"David W. Key, director of Baptist Studies at the Candler School of Theology at Emory, put it more starkly. “The real underlying issue is that fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist form is incompatible with higher education,’’ Professor Key said. “In fundamentalism, you have all the truths. In education, you’re searching for truths.’’"
My intent is not to critique the Southern Baptists, but rather to reiterate the statement from Professor Key,
"In fundamentalism, you have all the truths.
In education, you're searching for truths."
In education, you're searching for truths."
When it comes to church affiliated colleges - It's a matter of balance. I'm all for church-affiliated education, provided there is freedom, and encouragement, to think. In fact a philosophy, religion or theology program outside of any faith based tradition can lead to aimlessness, new age woo-wooism, or moral confusion.
Several years ago I attended graduate classes at Antioch University in Seattle in a field of study called Whole Systems Design. The program is a combination of; Systems Engineering ala Norbert Wiener and his fellow current generation systems thinkers such as Peter Senge, an attempt to frame a worldview or philosophy of life, and development of attitudes and skills to allow students to be effective in the world.
It's the attempt to frame a worldview or philosophy of life - where, for me, the program failed. Attempting to define ethics, a worldview, a philosophy of living - outside of some tradition, leads to some la-la new age thinking, ethical confusion and aimlessness.
The program required a variety of entry-level type classes in world religions and philosophy - but there was no thread to tie those together. In the attempt to be open there was an unspoken but very real negation of traditional faith and spirituality. By traditional faith or spirituality I mean Judeo Christian, Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism. The negation was not intentional but rather a result of treating every idea from Wicca Goddess worship to Zen Buddhism to Sufism to Buddhism to Christian Mysticism - the same. They are all good, all equally effective, so which to choose? Pick a little from all? Or?
Presenting graduate level new-age tinged classes in theology, religion and philosophy - with an "anything is as good as anything else" approach to teaching - and no college affiliation with a time-tested religion to provide a compass to students who have no theological, religious or philsophical foundation - sounds like a recipe for confusion at best and a misguided attempt to jump on any old cult bandwagon at worst.
I came to the program as an adult who had studied philosophy and religion in the context of a Lutheran tradition at Concordia College, as a self taught student, and a baptized Catholic who had worked for an with priests for years as a young man. There wasn't much chance that I was going to get too far off course - but being with so many new age thinkers, students and professors - studying theology, philosophy and religions, was not my cup of tea.
When it comes to learning how to live a good life, I don't think a Witch or a Warlock have equal credibility with a Sister, a Brother, a Priest, a Minister, a Rabbi...sorry - just doesn't work for me. I tend to be a pragmatist and am interested in what has proven to be effective in living a good life. As a thinker I want to be able to decide for myself what path I will take within those traditions. When you are looking for water it's best to drill a well in a promising area.
I like participating in classes, where we are going to talk about what constitutes the good life, with a variety of people (the fundamentalists, faithful, faithless, theological experts/novices etc.) If that class is at a college I'd like it to have some sort of path, time-tested tradition, that keeps me from getting blown too far off course.
If I'm going to learn what constitutes the good life I'll put my money and time into something that has been proven successful. I'd stick with the big four - Catholicism, Protestant, Judaism or Buddhism. Not to slight Islam or Hinduism but they are too complex for me and I'm sorry to say that the success of those religions in creating a good life for believers seems less than spectacular.
