Harvard is considering adding a new course in "Reason and Faith" to its core curriculum.
Zachary Steward's Wall Street Journal article quotes Prof. Louis Menand, co-chair of the curriculum committee, as saying "I think 30 years ago, people would have said that religion is not something that everyone needs to know. But today, few would disagree that religion is supremely important to modern life."
Harvard, whose original motto was Veritas pro Christo et ecclesia, seems to have forgotten some things about how the other 99% of humanity lives and what we value. It is refreshing to see them catch up with what is customary at most liberal arts colleges, like the one I teach in.
Seriously, Harvard is often a curriculum leader, especially for the secular research universities. I am glad that they have given up on the fantasy that religion will just go away, and are trying to bring their students "in the center of contemporary religious debates."
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Agreed. I think they are likely to start with a false dichotomy. I understand that their idea is to get students to see that religion is involved in many Important Things. I expect they will not frame the issue, frame every issue as a question of worldview, including the secular one dominant at Harvard.
Agreed. And I think the choice to call the course Reason and Faith, rather than the more usual Faith and Reason, is a signal about which term they think controls the discussion.
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