Theology and the American University Curriculum

Jonathan Edelmann, PhD

The dean of a new and rising university recently asked me whether or not I thought theology should be taught in their curriculum. This was a question about a private university, but a secular one with no particular religious affiliation. My reply, which I develop here, was yes, theology should be taught, but it must be seen today as a cross cultural category because there are theologies outside of the European tradition. The arguments that I make below in favor of teaching theology could apply equally to public schools even though they are, by definition, secular in the United State of America in the sense that they cannot espouse a particular religious tradition.

?There are, then, three claims I seek to justify here: theology should be part of general education, even in public schools; theology is a category applicable in many historical and geographical contexts; and, these arguments do not violate the separation of church and state or principles of secularity that underpin public education in the United States of America.

Theology in General Education

Theology is an essential aspect of intellectual history. Plato uses the word in his Republic (Book 2), and Aristotle in his Metaphysics (vi, 1), calling it a theoretical philosophy alongside mathematics and physics, “since it is obvious that if the divine is present anywhere, it is present in things of this sort.” But the term is more widely and conventionally applied to the development of Christian discourses from the early third century AD, the teaching of theology was present in all early European and American universities, and this was an important development in intellectual practice.

In his Summary of Theology (Summa Theologi?), Aquinas, who taught at the then fledgling University of Paris, refined an intellectual method for investigating and evaluating claims. First, he asked the right question, arrived at after deliberation, then he answered it from a wide range of different perspectives drawn from his intellectual history, but he did so in ways that would oppose his own perspective. Only then did he articulated his position in light of what he had said and finally he responded to the objections. In many ways established an ideal for critical discourse in the sciences and humanities that we can aspire for today because he engaged directly and accurately with primary sources. J. Budziszewski, who teachers and writes about Aquinas at the University of Austin in Texas, notes the value of the scholastics like Aquinas because they were, “trained to think of subtle objections to everything” (Commentary on Happiness, Cambridge University Press, 2020, p.xxv). I would add that they were trained to do so by engaging directly with the written word of their objectors, a discipline we need today as well. By reading them, we too gain the skill of questioning and the ability to see which ideas stand after doubting it from all angles. We can learn to engage fairly and critically even with those with whom we disagree.

?For many years professional academics have moved away from the movements that began in the 1940s and 1950s to offer a general education that informs students about the great books of history. That trend is changing now, and professional academics are once again becoming more open and receptive to the idea of teaching a core curriculum based on a shared understanding of the most the important texts.

?As this trend develop, students need to learn theology because it is good for students to have a full and complete understanding of the texts that shape civilization. Of the sixty volumes in the Great Books of the Western World series, the publication of which began in 1952 by Encyclop?dia Britannica Incorporation., the works of theologians like Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, John Milton, John Calvin, Soren Kiekegaard, and others are present, but many more deal with philosophical topics closely related to theology. If we do not teach the classics, students will fail to see the long arch of the ideas shape our world. The early medieval theologian Augustine of Hippo, for example, articulated a just war theory that continues to inform politics to this day (cf. House Resolution 1099, from the 118th Congress of the United States of America).

Theology has shaped the way religious institutions form themselves, and religious institutions have an impact on all aspects of culture such as art and politics. As noted by Samuel Lovett, Paul Tillich challenged the division between church and culture, and in doing so became an influence on both. Theology is also intertwined with philosophy, a discipline that few dispute should be part of core text education, and often times great theologians also make great contributions to philosophy. Jeffrey Stout’s edited volume called Grammar and Grace: Reformation of Aquinas and Wittgenstein, for example, aims “to prepare the ground for recent discussions of religious language, knowledge of God, the role of grace in human life, and the ethical significance of virtue.” A grounding in theology will allow students to see these connections in full, and to see how medieval theology continues to shape contemporary philosophical discourse.

Theology as a Cross Cultural Category

When I speak of theology I do not refer to a specific tradition. We can recognize fine art and philosophy in non-Western traditions, and I think we can use the category of theology to cover non-Western traditions as well. I think of as theology as a broad cross cultural category that includes Greek philosophy, and Christian, Jewish and Islamic thought, as well as non-Western traditions in India and other parts of Asia. Throughout these regions and overtime theology has been discourse in which scholars could examine a tradition in a rational and systematic manner.

I agree with those who think that any University curriculum concerned with teaching the core texts should want to include Western and non-Western material. We live in an age where we are fortunate enough to have access to translations of so many texts from nearly every region in every historical time period. Students receiving a general education today must be aware of how other civilizations thought about themselves so they can understand if and when those civilizations influenced the West and because there is an inherent value in a global understanding.

Eric Adler’s The Battle of the Classics (Oxford University Press, 2020) displays a debate on university education led by Irvin Babbitt in the 1920s and 1930s. Babbitt argued passionately that the study of the classics is necessary for students to develop a more refined understanding of themselves and that we should think about the classics broadly enough to include great works of thought from India and China. Even if one disagrees with the way politicians and ideologues have articulated diversity, equity and inclusion, one can nevertheless agree that students need to learn the diversity of ideas, and that it would be myopic to discard or ignore the contributions of non-Western civilizations with long and distinguished histories of literature. Babbitt was prescient in this regard.

In a recent interview by the Hoover Institution, Victor Davis Hanson argues in“Arrogance and Ignorance: The Decline of Classical Education & Rise of Wokeness” that among the many problems in our world, our neglect of Latin and Greek in universities is essential to consider. We need experts, he argues, to understand our past and to reinterpret texts in light of new discoveries in the ancient world. Wokism undermines the importance of the study of classical literature, and Hanson thinks this is wrong, but I am proposing a middle path between both. Wokism is certainly open to inclusion of voices traditionally excluded from the canonical Western discourse, and defenders of the are open to the idea of re-instituting classical forms of education. I am proposing both: the inclusion of texts from India and China that demonstrate genuine insight into essential issues, and that we should see them as part of a classical education.

To get to where I want to go with theology, we do not need to reinvent the wheel. Classicists, philosophers, theologians, anglicist, and others are already in possession of criteria by which texts are deemed necessary or unnecessary in a pedagogical situation. In the Eastern tradition there are some texts that clearly and unequivocally stand out as core: the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, the Analects, and so forth.

Theology in a Secular World

When I speak of teaching theology I do not mean the application of a particular faith. We can teach and write about Karl Marx’s communism or Robert Nozick’s libertarianism without advocating communism or anarchism, and without being a communist or a libertarian. One can believe it is important to understand their arguments without telling students they ought to adopt them. Likewise, we can examine the arguments and views of theologians without telling students that theological claims are true, without exhorting them, and without advocating for a particular view, just as educators do in other contexts.

Thus, for those who worry that teaching theology is an act of faith that would violate the distinction between church and state – a rule that I think should govern public schools – may rest assured that the principles of objectivity and dispassionate analysis that we expect of scholars in the humanities more broadly can apply to theology as well.

We are a critical juncture in American history, a time when nearly every single institution – judicial, law enforcement, medical, political and academic – is under some kind of scrutiny within government, social media, and popular discourse. Underlying all of my arguments above is that general education must orient the next generation of students toward our shared intellectual history, and that theology – both East and West – is an essential part of it.