It’s long been my opinion, as was that of Thomas Jefferson, that theology schools are useless parts of universities. Jefferson refused to have a school of theology at the University of Virginia, which he founded, for he was at best a deist who disliked organized religion.
Theology schools are the wisdom teeth of academia: useless and sometimes injurious remnants of earlier times. If you want to teach comparative religion in college, you can do it in sociology departments, and if you want to teach the history of religion or of how scripture was confected, you can do it in history departments. There is no rationale for a modern secular university to teach theology, for it is the study of a nonexistent being and its supposed wants. Nevertheless, good universities still have them, including Harvard and (sadly) my own.
One would thus expect, given the secularization of America, that schools and departments of theology would be moribund. And, according to a comment from reader Michael Scullin, who called my attention to an article in yesterday’s New York Times about how theology schools are dealing with waning enrollments:
According to a study released this week by the Association of Theological Schools, 55 percent of its member schools have declining enrollments. The students are aging, too — by 2020, “there may be more 50+ students than 20-somethings.”
Curiously, the article doesn’t discuss the reasons for declining enrollments, but it’s surely because few Americans want to go into the ministry any longer, and that, in turn, is because America is becoming less religious. What other reasons could there be?
And here’s what the schools are doing:
- Having more online courses.
- Having a mixture of online courses and physical courses that move from place to place. Have a look at how one seminary is dealing with this:
“Next fall, Christian Theological Seminary, in Indianapolis, which is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination, is starting an option for its master’s of divinity program that will be in-person but not fixed in one place. While half the classes will be on campus, students will also meet for weeklong intensive classes in different cities, wherever the professor lives or decides to teach the class.”
“One course will happen in L.A. because we have a few professors there,” said Doug Pagitt, an evangelical pastor who is helping to design the program. “Four months later, that same cohort will be in New York, then Indianapolis, or Dallas, because that’s where a church or professor is located.” The classes will be held in local schools or churches that offer or rent space.
- Getting rid of their physical campuses, as is Andover Theological School, which may adopt the next tactic:
- Merging theological schools, an “interfaith” enterprise promoted not out of any desire for “dialogue,” but out of desperation. This doesn’t always work so well:
“Rabbi Daniel L. Lehmann, the president of Hebrew College, said that the interfaith relations offered by a consortium were integral to his school’s mission.
‘When I came to Hebrew College, I felt so strongly about the desire to be part of an interreligious theological consortium that I requested we become members of Boston Theological Institute,” Rabbi Lehmann said. “They ultimately invited us to join but had to change their mission statement because it had been specifically Christian-focused.'”
- Getting rid of traditional theology courses, as has Claremont Lincoln University. Some of these seem to be catering to the “nones” or the spiritual instead of the religious:
“Most of its 70 students do not plan to be members of the clergy, and while the university offers classes called “Mindfulness,” “Collaboration” and “Dialogue,” it has none on, say, the Old Testament, the Gospels or the Quran. Instead, the classes are intended to “develop capacities for compassionate leadership,” according to its mission statement.”
- And, finally, cutting back the job security for faculty:
“They tend to eliminate tenure and job security for the professors, who are hired on a per-class basis; both Dr. Aranda, at Claremont Lincoln, and Mr. Pagitt said their teachers would be paid above typical adjunct rates. For many students, meeting online or in short, intensive bursts may not promote the kind of long-term friendships that residential students forge. A professor with whom one has spent only a week, if that, may be less likely to offer career-long mentorship.”
Well, I feel bad for faculty who turn into wage slaves, but on the other hand I have a tad of Schadenfreude for those who have spent their lives studying, as Dan Barker puts it, “a subject without an object.”
Obamacare’s Birth-Control ‘Exemption’ Still Tramples on Rights
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/19/opinion/obamacaresbirth-control-exemption-still-tramples-on-rights.html?ref=opinion
From today’s NYT. It is hardly necessary to read the entire communion whine to refresh yourself on the “issue.” What is interesting to me are the comments. Just start with the most recent and then move on to the “Top” comments and read a dozen or so. The poor sister gets no sympathy for her quandary of faith vs sex – or, more accurately – contraception and her opposition to it.
Are you the Michael K Scullin of Baylor University, Waco, Texas?
If so, is the second sentence in this excerpted paragraph from http://www.baylor.edu/about/index.php?id=88779, and one of the alleged “requirements” of Baylor’s students actually still in place at where you do neuroscientific research?
“Since the University opened its doors in May 1846, Chapel has been a part of the Baylor experience. Originally a daily requirement for all students, faculty and staff, — TODAY students are required to attend two days per week for two semesters. — Inspirational, informative and entertaining programs bring an education to students that cannot be learned in a lab or calculated. The programs enjoyed at Chapel and the sacred time shared are significant gifts to the Baylor community. They help students remember their deeper callings and help them envision a greater good.”
?
Blue
No, and no matter how desperate I might have been for a job I would A) not live in Texas, and b) not teach at a place where chapel was part of the routine. I taught at a state university in Minnesota. Occasionally I would be asked if I were an atheist, and I would say, “Yes.” Usually at least a couple students (attempting to reassure themselves) would ask, “You mean an agnostic?” And I would assure them, “No.” No one ever complained in 35 years.
