Religion

Das Denken ist auch Gottesdienst

I am doing a workshop tomorrow for a local, annual event called Faith4Thought. My topic is

Beyond Making the Grade - Christian Brady
What do you take away from a college course – what gives it lasting significance or value? In a culture that claims to offer innumerable shortcuts to the easy A, what habits will help you maintain your integrity as you focus on lasting goals

When I was in college we had a faculty member come to our IV meeting and he shared the quote cited in the subject line, which was not attributed then, but I now know is attributed to Hegel. Now when this was presented to us back in the late 80′s the faculty member interpreted the quote in a very positive manner, suggesting that you do not have to be in an “official” capacity doing church work to still be serving and worshipping God. I thought I would riff off this quote for my talk, but I was surprised to find the context to suggest a different interpretation.

“Das Denken ist auch Gottesdienst,” as Hegel said to his housekeeper. “The universal Power,” he says, “is within you. It has not to come and so be present with you; it is you that have turned away from it. It is there all the time; you are not far from it, but you have turned your face the other way.”¹

This is a very different reading than the one presented to us all those years ago. This is where I am asking for help. The above is the fullest citation of this story that I can find and yet the author does not cite his source. In fact, I cannot find any citation for the source, rather the story is simply repeated. Does anyone know the actual source or is this simply apocryphal (albeit in keeping with Hegel)?

Thanks!

Philosophy, Vol. 10, No. 38 (Apr., 1935), pp. 144-153, Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Institute of Philosophy, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3746734 [↩]

“Perhaps this generation of teenagers will pull away from religion for good.”

Sep 7th, 2010

by Christian Brady.

2 comments

That is the concluding line from this oped by Bonnie Erbe. I suspect she is enjoying a double entendre here as her article makes it clear that she finds religion useless at best and narcissistic at worst. She is reviewing the already-well-commented-upon Almost Christianity by Kenda Creasy Dean. I have not read the book and only skimmed the reviews, but what I noticed about Erbe’s piece is how she is able to devolve religion into a thoroughly individualistic experience.

From where I sit, all religions are “mutant” in some way, shape or form in that people use religion to satisfy their personal needs. Since just about every person puts his or her individual take on God, then it follows that every person’s version of Christianity or Catholicism or Islam, Judaism and Buddhism is slightly different from everyone else’s.

…I bow to [Dean's] expertise as a minister and to Princeton Theological Seminary, but a lifetime of experience has proven to me that there is no one view of any theology

What Erbe should realize while prostrate before Dean and PTS is that variance and dissent within an order does not mean the absence of order. That is to say (and this is commonplace to most readers of this blog), there can be much debate and even division within a Calvinist community while they still adhere to a core theology. Our good friend Jim would call this dilettantism of the worst sort.

So while Erbe hopes that our successors will “pull away from religion for good” she offers us instead psychotherapy. Good luck with that.

Teaching of Religion at U of Ill

Jul 30th, 2010

by Christian Brady.

No comments yet

Seems a resolution of sorts has been reached. I commented on this earlier, see the comments for thoughtful replies.

A Separation and a Return

July 30, 2010

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced Thursday that it is ending an unusual relationship under which an independent Roman Catholic center has for decades nominated instructors to teach Catholic thought at the university and paid their salaries. Further, the university announced that a controversial adjunct who has taught under the relationship would be back for the fall semester.

The decision by the religion department at Illinois to tell that adjunct, Kenneth Howell, that he could no longer teach set off a huge public debate over academic freedom and also led to renewed scrutiny of the highly unusual way Howell has been hired and paid. He has been the only instructor at Illinois who has been nominated and had his salary paid by an outside group.

News flash: God contemplating resigning

Jul 21st, 2010

by Christian Brady.

1 comment

For those who do not follow the news closely I feel compelled to bring you the latest:

THE HEAVENS—At a press conference Tuesday, God Almighty, our Lord and Heavenly Father, gave his strongest indication yet that he might soon step down from his post as the supreme ruler of all things.

Following a routine address during which God confirmed the recent extinction of several thousand species, the Divine Creator fielded questions regarding rumors of his possible retirement.

“I’ve been at this a long time,” said God, ∞, the all-knowing, all-powerful being who has presided over the cosmos since forming it from sheer nothingness nearly 14 billion years ago. “And the truth is, this was never something I planned on doing forever. Lately, in fact, I’ve begun to wonder if I should move on sooner rather than later.”

You can read more (and a “The Best of God” slideshow) at The Onion.

Teaching religion at a secular university

Jul 19th, 2010

by Christian Brady.

4 comments

NB: Rick’s comment made me realize that I did not clarify at the outset that I was not commenting directly on the merits of Howell’s hiring or firing. I was commenting on the practice of allowing an organization or donor outside of the university dictate the hiring or firing policies.

The University of Illinois is receiving a lot of flak right now over the decision to not reappoint a lecturer of Catholic thought. From Inside Higher Ed:

The way the University of Illinois teaches Catholic thought has attracted widespread attention in the last week with the news that a long-term instructor, Kenneth Howell, was told that he would not be rehired, following complaints about an e-mail message he sent to students, which many viewed as misinformed about homosexuality, and as hostile to gay people.

The full piece is worth reading as it presents the arguments and concerns quite clearly. It seems that for decades UI has had an arrangement whereby St. John’s Catholic Newman Center vets, approves, and pays the salary for this instructor who then teaches courses within the religious studies department. Needless to say, this has brought up questions of separation of church and state (UI being a state school) and academic freedom.

As someone who has always taught religious subjects in secular schools, both private and public, as well as having directed both Jewish studies and religious studies programs, I have very strong and clearly formed views about such hirings. I can certainly understand the origins of such a position and payment situation. It was a common scenario in Jewish studies as well where the college or university had its roots (or assumptions) in Protestant traditions and the only way other religions were to be taught was through external funding. Such funding often comes with pressures and guidelines from the donors. But that is not where UI is anymore. They have a well established department of religion with top-notch faculty.

In order for religious studies to maintain its integrity and for the proper academic (as opposed to apologetic) teaching of the subject matter, it is imperative that the department and faculty make hiring decisions according to appropriate guidelines. In such a manner the process can be assessed and put under the usual rigors of the hiring and tenure process rather than being at the capricious whims of the donor. (I wonder what the outcry would have been had St. John’s not renewed Howell’s contract?) Catholic thought is certainly a field that is appropriate for a department of religion and I hope that UI funds a permanent tenure-line appointment within the department of religion.