The End of the Liberal Arts Ideal in Post-Religious Societies

According to Cheryl Exum – reproduced by Jim West – the goal of the University of Sheffield is to dismantle both its undergraduate and graduate programs in Biblical Studies. If I understand the nature of the game – that it is forbidden or at least not part of the culture in the UK for a university department or program of study to raise funds on its own or through an Alumni Association to ensure its financial wellbeing, to endow professorships for example – it stands to reason that liberal arts courses of study will progressively disappear in the UK.

That’s because liberal arts courses of study have a tenuous relationship to the job market, and secular governments like to prioritize a rationalization of the relationship of higher education to supply and demand in the work force (in homage to the belief that what matters to people to the practical exclusion of all else is a well-oiled economy). I hope the campaign to save the Biblical Studies program at Sheffield succeeds, but the reason it is threatened has systemic roots which are not being addressed.

The matrix of the progressive change (pun intended) from an intellectual (geistliche) to a vocational (nicht berufliche, sondern technische) emphasis in higher education is the post-religious atmosphere of the more politicized milieux of the industrialized West.

There is cruel irony in the fact that a secularist like John Connell rails against the end of the liberal arts ideal in the UK and beyond. Connell and his kind have long been sawing off the branch on which they sit. Apparently they thought they could define God – among other things, God is the principle which guarantees unity and significance to the quest for meaning - as an underachiever, an illusion, or a delusion, and still save the quest for meaning for meaning’s sake. But that is hardly realistic.  

Comments

[Ros]

A reasonably common occurrence in the UK is for a politician with some responsibility for education to make an offhand comment about how mediaeval history or classics or [substitute any arts or humanities subject here] is an esoteric waste of money. Cue outrage on the part of the chattering classes and subsequent retraction from the politician. The only difference here is that I can't see the chattering classes being moved to outrage by the loss of a biblical studies department.

I'm not sure that your summary of the position in the UK re. departments raising their own funding is quite accurate. Alumni campaigns and suchlike are becoming increasingly common, though generally they are devoted to capital projects (or student welfare needs) rather than to faculty salaries. But even then, I'm sure I've had letters from my college asking for support for endowments of new professorships, for instance. So I think there is some room for manoeuvre, although there needs to be support from the university administration for the launch of the appeal.

[JohnFH]

Ros,

Thanks for background and clarification. If I were James Crossley, I know what I'd do: secure permission to seek the necessary funds from alumni and friends to endow two professorships at U of Sheffield in "Bible and the Modern World," one for OT, and one for NT.

[steph]

Ha Ha very funny. Believe me, he would if he could. Unfortunately this isn't America and we don't have investors lining up at the door, rich friends or relatives. Of course, when we win the Lottery we had already allocated a substantial portion to UK's Sheffield and Durham, although considering recent events we'll most likely give it all to Sheffield.

[JohnFH]

Hi Steph,

I wish all of you well with this. Actually, I was not joking. Donors don't line up at your door over here either. You seek them out. You schmooze. You learn how to close a deal. It's not as hard as it sounds, but it's not the kind of thing they teach you to do in graduate school.

[steph]

No John. Granted it isn't easy over there. My 'lining up at the door' was hardly meant to be taken literally. But this is not America, and things just don't work the same. We do not have those sort of people available with those sort of funds and if we did, believe me we wouldn't be backwards in coming forwards. I do love the way you have the perfect solution though, as if we haven't thought of it, and could do it all so much better than us.

[JohnFH]

I wish I did have the perfect solution, Steph.

Any serious attempt at endowing a professorship or two, something it sounds like hasn't actually been tried, would have to emanate from the Sheffield Biblical Studies department first of all.

If I may note without any intent to aggravate, if you don't believe "those sort of people" are available "with those sort of funds," the law of self-fulfilling prophecy kicks into gear.

Last time I checked, British philanthropy had a long and honored tradition. If that is no longer the case, it is not just a department at U of Sheffield which has one less option. It is a whole society.

[steph]

Probably John. Anyway, I have every confidence that honesty and integrity will win in the end here.

[JohnFH]

That's encouraging. I garnered as much from the announcement on Facebook.

[Ros]

I'd think there must be some Sheffield alumni with good contacts in the right places, surely? David Clines must know a few people, for instance.

[steph]

The UK does not run like America, and neither should it. And the American system is not better. In this instance, some serious injustices have occurred and these must be confronted and put right.