O, I know how that goes: the querying searching for reassurance by students, even ones at my public university.
Two were apparently, within the last ten years’ time or so, assigned to format and then to conduct a survey for their course in some level of sociology here.
I exited the central campus sandwich / juice joint and was, by these two, (courteously) stopped and asked after their first telling me, a complete stranger to them, of their assignment, “What happens to you, Ma’am, after you die?”
Me, with no hesitation and not much more expression than neutral – deadpan: “Wull, the worms move in, of course.”
Them, in unison,: “G A S P ! Gasp xtwo !”
Then, this from the two: “Aaah, ah, well, WE can help you!”
Me, already knowingly: “Help me with what?”
Them: “Aaah, ah, ya’ know, to get correction and hope back in to your life!”
Me: “That will not be happening.” And off I walked.
Them: Jaws dropped.
Blue
🙂 +1!
🙂 +2!
What do those two have against worms???
I attended Baylor as a closet atheist (at the time) and had to go to “chapel” for two semesters. It was called “Forum”, or as we liked to call it, “Bore-um”. It was, indeed, mostly boring, and most of my friends and I saw it as a necessary evil. Only about half of the programs/speakers were obviously religious, while the rest were (mostly poor) attempts at keeping us interested in coming back. One of the most memorable presentations (if the word “memorable” is at all applicable) was a puppet show by a young Jeff Dunham, who is indeed a Baylor grad. In addition to the two terms of Bore-um, I had to take two religion classes, but thankfully they were both taught from a history perspective instead of a dogma perspective. I learned quite a bit about WHY some people believe. To be honest, I think I got a great undergraduate education there on my way to becoming a kick-ass professor of chemistry here in Ohio (may Kasich crash and burn…).
“…it’s surely because few Americans want to go into the ministry any longer…”
Not sure about that. I suspect that it’s because religious views have polarized between nones and fundies, and fundies have no interest in academic theology. Or as I like to think of it, muddled humanism with its collar on backwards.
This is one of the areas of graduate study at UVA’s religion department.
http://religiousstudies.virginia.edu/graduate/theology-ethics-culture
Very interesting. However, I see nothing to indicate that students will study all world religions or the history of religions in general. Looks like the same old judeo-christian-muslim mix based on “The Book” with a sprinkling of philosophy and ethics added.
If one must study religion, I would prefer that it encompass all religions. It might be useful to know when and how humans developed the concept of religion and what parts of the human brain are involved. It might also be very useful to study the impacts of religions on civilizations throughout the world over the time they’ve existed.
Indeed – do different religions lead to different codes of ethics? differing where? There was a novel many years ago – I thought by John Ball (of “In the Heat of the Night”), but it seems not so from his Wikipedia entry – that was set at a conference of major religions, trying to agree on points in common, and the only one they came up with was some version of “do unto others as you would be done by”. That’s a good basis for an ethical life.
It was John Ball, the book is “The Fourteenth Point”, from 1973, and I found it on Amazon under his name – Wikipedia missed it.
I think a lot of it has got to do with basic economics. Degrees are expensive and some degrees are really hard to turn into a job at the end of it.
That’s got to make theology a lot less attractive to a lot of people. If you are interested in the history of the bible, for example, there are multiple books on the subject that will cover the subject comprehensively for the price of a book instead of the price of a house.
Lastly, even if you do want to get a career in the Jesus-business; many versions of Christianity will take aspirant missionaries and preachers without any education at all.
They might be learning from Atheists, that combining a day job: physics, biology, literature, and moonlighting ideas on the side works better. Unfortunately, good day jobs teach one that theology is a waste of time and atheism is the natural outcome of what it means to considering a fulfilling life.
I kid you not–the first time I read this, I read “afflicted” instead of “affiliated” 🙂
I’ve been there! The seminary chapel is a spectacular room where I did a recording session. It features a huge “water feature” where you could do a full-immersion baptism of at least half a dozen converts at once. [Backstage I was amused to see the controls for maintaining a nice, comfortable water temperature. Nothing is too good for the students at Christian Theological Seminary!]
Funny. Have done the same many a time. A Freudian slip, I believe.
“is starting an option for its master’s of divinity program”
That’s an intriguing program. What do you do with such a master, you become a half-god? Is there a Ph or Th.D. in divinity?
D.D. = Doctor of Divinity.
“What other reasons could there be?”
Well, the Catholic Church scandals might have something to do with it. Or the fact that the jobs you get with such degrees pay very poorly.
While I do hope that the secularization of the US is really a trend, I’m skeptical that it would be pronounced enough to account for the drop in enrollment. The secularization is probably occurring within the population who wouldn’t likely be attending theology schools anyway.
There’s the interesting related issue of religious departments in secular universities.
Some of these are effectively just miniature seminaries (the one at Princeton was certainly like that in the 1950s), but others encourage a wide range of POVs about religion (there is often reference to the “hermeneutics of recollection” which is religion-friendly and the “hermeneutics of suspicion” which is not.)
