December 9, 2003
KNOW HALF THYSELF:
Religious upsurge brings culture clash to college campuses: Religion on campus thrives, but it doesn't always find an easy home in higher ed. (Amanda Paulson, 12/10/03, CS Monitor)
The notion of the university as developer of the whole person - the life of the spirit as well as the life of the mind - has faded since the days of mandatory chapel attendance. Even colleges with religious ties are often reluctant to step into the highly sensitive terrain of spirituality. But as students express more interest in questions of values and faith - and a frustration with how little those ideas are explored in the classroom - it's clear that college culture, at least for students, isn't quite as secular as some assume."Higher education is kind of founded on that maxim of 'Know thyself,' " says Jennifer Lindholm, director for a recent survey on spirituality at UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). "It's nice to see that students are so ... interested in these intangible aspects of themselves."
The survey she directed is the first step in a multi-year study of spirituality in higher education. And its findings are surprising. Of 3,700 college juniors surveyed, 77 percent say they pray, 71 percent consider religion personally helpful, and 73 percent say religious or spiritual beliefs have helped develop their identity.
Fewer - just 55 percent - said they were satisfied with how their college experience provided "opportunities for religious/spiritual development," and 62 percent say their professors never encourage discussions of spiritual issues.
The survey is more a snapshot than a measure of change, but those on campuses say the trend is noticeable. "The pendulum continues to swing up," says the Rev. Alison Boden at the University of Chicago. "It was a very different scene in 1991."
It was even more different in 1979--our mandatory Philosophy & Religion course was taught by a Marxist. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 9, 2003 8:28 PM
I thought religion was about taking your focus off of yourself and toward the transcendent.
Posted by: Robert D at December 9, 2003 10:21 PMNothing can take a young person's focus off himself.
Posted by: oj at December 9, 2003 10:23 PMBe careful what you wish for. I can see the direction that this new campus religiosity is taking, from phrases like:
"It's nice to see that students are so ... interested in these intangible aspects of themselves."
"73 percent say religious or spiritual beliefs have helped develop their identity."
"Fewer - just 55 percent - said they were satisfied with how their college experience provided "opportunities for religious/spiritual development," "
This is the narcissistic, therapeutic, self development, human potentiality movement finding in religion a new mirror in which to preen itself. The archetypal output of this kind of religious narcissism is the good Bishop Eugene Robinson.
The Bishop, though unfit for his post, is by all accounts a wonderful man. We should be so lucky that these kids turn out as well.
Posted by: oj at December 10, 2003 12:44 AMOJ: Really? I seem to remember something about abandoning his family for an affair. How does that make him a "wonderful man"?
Posted by: Chris at December 10, 2003 9:20 AMOJ
Narcissists can be nice people.
Just ask them.
Posted by: OJ at December 10, 2003 11:54 AMCow College didn't have mandatory chapel, or even mandatory attendance in class. It was not wholly irreligious, however. My intro to philosophy class was taught by a Baptist minister.
To balance that out, my Victorian poetry class was taught by an ex-seminarian who had been thrown out of Baptist theology school for apostasy.
There were lots of student religious organizations, too, like Campus Crusade for Christ, but the only one I ever went to was Hillel. They had good bagels.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at December 10, 2003 11:20 PM