In an article in Newsweek, Lisa Miller attempts to discuss the place of Religion as an academic discipline at Harvard University. Apparently the article is in response to the new general education curriculum that was introduced and the firestorm during its development over the proposed requirement in “Faith and Reason.” Religion’s place in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is complicated. As she points out, there is no Department of Religion; rather undergraduate courses in Religious Studies and the graduate programs are administered by the Committee on the Study of Religion. She observes that students can also take courses at the Divinity School.

When I was a student at the Divinity School, and as a ThD candidate, my graduate program was administered by the Committee on the Study of Religion. Most Divinity School faculty preferred the Harvard structure over that at other universities with Divinity Schools. It allowed them to teach ministerial students, graduate students, and undergraduates, and it allowed rather different academic foci on the doctoral level. Her article suggests that there is relative institutional separation between the Divinity School and the Committee on the Study of Religion. In fact, one of her sources, Diana Eck, holds a joint appointment on the Faculty of Divinity and in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and William Graham, Dean of the Divinity School, was chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion when I was a student.

But creating a department of Religion does not clarify Religion’s place as an academic discipline. I taught for fourteen years at two liberal arts colleges, where debates between Religion Departments and other academic disciplines, and within the departments themselves were quite lively, and often heated.

Too, students often assume that Religion courses will lack rigor. It was quite clear to me that Freshmen taking the required Intro to Biblical Literature course at Furman were expecting it to be a breeze. They were often disappointed.