Inside the Twisted Steeple

by Steven Menashi

In 1986, Ari Goldman, a reporter for The New York Times, enrolled for one year at the Harvard Divinity School. The first Orthodox Jewish reporter ever at The Times, Goldman hoped to explore his relationship with God, gain a scholarly religious background for his articles, and get a sense of academic life at the nation’s premier divinity school.

As he detailed in his book about the experience, The Search for God at Harvard, Goldman was shocked to find at HDS an institution awash in trendy theories that deemphasize the Judeo-Christian God in favor of a facile theology deemed more hospitable to women and religious minorities. It is not suprising that Harvard’s undergraduate programs are no longer a training ground for Christian ministers, but a divinity school is a somewhat different animal.

Goldman’s best-seller set off an uproar among those concerned about the influx of essentially pagan dogma into a place originally founded as a Christian redoubt. But more than a decade later, HDS seems to have changed little.

The rumor, however, in several academic circles is that Dean Ronald Thiemann of the Harvard Divinity School is planning to reemphasize traditional Judeo-Christian doctrine in the curriculum. Others dispute that claim with equal confidence. Regardless which of the rumors turns out to be true, the concern about HDS’s academic credibility is very real. Many observe that HDS has trashed its historical mission in favor of fashionable academic trends; indeed, that it is unable to adequately prepare “women and men for service as leaders in religious life.”

Of course, a seminary nestled within a decidedly secular institution such as Harvard University cannot help but be influenced by prevailing ideologies and scholastic philosophies. After all, Harvard’s motto is “Veritas,” not “Deus.” Yet that influence has apparently been so extensive as to transform a school dedicated to the training of Unitarian ministers into the premier institution for the study of Eastern religions, revisionist Christianity, and purely sociological studies of religion.

Harvard Divinity School’s secularization and concommitant decline in standards finds itself the norm at American divinity schools. At Yale Divinity School, for example, future ministers and theologians take classes such as “Film as Theological Text: Issues in Race, Gender, and Sexuality.” Union Theological Seminary’s combined program with Columbia University was once among the premier Ph.D. programs in religion and its faculty was renowned for its scholarship. Today, the faculty spends much of their time teaching and researching feminist theology and “modes of liberation.” In fact, UTS advertises itself as “For over 160 years, the Church’s risk taker.”

Of course, some impressive research does emerge from American divinity schools. Professor Jaroslav Pelikan of Yale Divinity School, for example, has earned his institution an outstanding reputation in early Church history. Yet traditional pursuits must compete with more chic scholarship such as feminist theology, though they often succeed despite university administrations. Perhaps most importantly, though, divinity schools fail to capture the interest of the finest of a new generation of students.

The growing apathy toward religion among recent generations has led to a decline in the influence of ministers in their congregations and in society at large. Modern American Protestantism can be generalized, some argue, as being designed not to inconvenience the believer. No longer are once-sacred doctrines being upheld without debate. Parishioners are questioning their leaders and demanding changes to suit the whims of the parish. Thus, ministers are forced to become politicians rather than leaders.
Without the potential of a spiritually significant leadership, many students who would be attracted to the ministry two generations earlier are not compelled to do so today. Consequently, divinity schools have been forced to lower admission standards to maintain their student populations. Thus, Harvard Divinity School has the most lax admissions requirements of the Harvard graduate schools.

According to one recent Yale Divinity School graduate, the motivations of the students who attend divinity schools are mixed. Many enroll in order to become ordained ministers in their respective Protestant denominations. Harvard is affiliated with the Unitarian Church. Yale Divinity School is Anglican, while Berkeley Divinity School at Yale is Episcopalian. Princeton Theological Seminary is a school of the Presbyterian Church.

Other students are already ordained and wish to acquire additional degrees to further their careers or education. Still others pursue non-clerical careers within their denominations. Many Catholic women, for example, acquire Master of Divinity degrees and then work with the Catholic Church in some capacity. Finally, there is a contingent of students who study at divinity schools simply for academic enrichment.

Academic interest in religion certainly bodes well for divinity schools. Yet, as divinity schools succumb to secularist and postmodern trends in contemporary education, respect for those institutions as the great centers of religious life and leadership dwindles and fades.