Word: faithfulness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Such a view of university teaching is held by Christopher Dawson, Charles Chauncey Stillman Guest Professor of Roman Catholic Studies. Dawson states that "It is healthy to extend examination to one's faith," as the University demands of the undergraduate. Presumably, such a strong Catholic as Dawson sees questioning as leading to a salutary strengthening of faith; if such examination led to disillusionment and apostasy a Catholic might see the student as ill-fitted for the relativism which the University offers...
...Baccalaureate sermons, Pusey has stressed that the twentieth century has destroyed earlier illusions about man's nature, that the Christian psychology provides better comprehension of the nature of man better than did nineteenth century liberalism. President Pusey is evidently a sincerely devout man; and with the issue of faith so important in his own thinking, resolving the tensions between the role of a secular university embracing diverse beliefs and what he believes to be the central truths of human existence must be especially challenging...
...Baccalaureate sermon of 1954 he declared: "This relationship to God--the attitude of reverence--this is the paramount thing. All of us stand perpetually in need in our lives of that basic affirmation which is the essence of faith." In his 1957 address, President Pusey disavowed any tie between faith, and sectarianism in the University: "In my judgment the people who are speaking for religion in universities today should not be understood as speaking in favor of a particular church. They are not asking for special privilege...
Moreover, there is not even a simple dichotomy between secular and religious forces in the University. For Harvard itself is based on a faith--summed up by the term Liberal Education--which is in potential conflict with other faiths. Perhaps at Harvard more than any other school the belief in liberal education is inculcated; however, its tenets are seldom recognized as the credo of a faith, which rests on assumptions as unprovable as any other faith. Knowledge through scholarship is justified and constant questioning become the chief paths to this summum bonum. There are of course all the institutional trappings...
...become in some sense a split person if he holds some truths, explicitly or implicity, as sacrosanct. He must adopt the methods of Descartes, who wished to examine all truths, yet simultaneously set aside certain ethical and religious maxims for everyday life. The University demands a perpetual examination, a faith in non-faith, a paradoxical commitment to non-commitment which produces an academic dualism that reflects well the conflicts of the twentieth century