The Place of Religion in Humane Studies

Boy, that's an esoteric title. But it bears some thought. A colleague in the English department, no longer there, was quoted by a student to me as saying, "in this class we aren't going to beat the Jesus out of these poems and stories" (I believe it was a British literature class). The student was troubled by this statement, not because she planned on finding some allegorical or superficial spiritual/devotional message in the pieces they read, but because she sensed a hostility to who she was as a human being.

I personally don't think a professor has the right to say offensive things about the religious beliefs of students in a class any more than they have a right to say offensive things about one's ethnicity, race, or gender. Could he have said "we're not going to beat the Allah or Mohamed out of these stories"? Of course not--there would be no reason to find many references to Allah or Mohamed in British or any Western literature. Furthermore, someone would have spoken up. Only Christians are wimps about being offended. We don't want to be perceived as whiners who are blocking others' free speech and thought while the others are blocking ours.

Back to the title. Anyone who wants to ignore the religious element in any humane study is a fool. It is there. It is a motivating force behind the writing or painting or sculpture or music, even when offensive to some one's sensibilities, even when wrong, even when deadly wrong. Those who would ignore it don't want to be made uncomfortable about their prejudices and lifestyles.