The President's Page - February
23, 2000
The Center for the Study of Religion
As part of the 250th Anniversary Campaign, we initiated several new important academic programs. Earlier this year I described our plans for Genomics, and I would like to focus here on our new Center for the Study of Religion.
If we look at newspaper headlines and bestseller book lists, or if we listen closely to conversations we have with others, we become aware of how profoundly religion affects our world, even in this age of secular interests and technological innovation. My recent experience chairing the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, which explores some of the most controversial and uncharted regions of the life sciences, has reminded me time and again of the vast resources for moral and ethical reflection that exist within our diverse religious traditions. Although millions of people view many different human concerns through the lens of their religious faith, religion remains one of the most understudied social phenomena of our times. At Princeton, we are determined to do our part to change that, and the Center for the Study of Religion will help achieve that goal.
The center aims to encourage the academic study of the many ways in which religion influences our contemporary life and is part of our cultural heritage. Princeton is particularly well positioned to undertake a new initiatve in this arena. Princeton was founded by religious dissidents who believed in enlightenment through education and who viewed the search for truth as a moral imperative. The center draws on this legacy. In addition, faculty and students in a wide range of departments at Princeton have earned distinction for their scholarly contributions to this field of study. Along with the University's distinguished Department of Religion, which provides a nucleus of scholars with expertise in the world's major religions, more than fifty faculty members in a dozen other departments and programs contribute regularly to the understanding of religion through their various scholarly endeavors. The fact that Princeton is nonsectarian helps assure a diversity of viewpoints, while the University's long-standing associations with the Princeton Theological Seminary are also a distinctive resource. The work of the center is being carried out through interdisciplinary seminars, annual thematic research projects, and the development and teaching of new courses.
Thematic projects. These projects focus on topics of special interest to Princeton faculty and include support for graduate research and for a post-doctoral fellow. Members of the Princeton community this year have been exploring world traditions of religious chant under the supervision of Music Professor Peter Jeffery. Next year's topics are Darwin and Religion, 1860-1900, and the Cinema and Religious Experience. Reflecting the interdisciplinary approach the center aims to foster, these projects bring together music and art; evolutionary biology, English, and history; the visual arts and religion. Including a post-doctoral fellows program as part of the center helps assure a steady flow of new ideas and younger talent into the academic study of religion from the viewpoint of both the humanities and social sciences.
Weekly workshop. A weekly interdisciplinary seminar under the general rubric, "Religion and Culture," offers center members an opportunity for critical interaction and mutual mentoring and facilitates intellectual exchange across disciplines and among faculty, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and interested undergraduates. Robert Wuthnow, Gerhard R. Andlinger '52 Professor of Social Sciences and Center Director, describes the workshop as the "heartbeat" of the center and reports that this year's inaugural workshop has been consistently well attended, with 30-40 participants from 12 programs and departments across the University. Topics
this year have included Devotional Piety in Indonesia, John Chrysostom's Preaching, Typography in the King James Bible, Mission Revival Architecture, Black Religion and Politics, Matriarchial Religion in Feminist Theory, and Buddhism in Early Modern Japan.
Courses and public lectures: Undergraduates benefit from Center support for the development of new freshman seminars, lecture courses and senior thesis tutorials. Ze'eva Cohen, Professor of the Council of the Humanities and Theater and Dance, will offer a freshman seminar next year on sacred dance, and Philosophy Professor David Sussman will teach a course on faith and reason. The center is co-sponsoring a lecture series with the Woodrow Wilson School. In a two-year program, focusing first on domestic politics then on international politics, the series will present lectures by heads of religious organizations such as Boston pastor Eugene Rivers and Southern Baptist leader Richard Land, as well as writers such as First Things editor, Richard Neuhaus, and Pacific News Service editor and NewsHour essayist, Richard Rodriguez, this spring.
Through these activities, the Center for the Study of Religion is making a substantial contribution to understanding the human condition and one of the compelling forces that drive human history. It is not possible in this brief description to do justice to the rich array of offerings available through the center, and I hope you will visit its website for more information: http://www.princeton.edu/~csrelig/.
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