Faith and Secularisation in Religious Colleges and Universities

James Arthur

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781134241118
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book isa detailed study of higher education institutions affiliated to particular religions. It considers the debates surrounding academic freedom, institutional governance, educational policy, mission and identity together with institutions' relations with the state and their wider communities.

A wide range of institutionsare examined, including: Christian, Islamic and Jewish universities in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

Essentially, this volume questions whether such institutions can be both religious and a 'university' and also considers the appropriate role of religious faith within colleges and universities.

Chapter 1
Religiously affiliated higher education

---

Introduction

For the purposes of this book higher education refers to education beyond the secondary level and is provided by universities and colleges together with other institutions that award academic degrees. Therefore it refers to academic activities that are designated to be at degree level and above and includes teaching, learning, scholarship and research. It also includes professional training conducted within universities and colleges. There are significant differences between institutions of higher education. Institutions of ‘higher education’, ‘universities’ and ‘colleges’ have different meanings as not all institutions of higher education are universities or colleges. Higher education can therefore take place outside universities and colleges, but in this book the boundary is set with recognised universities and colleges. In some countries the title ‘university’ is in the gift of the state, whilst in others any academic organisation can call itself a university. The aims of universities are increasingly complex, but normally revolve around the needs of individuals and society. However, before a definition of a religiously affiliated institution of higher education is offered it is necessary to say something about religion in the context of education more generally.

The monotheistic faiths and education

There is a need to identify at the outset some of the characteristic features of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by way of an introductory sketch to understand what motivates the foundation of religious universities and colleges. All three faiths share much in common, including a belief in one God who Judges. All three of these major world Faiths represent a meta-narrative of ideas, visions and concepts that are fundamental in each religion to understanding human beings and the destiny of life. They offer a standpoint from which everything else can be seen. Therefore, at the core of education for each of these faiths there is a transcendent, spiritual idea that can give a particular purpose and clarity to learning. The narrative in each constructs ideals and provides a source of authority, and above all, gives a sense of continuity and purpose – a purpose that gives meaning to education through a sense of personal identity and community life and offers a basis for moral conduct. Judaism, Christianity and Islam have had from the beginning a written orthodoxy as religions of the Book. Each religion is described both as a set of beliefs and as a practice. Each believer believes certain propositions to be true and subscribes to a code of moral beliefs that is closely related to the set of beliefs. Education for all three religions includes the aim to encourage participation in the faith by engendering belief in the tenets of the religion through full-hearted participation in religious practices. Simply teaching about the beliefs and practices of one of these religious communities without engendering belief or a desire to participate is not considered to be authentic by any of these religions. Each in turn claims to have superseded what went before, and both Christianity and Islam have universalistic claims, whilst Judaism views both Christianity and Islam as derived from Judaism. Another important point is that Christianity and Islam seek to proselytise whilst Judaism does not. A brief description of the particular beliefs of each religion and their general implications for education is a useful starting point for this study.

The Jewish experience of living in the Diaspora lands for nearly 2,000 years ensured that the Jewish community was always a minority. The Diaspora marked the end of independent national life for the Jewish people until the establishment of Israel in the middle of the twentieth century. Education was vital for the continuing existence of the Jewish religion and a range of educational institutions was established, normally in connection with the synagogue, in order to transmit Judaism to the next generation. The synagogue was a place of learning that preserved the teachings and values of Judaism. With the study of the Torah, normally in the home, there was an emphasis on basic literacy as the Torah was taught to Jewish children. Education has always been highly honoured in Jewish culture and is the reason why so many Jews have made an outstanding contribution to learning in many fields of study in the world. However, Jews were generally unable to establish universities or colleges of their own, either because of the small size of their communities or because of persecution. Higher education was restricted largely to the study of the Torah in rabbinical schools.

