Word: belief
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...very large degree, each Protestant Harvard student develops his own personal religion. He may accept many of his denomination's teachings, but chances are that he will temper this belief with "important reservations." Three out of every five Protestants in the poll who maintain their affiliation take religious teachings with several grains of salt...
...Harvard Square minister characterized student belief as "a general drift of thinking in all, but including a great deal of individual variation." Certainly most Protestants do not exhibit orthodoxy in their religious thinking--they are not afraid to question their beliefs and to abandon many that seem untenable in the face of the rationalism and intellectualism of the College community...
...immortality Nearly every one of the 68 Protestant denominations in this country preaches external existence, but only 31.5 per cent of the Harvard Protestants accept this doctrine. On the other hand, nearly 75 per cent of the Harvard Catholics polled living in the same pragmatic, rational atmosphere retain their belief in immortality...
...doctrine questioned extensively by Harvard Protestants in the necessity of faith. "After a few years at Harvard," one student wrote in a poll conducted at a Sunday evening fellowship, "faith becomes irrelevant." Faith, however, is one of the most necessary components of Protestant belief, for, as Santayana points out, faith alone justifies religion. Only a Protestant with strong religious beliefs can usually continue to hold the ideas inculcated in Sunday School, especially in the skeptical Harvard community...
Another common alteration of traditional Protestant belief also results from the intellectual atmosphere of the College. This approach to Protestantism steps lightly over the rational incongruities of many doctrines and concentrates instead of upon their "symbolic" aspects. Modelled upon Tillich's conception of Christian myth and symbol, this approach views Protestant theology as a convenient device to teach moral lessons. Such intellectual Protestants, certainly the majority at Harvard, reject transubstantiation, physical resurrection, or even the divinity of Christ, concntrating instead upon the symbolic significance of these beliefs. Intellectualism, however, leaves out the element of faith, a thread inextricably woven...