The elusive search for Truth
By: Susannah Morris
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: Opinions
Tenell Felder's Jan 22 column "Hated for Christ" raised several interesting questions about Christianity's place in the student life and classroom at Furman. As a religion major and a Christian, I found her column particularly thought provoking.
Ms. Felder argues that the current campus environment is threatening to students who hold Christian beliefs. Here, I must disagree with her. A clear majority of Furman students self-identify as Christians of some stripe, making Christianity the normative religious tradition. To hazard a guess, I'd say that people of other faiths or no faith at all are far more likely to feel like alienated outsiders than Christians are.
But I want to respond to Ms. Felder's reflections on faith in the classroom. Ms. Felder states that Christian students consistently hear their faith "drag[ged] through the mud" and "questioned and belittled" in the classroom, and in the process, are "silenced and threatened." These are serious claims, and we must carefully consider them.
Of course, I speak only from my own experience. But in this experience, in classes ranging from "Earth Systems" to "Introduction to Philosophy" to "New Testament and Early Christianity," the professors' intent is never to destroy students' faith. Instead, professors expose students to a variety of positions and explain scientific and historical realities so the students may explore their own belief systems more intentionally. After we have listened carefully and thought more deeply, we are better equipped to evaluate our existing beliefs. Maybe then, in light of what we have learned about the world, we'll decide that our old beliefs work just fine. Or perhaps we'll decide that they should be modified. In any case, if we listen to our friends like Plato, we are closest to the Truth - ultimate Truth, with a capital "T" - not when we cling to dogma, but when we are in constant search.
Of course, the search is uncomfortable. But when we stop, turn back for a moment and reflect, I think we'll find that the challenges that felt like stretching or even tearing were really stitching and weaving - stitching and weaving together a faith big enough for science, big enough for history, big enough to give other belief systems a chance and big enough to honor a God who transcends and defies all belief systems we can possibly devise, including Christianity.
Ms. Felder argues that the current campus environment is threatening to students who hold Christian beliefs. Here, I must disagree with her. A clear majority of Furman students self-identify as Christians of some stripe, making Christianity the normative religious tradition. To hazard a guess, I'd say that people of other faiths or no faith at all are far more likely to feel like alienated outsiders than Christians are.
But I want to respond to Ms. Felder's reflections on faith in the classroom. Ms. Felder states that Christian students consistently hear their faith "drag[ged] through the mud" and "questioned and belittled" in the classroom, and in the process, are "silenced and threatened." These are serious claims, and we must carefully consider them.
Of course, I speak only from my own experience. But in this experience, in classes ranging from "Earth Systems" to "Introduction to Philosophy" to "New Testament and Early Christianity," the professors' intent is never to destroy students' faith. Instead, professors expose students to a variety of positions and explain scientific and historical realities so the students may explore their own belief systems more intentionally. After we have listened carefully and thought more deeply, we are better equipped to evaluate our existing beliefs. Maybe then, in light of what we have learned about the world, we'll decide that our old beliefs work just fine. Or perhaps we'll decide that they should be modified. In any case, if we listen to our friends like Plato, we are closest to the Truth - ultimate Truth, with a capital "T" - not when we cling to dogma, but when we are in constant search.
Of course, the search is uncomfortable. But when we stop, turn back for a moment and reflect, I think we'll find that the challenges that felt like stretching or even tearing were really stitching and weaving - stitching and weaving together a faith big enough for science, big enough for history, big enough to give other belief systems a chance and big enough to honor a God who transcends and defies all belief systems we can possibly devise, including Christianity.