Judaism affirms a number of basic principles of faith that one is expected to uphold in order to be said to be in consonance with the Jewish faith. However, there is no set outline of beliefs or statement of principles similar to what you would expect in a Christian catechism. Nevertheless, an understanding of Jewish education can be obtained from an understanding of the Jewish experience in history. Judaism remains the particular heritage of the Jewish people, which was born out of the history of a people. This experience or tradition is based upon two central features: first, the Jewish understanding of the creative work of God found in the Hebrew Scriptures, and second, the Covenant relationship between God and his chosen people. The knowledge and understanding of these aspects of divine activity are essential parts of the Jewish religious experience. Consequently, the transmission of the knowledge to succeeding generations and developing an understanding of them is what it means to be a religious Jew and is an essential part of Jewish education. Jewish education is based upon the belief in the unity of God, of the value of community and the unique value of every individual within it. God is eternal and the creator of the universe and the source of morality. Jewish education will thus emphasise keeping the commandments, prayer and participation in the life of the synagogue, and studying the Torah, together with classic Jewish homiletic literature.

The Jewish faith emphasises the freedom of Jews to follow the will of God and their responsibility to others. Ultimately, it is about affirming the identity of Jews and binding them inseparably to other Jews in order to ensure the continuity of Jewish heritage. This heritage is understood differently by each of the denominations comprising the Jewish people – divided between orthodox, liberal and secular. The first two seek to continue the tradition of studying the Torah and living their lives according to Jewish teaching. The liberal subset also composes conservative and reform Jews who, whilst accepting the essential principles of Judaism, seek to reinterpret them and apply them to the modern world. In relation to higher education, there are essentially two views within Judaism. First, there is the modern approach, which has a relationship with the idea of the university and is born out of the ‘Torah with secular knowledge’ movement of the nineteenth century. Second, there is the medieval approach that has no relationship with the idea of the university, because learning takes place in Yeshivot – academies of learning that pre-existed the Christian universities. This Yeshiva system of academies is still very much alive within modern Judaism and explains the ongoing endeavour of Jewish higher learning, criticism and interpretation (see Abramson and Parfitt 1994). It is also the case that ultraorthodox Jews do not approve of secular colleges and universities and only use them when there is some overriding utility to be derived from engaging in secular learning, but generally ultra-orthodox Jews avoid such institutions. Secular knowledge is simply kept segregated from the religious.

Alexander (2003) describes three ways in which liberal, conservative and reform Judaism responds to education. First, some attempt an approach that seeks to synthesise non-Jewish knowledge with the Torah. Second, some believe that modern scientific and political knowledge and ideas should be studied only to the extent that they do not contradict Torah Judaism. The Jewish portion of the curriculum should thus take priority over the secular portion. Third, some believe that equal weight should be given to Torah and secular knowledge, and whilst there is not a total harmony between them the ‘educational task is to equip students with enough knowledge of Jewish tradition and modern civilisation to enable them to identify conflict and tensions within and between these complex cultures, and to address them as they see fit’. Secular Jews reject the religious aspects of Judaism, but seek to remain ethnic Jews.

Some have argued that religious liberalism within Judaism has largely failed to retain the loyalty of Jews to a specific religious tradition. Ultraorthodox Jews, by isolating themselves, have failed to address modernity. Despite the success and continued expansion of Jewish schools and higher education institutions, which some believe is a result of a spiritual renaissance within Judaism, many other Jews have opted out of organised Jewish religious life. Jewish religious scholars and leaders have, despite providing institutional and ideological frameworks for meaningful adaptation of religious Judaism to open, liberal and democratic society, failed to preserve Jewish identity intact. This book is concerned with religious Jews in higher education (as distinct from Jews as an ethnic group) who attempt to apply a Jewish religious worldview to higher education. The majority of Jewish universities and centres are recent foundations and their growth coincides largely with a few early centres of Jewish learning in the USA and more recently with the foundation of the State of Israel.

