education is the pursuit of truth through rational inquiry, and that religion has no place in that.” That is a shame, because so many contemporary scholars of religion would disagree with him (not to mention Thomas Aquinas). There is no department of religion at Harvard. There is, however the Divinity Department. As a grad student in the BTI I can take some of their courses. I perused their fall catalog and found nothing substantial. It seemed every class was fascinated with some small minutia, some small corner of academic content with no relation to the world we live in. If this is what Pinker is talking about – well then I might agree with him. But I know I don’t, nor am I taking any of those courses.

Pinker goes on to say: “But reason and faith are not yin and yang. Faith is a phenomenon. Reason is what the university should be in the business of fostering.” – Every input to a reasonable process is a phenomenon. The physics, electricity, mathematics, politics, and, yes, psychology is the study of a phenomenon Stephen. Why is the study of the phenomenon of faith any different? It isn’t.