Theology and Religious Studies in Higher Education. Edited by Darlene L. Bird and Simon G. Smith.

Abstract

Limitedin its terms of reference and specific in its discussion, this volume of essays explores the debate between theology and religious studies within higher education, primarily, though by no means exclusively in the UK. It developed from a conference in Oxford in 2006 sponsored by the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. What emerges is not simply another volume of conference papers but a fascinating, coherent and highly readable book which is of interest to anyone concerned with not only this particular debate within the academy but also the whole nature of higher education in the arts today in our multicultural societies, and the question of the pursuit of interdisciplinarity. It is on this last point that we find the particular relevance of these papers to this journal. The editors have wisely not sought to impose any conclusions onto the debate or even give a particular steer. The essays differ widely in their understanding of and their relationship to theology, and thus their relationship to religious studies needs to be defined. The opening essay by Denise Cush of Bath Spa University enables the reader properly to begin with the genuinely ground-breaking phenomenological approach to religious studies in Lancaster under the guiding genius of Ninian Smart in the 1970s, combined with Cush’s own more traditional experience of studying theology in Oxford early in the same decade. As an educationalist, and perhaps not surprisingly, Cush’ subsequent career leads her to affirm clearly ‘why I’m still glad that I converted from theology to religious studies’. The two following essays, in contrast, are by theologians, though of very different hues, David F. Ford and Gavin D’Costa, the first of whom argues for the inclusion of theology in the broad university system (modelling his thinking on Schleiermacher’s lead in the Berlin of the early 19th century), while D’Costa, with self-conscious perversity (and working from the thinking of the mature Alasdair MacIntyre), flies the kite of proposing a state-funded Catholic university, believing that theology and its relationship with religious studies ‘is best promoted by moments of antagonism’. Subsequent essays expand the discussion into the contemporary situations in Holland and Sweden, with later contributions from academics in South Africa and Iran.