Outside Israel there is deep anxiety within the Jewish community to maintain traditions and ensure Jewish survival. In the USA and Europe intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews poses a threat to the long-term survival of American and European Jewry. In other countries the situation is often more perilous, with the threats of assimilation, erosion of Jewish identity, and vanishing knowledge of Jewish tradition, history and culture. Many Jews therefore believe that there is a need to shore up the Jewish identity of the young through the provision of Judaic studies in higher education. To this end, institutions such as the Hebrew Union College, in Los Angeles, founded in 1875, and the University of Judaism in California, founded in 1947, have been established for the advancement of the Jewish community and culture, as well as the training of aspiring rabbis. Members of the Jewish community have also helped to promote Judaic studies by financing the creation of Jewish Centres and Institutes within mainstream universities. All these institutions have a distinguished academic record.

Christianity is a faith that also believes in a living God, but specifically in Jesus Christ in whose life God was made known and was present in a unique way. Christianity also claims to be in possession of an exclusive body of knowledge or revealed truths which explain our place in creation and our relationship with the Creator. This relationship is in and through Jesus Christ, whose life and work can alone lead us to God. The life of faith on earth is therefore a preparation for our eternal destiny with God. Christianity is not a monolithic faith and has many divisions within it as represented by Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christians. Nevertheless, each of these communities are well organised and they seek to conserve, teach and promote their own understanding of the revelation of Christ. Indeed, Christianity has always had a strong conservative element within it which emphasises custom and tradition, slow incremental change and a sense of hierarchical order. The Christian doctrine of original sin also provides a kind of pessimism about human nature, which is considered imperfect and therefore in need of the services of the Church to prevent it becoming totally corrupted.

Christianity has not traditionally espoused the principle of the separation of religion and politics, of Church and State. The Catholic Church condemned the principle of Church and State separation explicitly and repeatedly until the Second Vatican Council. So did virtually all Protestant Churches until the eighteenth century. The ideal was the ‘Christian State’, sometimes with Church and State headed by the same person; such as in Byzantium, or within Anglicanism, in the Papal States, etc. Conservative Christians often base their political thought on the work of God of which, they believe, human laws can only be an imperfect manifestation. In Christian societies, religious and political leadership was in the hands of the same people. Traditional Christianity did not therefore have a tendency towards secularisation of the political sphere. It could be argued that there are generally three types of Christian theological thinking on higher education issues that can be identified as Catholic, Liberal Protestant and Conservative Protestant. Conservative Protestantism has several strands, including within it fundamentalists and evangelicals. Catholics are also divided between more conservative and more liberal strands and consequently the various visions of Christian education vary considerably. However, liberal or mainstream Protestantism has always been a more individualising faith than Catholicism or Evangelical Protestantism. Christian denominations have established a huge range of educational institutions including large numbers of universities and colleges around the world. Christians have traditionally used their educational institutions as vehicles to nurture their faith and ensure its expansion through conversions. They have also viewed them as making a positive contribution to civic society.

Finally, within Islam we find, like in Judaism and Christianity, a significant degree of diversity of belief and practice among Muslims which results in different interpretations of Islam. For example, whilst Muslims seek to achieve coherence and meaning in their lives by bringing their lives in line with what they understand to be the Will of God, this is achieved in many different ways. For some it could mean trying to follow the words of the scripture, the Koran, to the letter; for others, to understand the spirit of the scripture and apply it to their lives; for some others to re-interpret the scripture in light of changing circumstances; and, for still others, a mixture of all these possibilities. More generally, Islam, which views itself as being in continuity with the Judeo-Christian tradition, seeks to promote a coherent way of life by means of submission to God. It expresses a specific disposition of the mind, will and intellect – every Muslim voluntarily submits or surrenders their will to God, which is, as I have said, understood in different ways. Whilst ‘Islam’ means submission to God, ‘Muslim’ means one who, through submission to God, enters into peace. From a Muslim worldview, education can be seen as instrumental in bringing succeeding generations to the knowledge of God. Education begins and ends with the revealed will of God. Education cannot be an end in itself, but is a means to an end – submission to God. Adherence to Islam requires submission and obedience, which would appear, for some, to suggest a limitation to speculation and critical inquiry. The aims, therefore, of a Muslim education include the transformation of the person – their beliefs, actions, thoughts and expressions. Islam is not merely one among many religions, like Christianity, it is considered by Muslims to be the only one true religion. It does not accept any other belief system, whether religious or not, except in a subordinate way. The Muslim community, which is conveyed by the Arabic word ummah, emphasises unity and brotherhood. The ummah is an organised community, to which loyalty is always due. A clear line of division exists between those who are members of the ummah and those who are not. Individuals exclude themselves by not accepting the claims of Islam or rather not submitting to the will of Allah.

