Society for Values in Higher Education

Wingspread Declaration on Religion and Public Life: Engaging Higher Education

Wingspread Declaration on

Religion and Public Life: Engaging Higher Education

Compiled on behalf of participants in a Wingspread Conference by the Society for Values in Higher Education[1]

In July 2005, scholars from both public and private colleges and universities representing diverse disciplines, geographic regions, and faith perspectives came together at the historic Wingspread Conference Center. The purpose of this gathering, entitled Religion and Public Life: Engaging Higher Education, was to discuss growing attention to and concern over the intersection between religion and public life and the role higher education must and should play in response to these concerns. In an animated and sometimes difficult conversation, conference participants narrowed and defined the areas of focus. At the end of the gathering, the participants agreed that the concerns raised at Wingspread call for study, dialogue, critique, and action. We believe the academy must examine how it teaches about religion; how welcoming it is to students' diverse religious views and spiritual interests; and how it will factor religion into its educational programs and initiatives to strengthen deliberative democracy, all the while preserving standards of intellectual inquiry, public reason, and academic freedom.

The Wingspread conference was sponsored by the Society for Values in Higher Education and the Johnson Foundation. Wingspread is an educational conference center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and managed by the Johnson Foundation in Racine, Wisconsin.

Overview

Religion has always played a significant role in shaping American society. The nation's religious heritage, including its pluralism, remains deeply intertwined with American culture and identity. In recent decades, however, the public salience of religious views has grown even as the nation's religious diversity has increased. In this context, maintaining a pluralistic democracy demands a corresponding advance in our citizens' capacity to understand religious differences so as to maintain the ability and willingness to engage across differences of belief for the sake of the common good.

We are disturbed by surveys that reveal a citizenry inexperienced in engaging others on issues of religious and moral differences and moral debate. It is also worrisome that studies suggest that Americans are increasingly less tolerant of the religious views of others while being less likely to compromise when their religious views are at stake. That all this is happening at a time when an increasingly large segment of the American public is studying in institutions of higher education raises directly the question of our appropriate response to these developments.

We assume that colleges and universities serve as our nation's think tank and even, as philosopher Richard Rorty optimistically suggests, "the conscience of the nation." Changes in the landscape of religion in American public life provide the academy with myriad opportunities for study, dialogue, critique, and action. Yet religion is all too often marginalized to religious studies programs and campus ministries. This statement advocates for the study about religion in all its dimensions, disciplines, and complexities at every level of education. We challenge colleges and universities to teach about religion across the curriculum and as part of their efforts to educate citizens for a diverse, complex, and religion-infused local and global society.

How might this vision of the academy engaging religion be realized? There is no uniform approach, and each university will pursue its own programs and initiatives. We are particularly sensitive to the diverse missions among colleges and universities - religious institutions, non-religious private institutions, and public institutions. This statement addresses their common goal of preparing students to understand and participate in public life.

We encourage colleges and universities to consider the following framework, questions, and recommendations:

#1 Religious Literacy

What do graduates need to know about religion in a diverse democracy and global society?

How well are we educating students for a religiously pluralistic democracy?

We recognize and value the contributions of religious studies scholars and programs at many universities, yet they alone cannot achieve these objectives. We challenge colleges and universities to examine their courses and curricula to put into practice new ways to educate students about religion's dimensions and influence. Students must learn the relevance of religion to all disciplines - sciences, humanities, arts, social sciences - and the professions.

Higher education must direct more attention to teacher education. American public schools avoid the study of religion partly because it is viewed as too controversial and also because of the scarcity of adequately trained teachers, texts, and tested curricula. Of primary importance is the need to train teachers to infuse religion in student learning without overstepping First Amendment freedoms and limitations.

Religion has resurfaced in American public life and global society as a source of conflict, violence, corruption and a source of personal strength, civic engagement, creative solutions, and social change. Colleges and universities need to provide students with multiple interdisciplinary opportunities to engage in dialogue and grapple with these glaring contrasts and to understand their personal and social implications.

#2 Standards of Intellectual Inquiry, Reason, and Academic Freedom

How do academics preserve standards of intellectual inquiry, public reason, and academic freedom when faced with religiously-grounded assertions?

How can the classroom be open to religious insights without promoting or denigrating specific religious beliefs?

What are the ground rules for civic discourse on matters of religion and public life? How do we encourage civility, candor, and diversity of perspectives through our educational programs?

Nearly all colleges and universities aim to prepare students to be informed, responsible, and engaged citizens in their communities, in American society, and in a complex, global world. We recognize and value the contributions of religious studies scholars and programs at many universities, yet we believe that they alone cannot accomplish the objectives of this Declaration. We urge the academy to consider as a framework for discussion the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Abington Township v. Schempp, in which the court said:

… [I]t might well be said that one's education is not complete without a study of comparative religion or the history of religion and its relationship to the advancement of civilization. It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.

