Huston Smith

The Interdepartmental Approach To Religious Studies: an Account of the Program at Washington University

T nHAT liberal education cannot rightfully claim its name if it omits the study of religion is a point of view which has become almost universally reaccepted in the United States. Reaccepted, because through most of our history no one would have doubted the truth of such a conviction. In the last hundred years, however, two developments have worked to withdraw religion from the liberal curriculum in other than church-related colleges. One was the vast flow of students away from denominational colleges to state and private universities, creating interfaith student bodies in which religion was too hot to handle. The other was the rise of secularism and a correlative decline in the importance attached to religion. The result was the well-known rift, which reached its maximum in the first quarter of the present century. Obviously this rift remains-only a fully integrated culture could heal it completely. But educators responsible for curriculum-planning now almost universally concede the need to throw some bridges over the chasm. The concession has been eased by an abatement of the forces that caused the breach in the first place: although secularism is still dominant, it is less dogmatic; and church denominations, much as they still differ among themselves, have concluded that they would rather have religion taught in some relatively objective way than ignored completely. The strongest force returning religion to the curriculum, however, has been the pull of the vacuum created by its removal. Given