Harvard may add religion requirement

Harvard may expand its core academic requirements to include the study of religion. The proposed curriculum, unparalleled by peer institutions, has invited controversy from students, faculty and scholars around the globe.

The suggested requirement, tentatively termed Reason and Faith, is the response of a six-person Task Force on General Education to recent critiques of Harvard's Core Curriculum for being antiquated and ineffective in preparing students for life beyond Harvard Yard.

"I think 30 years ago," when the school's curriculum was last overhauled, "people would have said that religion is not something that everyone needs to know," Louis Menand, a Harvard professor and co-chairman of the committee that drafted the report, told The Wall Street Journal. "But today, few would disagree that religion is supremely important to modern life."

Princeton considered introducing a similar "cultural studies" requirement in 2004 and 2005, when its supporters cited the need for "cultural literacy" in Princeton graduates. Plans for a formal requirement were abandoned after they failed to garner enough support, but the Registrar's Office does produce a list of "Courses in Race, Ethnicity and Cross-Cultural Encounter" each semester.

By forcing students to explore religious issues pertaining to various regions of the world, Harvard administrators hope to better equip graduates for understanding and contributing to the new "global village," where religion has again emerged as a divisive issue.

Revisions to the Core have been recommended before, most recently in January, but the Task Force's proposals were not met with enthusiasm.

The latest report, however, has been praised by several members of Harvard's faculty for presenting an innovative vision for the future of Harvard education. The proposal revises the Core's "emphasis on approaches to academic inquiry," but retains its formula for requiring students to take courses in a set number of academic fields in order to graduate.

Though Columbia requires students to read passages from the Bible and the Koran for its "great books" course, Harvard would be the first Ivy to include a course on religion in its core curriculum.

"For better or for worse, religion has put its stamp on the discussion of major public issues," Harvard professor Diana Eck, who is also president of the American Academy of Religion, wrote in a Crimson opinion piece. "All of us ... should be able to recognize the increasingly important discourse of faith."

Others have already spoken out against the proposed measures. Harvard student Yifei Chen '09 said the Reason and Faith requirement is bound to cause unnecessary controversy and will risk placing Harvard in an overtly religious light. He also pointed out that the report fails to make any mention of other requirements, such as economics, that might address knowledge necessary to succeed in the modern world.

Andrew Gordon, chair of the history department, worried that the requirement was too narrow in its scope, and that it would encourage academic inquiry into specific historical events "at the cost of wider historical understanding."

The report also neglects to explain exactly how the Reason and Faith requirement would be put into effect, though several existing courses may fit. Classes on Islam and contemporary society, the Crusades and moral reasoning are all mentioned as potential candidates.