LIVERPOOL HOPE is simply the newest university where a theology and religious-studies department has been significantly shrunk and capability or closed altogether, Dr Mathew Guest, Professor within the Sociology of Religion at Durham University, says.
He hopes that universities are usually not making decisions of this type simply on the premise of which subjects are probably to draw essentially the most students within the immediate future, but, he says, “I’d not be surprised if that was the case.”
Some senior managers in universities see theology as “a little bit of an oddball”, he suggests, because they don’t understand what it’s, or what it’s for. “I’ve met enough academics in my time who haven’t got a clue what my subject area is — whereas it might be unthinkable for them to not know what history was about, or English literature, or psychology.”
Meanwhile, departments with “theology” of their title are at an obstacle in attracting a various range of scholars, because few outside the private-school sector are accustomed to the term by the point they reach their A levels, he says.
“You ask young people, ‘Do you should do theology?’ they usually do not know what it’s.”
Professor Guest also suggests that, at universities, senior managers who consider that society has turn out to be more secular and fewer depending on religion as a source of significance may regard a level in theology as “a bit like a level in superstition”.
“Sometimes there’s a cloistered side to the discipline that comes out in a few of its champions [and] that reinforces the sense that it is just not really a part of the world everyone else inhabits.”
The argument that theology and spiritual studies (TRS) is serving the Church or the Christian community works in a seminary context, “but I don’t think it really works in a university context any more because the principal rationale for the topic. TRS thrives most when it’s diverse, interdisciplinary, and culturally engaged.”
THE pressure on universities to search out savings has only increased the necessity to make the case, “more incessantly and powerfully”, that TRS is a crucial field of study, he says.
“It is just not enough to go to senior management and say: ‘But theology is basically essential.’ The case needs to be made in terms that folks who make decisions about money can understand. Can we construct up a solid external funding base? Can we exhibit that what we’re doing pertains to many other things on the earth that they recognise as essential? Can we be revolutionary and impactful? Can we engage with stakeholders effectively?”
TRS UK represents the topic across the sector, and continues to campaign for its visibility and relevance. Furthermore, Professor Guest says, “some very useful voices within the British Academy have been arguing the case, though I don’t think that has made any difference yet.
“The days could also be over when you would get just a few of the good and the nice to send a letter that claims ‘How dare you close up this department?’, and anyone would listen. We do need a much stronger campaign. . . The financial situation really is dire in some places, and it’s difficult all over the place.”
One of the strongest arguments for resourcing TRS, he says, is that religious education in schools is compulsory across the state sector and yet is “woefully” undervalued and under-resourced.
“Religious literacy is so essential within the Twenty first-century world, with all its complexity, but young people are usually not being taught by people who find themselves trained on this specialist area — because so few undergraduates have been persuaded that TRS is a worthwhile subject to pursue.”
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