ERIC Number: EJ756246
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Dec-1
Pages: 1
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-5982
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
God: Amen. Discuss
Edington, Mark D. W.
Chronicle of Higher Education, v53 n15 pB16 Dec 2006
As the late Williams Sloane Coffin wryly observed that most churches and colleges were once wed and then most got divorced. Is it possible that a remarriage is in the works between these two estranged partners--and, of all places, at "Godless Harvard"? This article talks about cohabitation between the study and the practice of religion from a preliminary report of the Task Force on General Education of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The report sets the official agenda for completing the long-delayed project of revising Harvard College's existing core curriculum. Moreover, it calls for a "Reason and Faith" requirement with the aim of helping students understand the interplay between religious and secular institutions, practices, and ideas. In conclusion, having divorced each other, as Coffin observed, churches and colleges were not getting along well. The religious communities need the intellectual rigor of the academic community. So for the sake of the planet as for that of honest scholarship, wonder/reverence and knowledge must find each other, re-wed, and stay married. To that a preacher may say, Amen; and the professor, at least at Harvard, may say, Discuss.
Descriptors: Interpersonal Relationship, Churches, Religion, Core Curriculum, General Education, State Church Separation, Educational Change, Educational History, Undergraduate Study
Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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