Islam therefore denotes both a religious system of beliefs and a way of life that has grown up around the religion. The claim that there is a secular and a separate religious world has traditionally or theoretically had no place within traditional understandings of Islam, but in reality we see that, for instance, in the sphere of law, Muslim rulers regularly made laws that fell outside the scope of Muslim law (Shariah). Islam is also about identity and loyalty as well as faith and practice. As Sarwar (1997: 91) says: ‘The Islamic view of life is holistic, and rejects any separation between this life, which ends with death, and the eternal life, that begins after death. In Islam, mundane, empirical, metaphysical and spiritual matters are interconnected and inseparable.’ Sarwar speaks as if there is only one uncontested ‘Islamic view’, he ignores other Muslim critics (see Panjwani 2004). The Muslim world is not ideologically monolithic and there is no single homogeneous group. There is no single uncontested definition of Islam and its precepts. Whilst the ummah is ideally made up of equality among all believers, it is in practice divided by racial, linguistic and national identities with their corresponding particular interests. The difference between Shia and Sunni is paralleled by differences between the various schools of thought in both groups. Consequently, there are serious differences of interpretation of political and religious issues. Some Muslims deny a connection between Islam and democracy, whilst others argue that Islam requires a democratic system. It is not surprising therefore that there are many different interpretations of Islam, so it is difficult to generalise about Islam, but generalise we must in order to make sense of education within Muslim contexts. When scholars speak of Islamic or Muslim education we need to ask whether this is confined to one subject in the curriculum or whether it implies the outlook a Muslim may have to the whole education system. The language of the nation-transcending Muslim community can be misleading, as it is often little more than an ideal espoused by some Muslim academics. Only Turkey has adopted full scale ‘secularism’ whilst almost every other Muslim country gives some constitutional status to Islam, but this status is often limited and has failed to provide, for example, a model for Muslim education.

The religious commitment of all three faiths can flow from an identity that is clear, rooted and particular. From people who know who they are and know what their tradition impels and compels them to do and why. Judaism, Catholicism and Islam have identities rooted in collective rituals and traditions, and together with some evangelical strands of Protestantism, have a deeply embedded historical self-understanding. These religions should provide their institutions with their real significance and coherence. Consequently, their colleges and universities have a potential to operate within a communal narrative which is perhaps more resistant to the influence of contemporary Western culture than is mainstream Protestantism. This book respects each of the three faiths and treats each as religions – sui generis, with their own integrity. Only Christianity has developed a distinctive idea of the Church as an institution with its own laws, hierarchy, clergy and authority structures separate from the State. Islam has never created an institution corresponding to the Christian Church, as in Islam the political and religious are themselves deemed to be one. However, it should be noted that in all three of these world faiths there is a progressive–conservative divide within which there is also a proliferation of divisions between fundamentalists and liberals, traditionalists and dissenters, neoconservatives and left-wingers, orthodox and pro-changers, to name but some of the descriptions given to these divides. All three of these monotheistic traditions assert their exclusive claims for the religious allegiance of each and every individual member of their faith.

