Harvard may require reason & faith course

Posted: 11/03/06

Harvard may require
reason & faith course

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Religion News Service

BOSTON (RNS)—In a nod to the growing significance of religion in world affairs, a Harvard University faculty committee is recommending all undergraduates be required to take a course in “reason and faith.”

The recommendation was part of a report issued recently by Harvard’s Task Force on General Education. In the report, the nine-member faculty panel also recommended a required course in ethics and two under the rubric of “The United States and the World.”

In recent decades, Harvard students haven’t had to take a religion class in order to graduate. But that should change, according to the faculty panel, because religion affects so many areas of life.

“Harvard is no longer a religious institution,” the report says, “but religion is a fact that Harvard’s graduates will confront both in their lives in and after college.”

Courses fulfilling the requirement will not consist of “religious apologetics,” the report explains, but will instead “examine the interplay between religion and various aspects of national and/or international society and culture.”

The recommended religion requirement comes as Harvard undergoes a curriculum review years in the making.

Harvard College, the nation’s oldest, formed in 1636 as a training ground for Congregational ministers. By 1708, however, the college had appointed its first president who was not a clergyman, and scientific areas of study soon replaced theological pursuits. Now, the report suggests, the scientific study of religion is too important to leave as a mere elective for motivated students.

“Harvard has today many courses in the catalogue on religion, so it has never been a neglected area,” said task force Co-chair Louis Menand. “But it’s clear that the role religion plays in life, and always has played, is salient in new ways: Events, both international and domestic, have brought it into focus. We think students should know something about religion’s role historically and today if they are to be educated for the 21st century.”

A full faculty vote is required before recommendations would be adopted as university policy. Such a vote could come as soon as this winter, Menand said.