(AbingtonTownship v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 225 (1963)

The academy needs to preserve and enlarge its understanding of public reason by setting standards for inquiry and discourse on matters that it identifies as appropriately of concern to American society or the world. These standards of public reason should reflect the principles of rational discourse that lie at the basis of all academic inquiry. It is important to distinguish the ideals of rational inquiry, which are common property of many of the world's great religious traditions as well as Western philosophy and science, from both religious and secular worldviews. Debate among worldviews is a valid, though often contentious and difficult, part of intellectual life. One of the university's most valuable contributions to democratic society lies in modeling how to conduct such difficult yet important kinds of public argument.

Higher education must foster a spirit of tolerance and actively champion an attitude of mutual respect and affirmation of the value of pluralism in a democracy without implicitly or explicitly privileging secular-rational worldviews or particular religious perspectives in the search for truth.

Higher education must examine the ways academic inquiry and education about the urgent problems of society might be addressed in cooperation with religious communities rather than by excluding them.

The principle of academic freedom should be employed in ways that welcome religious views and tradition in the search for truth and that preserve the freedom to subject religious beliefs and traditions to critique, challenge, and appropriate standards of proof and evidence.

Higher education must preserve the essential principles of intellectual integrity and academic freedom in the face of pressures of ideological interference, whether religious or secular, from across the political spectrum.

Colleges and universities must support public scholarship and encourage public discourse and other exchanges among faculty and students and in partnership with surrounding communities. It is the responsibility of colleges and universities to organize public forums that address the pressing ethical and social issues in American democracy and to do so in ways that result in heightened public awareness, civility, and civic engagement.

Higher education must make a genuine commitment to deliberative democracy by developing and practicing models of discourse that strengthen communities and society in general. It must mediate conversations between those motivated by religious beliefs and those motivated by secular values. College and universities must be models for American democracy.

#3 Students Seeking Purpose and Spiritual Meaning

What is the responsibility of colleges and universities to respond to growing spiritual concerns among students?

To the extent that a college or university enables students' search for purpose or spiritual quest, how does it simultaneously hold to the highest standards of intellectual inquiry and academic excellence?

If an institution's mission includes a commitment to educating students for personal and social responsibility, is a faith-based framework an appropriate template for student development?

In April 2005, the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) of UCLA issued a report on the spiritual life of college students. The study revealed that three of every four college and university students say that they are "searching for meaning/purpose in life" and that they regularly discuss the meaning of life with friends. Students want to use their time in college partly to find meaning and purpose in their personal lives and their academic studies.

We recognize the tensions within academia that this subject raises. Many academics argue that secular colleges and public universities have no business facilitating students' spiritual formation; their responsibility is to provide an educational environment in which students are able to acquire knowledge, skills, and a sense of personal and social responsibility through disciplined questioning and intellectual challenges. Others worry that this view promotes a form of secularism that ignores the actual role of faculty as mentors. Students learn in the context of their personal values, beliefs, and experiences, and teaching and learning that ignores that dimension to student learning lacks authenticity or, worse, effectiveness. This mentor-teacher model applies to secular colleges and public universities, so long as the approach does not include religious formation.

We encourage each college and university to examine its mission and curricula, to engage in campus-wide dialogues, and to be intentional about whether and how it helps students build integrated worldviews.

Programs designed to address student concerns regarding meaning, purpose, and integration of learning with religious worldviews, whether such programs be academic or non-academic parts of student life or a combination, should complement and enrich a student's disciplinary studies and educational experience.

Colleges and universities must explore new curricula and programs to consider a variety of worldviews, both secular and religious.

Colleges and universities must work together or with existing consortia, associations, and other structures for multi-institutional collaboration to create new courses and programs.

Researchers must study and assess how attention to spiritual development in students influences student learning.

Conclusion

The study of religion and its public relevance is a crucial dimension to liberal education for all students that should be pursued in ways that affirm academic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and reason. It should never compromise rational discourse on campus nor should it subvert knowledge attained through disciplinary inquiry. Challenges to disciplinary or professional knowledge and practice should be raised through reasoned debate and academically accepted methods that enrich student learning.

Colleges and universities must make a genuine commitment to deliberative democracy, which means engaging models of democratic discourse that work in learning communities and society at large. This commitment is to principles of inclusiveness and respect as foundations for reasoned and constructive dialogue and action. Without these ground rules for democratic discourse, the relationship between those motivated by religious beliefs and those motivated by other values will be defined by who is in the majority, who is in power - a rule that applies both in public life and on campus. What is becoming clear is that this impasse is unacceptable to both the nation and the academy.

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