Inside the Classroom...

Within the classroom, professors defend their right to take an analytical approach to religion and its impact upon the world, not to defend religion or to proselytize. Some typical Faculty attitudes toward the teaching of religion:

Paul Tillich, University Professor--"...in many realms of the scholarly work of a university the religious dimension is revealed, independent of a concrete religious tradition... the religious question is the question of human existence generally."

Myron P. Gilmore, professor of History--"Augustine would never say to Pelagius... as Socrates would say to Thrasymachus, 'Let us examine your position on virtue.' The atmosphere of the university must be the Platonic rather than the Augustinian one.... It is not the business of the historian to inculcate belief."

George A. Buttrick, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Preacher to the University--"...a university is for understanding. Our concern (in the classroom) is not to say whether you should believe or not believe."

Nathan M. Pusey, President of Harvard University--"This relationship to God--the attitude of reverence--this is the paramount thing. All of us stand perpetually in need our lives of that basic affirmation which is the essence of faith."