The religiously affiliated institution of higher education

In concluding our brief description of each faith I must now give some understanding of what I mean by ‘religiously affiliated’ institutions of higher education. One could talk of the religiously controlled, sponsored, inspired, founded, or related college or university, but for inclusive reasons the term ‘religiously affiliated’ has been used in this book. Therefore, for our purposes the term ‘religious’ refers to an association with any recognised entity, group or organisation whose reason for being is primarily spiritual and moral, based upon an acknowledged faith in God. Given the diversity of existing religions, this book restricts itself to the three main monotheistic religions in the world – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The term ‘affiliated’ should be understood in connection with those institutions of higher education that exist where the religion of the founding or sponsoring association or group has some direct influence upon the institution itself. It follows that an institution is not affiliated to a particular religion simply because its legal or cultural origins were religious, or its founders were religious men or women, or because it has a chapel, mosque, synagogue or religious symbols on the campus. There needs to be a direct and continuing influence on the institution by the sponsoring religion that can be clearly observed in some way in the governance, community, institutional identity or strategic operations of the university or college. Such religiously affiliated higher education institutions will also be identified by an institutional imperative within them to continue the direct influence of a particular religious body or faith tradition in their mission and policies. A religiously affiliated university or college will consequently develop a sense of its own distinctiveness and difference from others. Therefore, universities like Duke, Boston, Northwestern and Vanderbilt that maintain only a symbolic connection with their founding religious sponsor (Methodism) are not a major part of this review. In contrast, state universities in Muslim countries can be viewed as loosely ‘religiously affiliated’ in some respects, particularly because of the pervasive influence of the persons who overwhelmingly make up the community of these universities. A college or university can therefore be deemed in some ways ‘religiously affiliated’ even without being owned or run by a formal religious organisation. Nevertheless, if it is possible for Muslim majority countries to be secular despite their populations being largely Muslim, the question arises: can universities not be secular regardless of the beliefs of their students.

In regard to religiously affiliated institutions this study recognises all colleges and universities as part of higher education, whether they conduct research or not and irrespective of student numbers and range of subjects offered and taught. Indeed, many religiously affiliated institutions of higher education are small liberal arts colleges or specialise in a limited number of disciplines, but there are a significant number with international reputations in research and development. The overwhelming majority of religiously affiliated (and indeed all mainstream colleges and universities) institutions are creations of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries – they are largely creations of modernity. Only about 60 universities have survived the medieval period into contemporary times and almost all of these are now secular in orientation. To illustrate how the different forms of higher education over the last 1,500 years had a religious foundation and affiliation it is necessary to provide a brief historical account of their foundation and development.

The origins of the religiously affiliated university and college

Higher education has many historic ties to religion and to religious instruction in particular. The foundation of the first colleges and universities were largely directly linked to religious motivations, and the spread of universities in Christian Europe was certainly heavily influenced by the Church. Some argue that Christianity’s engagement with higher education began with the school at Alexandria in the third century. However, it is increasingly argued by some Muslim scholars that the Christian medieval university was inspired by the colleges found in Muslim culture. Their argument could be summarised in the following way. Muslim colleges were institutions that were dedicated to teaching and research and they existed for at least a century before universities and colleges appeared in Western Europe. The inspiration for them was found in the Koran, which explicitly states that God revealed to humankind knowledge and the use of the pen. With the spread of Islam there was a demand for grammars and dictionaries, since it was only permissible to read and study the Koran in the original Arabic. Consequently, there followed the spread of lite...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Religiously affiliated higher education
• Chapter 2: Searching for institutional identity and mission
• Chapter 3: Faith and governance
• Chapter 4: Belief and knowledge
• Chapter 5: Academic freedom
• Chapter 6: The secularisation process
• Chapter 7: Religious renewal: Rhetoric or reality?
• Chapter 8: Conclusion
• Bibliography