Stephen Pinker is against having departments of religion, but I know a few secular humanists who teach in them along with other professors who are agnostics, semi-faitheists, or believers.
At McGill (where I was an undergraduate) there is both religious studies and theology. The joke was that the latter is for those who (still?) believe. It certainly was the case that religious studies at the ugrad level had courses in the academic study of religion, e.g., “Religions of East Asia”, whereas theology was for professional education leading to the clergy in various denominations.
Below, from carm.org website, a definition of theology. Note that in discussing god’s attributes, they state, “All these things we discover about God from the Bible.”
Pardon? Would that Ockham hoist them from their own petard, and then deftly apply his razor.
What is theology?
by Matt Slick
The word, theology, comes from two Greek words, theos (God) and logos (word). From them we can see that theology is the study of God which, of course, includes His attributes. God is the single supreme being in all the universe. He has such attributes as omniscience (all-knowing, 1 John 3:20), omnipresence (existing everywhere, Psalm 139:7-12), and omnipotence (He accomplishes whatever He desires, Jer. 32:17, 27). He is eternal (Psalm 90:2), holy (Isaiah 6:3), merciful (Psalm 67:1), and gracious (1 Pet. 2:3). All these things we discover about God from the Bible. Therefore, theology is very important because in it we can discover who and what God is and what He desires for us (1 Cor. 1:9).
In France, the study of theology was simply banned from all state universities (the majority, if not all, of serious universities in France) in 1905. How theology departments can maintain their credibility in universities in other European and other countries (such as at state universities in the Netherlands and in many (all?) Ivy League universities the US) is still an enigma. People are generally very credulous, and the question is whether these theologians are just playing the game, as many Catholic (non-believing) priests do in Europe, to save their daily sandwich.
A few years ago I attended a Computing and Philosophy conference at the University of Aarhus, in Denmark. As it happens our conference was (physically located) in the faculty of theology there. One morning I did take a look at the art that was up – it was student projects from a trip to Paris. Some was described in English, so I read a few. I found one that I found kind of interesting, as it seemed to be a sort of “lament” for the days when visiting the great cathedrals in Paris would have had more profound influence or the like. I couldn’t quite tell whether the student was wondering about his or her unbelief or whether it was a Catholic/Protestant thing. (Curiously, our host was a transplanted American who is a believer and whose wife is, IIRC a chaplain or the like. No idea what he thought of our location; it was not his department either!)
My alma mater, University College London (where PCC(E) delivered his excellent Darwin Day lecture last month), was also founded without a theology department, and it has never had one in its 190-year history.
Does this mean Patriot University where creationist “Dr” Kent Hovind got his Phd may close? http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Kent_Hovind#Qualifications.2C_or_lack_thereof
Humanity should outlaw religion except for personal consumption and strictly control its desimination, outlaw the sharing of religion with others. Religion is toxic and frequently kills the innocent. Religion teaches hate and calls it love. Religion corrupts the hearts and minds of young children. Religion is irrational. Religion, in our day and age is madness.
This is of course, is only my opinion but I believe it is supported by history, science, and the events of our times.
One of the things that has puzzled me over the years is the apparent loosen of requirements to be a theologian or minister. Certainly, some sects have never required any formal training or education to be a minister. For many, though, one had to attend a seminary, and pass an exam to get a license. This ensured doctrinal orthodoxy. This seems to be less of an issue of late. I wonder if this has had an effect on divinity school’s admissions, or if there is a decline in sects that have traditional required formal training in comparison to those that allow unlettered ministers?
Theology Schools/Faculties are dying all over the world, not just the US.
I studied Genetics at the University of Pretoria, in South Africa, from 2004 – 2007.
I experienced great schadenfreude in the 1st semester 2006,when I learned that my evolutionary genetics class would be taught in the theology building.
It was a beautiful old building that once housed almost the largest faculty at the university. When I looked at the student body photos in the entry hall, I realized there were a total of only 8 students completing theology degrees that year. I doubt the numbers have gone up in the intervening decade.
I wonder how the School of Divinity is doing at Harvard … or at Isaac Newton’s stomping grounds.
Sub
What’s the point of subscribing if you don’t click the check box? Perhaps I should ask a theologian.
“a subject without an object.”
That is a very funny universal truth.
If you want to study theology, do it in your own time and at your own expense. Like tarot card reading, keep it to yourself.
Perhaps JAC is simply missing a case of evolution in action. Theology is not disappearing, it is developing imitative coloration. Think of any Pomo subject out there. That’s theology isn’t it?
“55 percent of its member schools have declining enrollments.”
Of course between any given pair of years, that is going to happen even if the enrollment is stable. It’s also consistent with growing enrollment but greater concentration of students in the “better” schools. I’m surprised the NYT piece chose to use that statistic (rather than the actual change in total enrollment) to illustrate its thesis.
I just learned the old Healthsouth campus in Birmingham, AL was bought by an area mega church to use as a college. This area is becoming more religious and almost dangerous for anyone not subscribing to the dominate idiocracy.