Thursday, September 29, 2005
Religion-class interest on the rise at Rutgers
According to a 2003 study commissioned by the American Academy of Religion, the number of courses on religion offered at accredited colleges and universities across the United States and Canada increased by 9 percent from 1997 to 2000. Yearly enrollment in religion studies classes during that period increased 15 percent to an estimated 685,000 students, including 46,000 who chose religion as their major. That amounts to a 26 percent increase in religion majors in just three years.
"Religion as a field in academia is relatively new compared to English or literature," said Kyle Cole, director of college programs for the AAR. "We're seeing an increase in the public's interest in religion, not just individually, but across society."
At Rutgers, the public university in the most densely populated state in the country, that interest has ballooned over the years. Founded in 1972, the Department of Religion enrolled 1,074 students in its classes for 1981. Enrollment this year is more than three times greater, filling classes on such topics as the Old and New Testament, Buddhism, Islam and the most popular: Hindu philosophy. In 2004, 29 religion majors and 54 minors graduated, up from 12 majors and 14 minors in 1996.
Gary Rendsburg, chairman of the Department of Jewish studies at Rutgers, believes this trend can be traced to generational differences and ever-changing community demographics.
"Our students' parents and grandparents grew up in a world of the melting pot," Rendsburg said. "They tended not to talk about religion, even hid their religious history. And the country's vast majority were Christians. In the '70s came the rise of ethnic consciousness, first from African-American communities and the women's movement before they generated spinoffs. It became cool to be black, so it became cool to be Jewish — OK to be ethnic."
Universities slowly began merging programs around ethnic lines. Six years ago, the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers partly emerged from the Hebraic Studies Department, which focused exclusively on the Hebrew language and its literature. Rendsburg's current department also involves history, philosophy and religion.
"Today, in New Jersey, probably the most multicultural state in the country, neighbors are less likely to be Christian. That stirs our students to know a little about our neighbors. Who are these people?"
In the four years since 9/11, that question's relevance has swelled and accelerated the growth of religion studies enrollment, particularly in classes related to Islam.
Rendsburg, though, pointed out that while a good percentage of students in his department are not Jewish, the majority fall into two subcategories depending on their Jewish upbringing.
"There are those who have not been exposed to the riches of Judaism and get to college where they can study it at an adult level that they haven't been able to in the first 18 years of life," he said. "Then you get students who have been to Jewish day schools for 12 years and may have been exposed to Judaism through a particular lens and have a wealth of knowledge but not presented through a historical/critical perspective like we do."
"No society exists in a vacuum," Rendsburg said. "We are all influenced by our neighbors in some way."
Obayashi agrees on the need to enhance traditional religious education with a broader, more strict academic discipline.
"What students have been brought up with at home, in churches and synagogues are often challenged by historical studies," he said. "Tradition often distorts things. Tradition has a way of streamlining ancient memories."
Such knowledge, Obayashi said, "shouldn't undermine people's beliefs — it should strengthen and enrich them."
Both Obayashi and Rendsburg agree that world religions, if properly taught, belong as a part of a well-rounded public education.
"Students come to college with a 12th-grade knowledge of math, English and science, and they come often with a second- or third-grade education of their own religion," Rendsburg said. "I think world religion should be taught in public schools."
Obayashi explained that there shouldn't be any controversy if the teaching is sound.
"It's not professing religion," he said of the department's teaching philosophy. "We do not employ this confessional approach. We study religion just as anthropologists study different cultures. We're not trying to indoctrinate anybody."
Rendsburg said: "If I'm presenting material from the Bible, I'm not going to have a theological debate over divine origin versus human origin. The academic approach takes a more hands-off look."
"Up to the 1950s, all religion majors pursued careers in clergy or teaching or social work," Obayashi said. "After the 1960s, the horizon opened up and religion grads went into all sorts of professions. Society at large has come to decide religion major is just as good as a sociology or psychology major. They are malleable, can be molded into anything."
By RICK HARRISON
STAFF WRITER
Home News Tribune Online
rharrison@thnt.com
Permalink
