Theologies in dialogue: the place of religion in the 21st century university

summarizes the Cardinal's understanding of the university this way: "The object of a university education is to produce thinking people, no more and no less." 1 As a person of faith, Newman would have presupposed that one of the things one ought to be able to think clearly about is religion, its practice and the truth claims it makes about reality.An over-aching stipulation of any discussion of "Faith, Freedom and the Academy" that intends to celebrate and build upon Newman's important text is that Newman would expect a university to produce people who know how to think critically about religion.There are two points I would like to make regarding the legacy of Newmans' Idea of the University for our universities today.The first is a description of Religious Studies as a discipline in search of a methodology; I shall describe how I think we got here.My second point is to propose a different approach for Religious Studies departments.I suggest that we use the methodology of theological reflection, that is, critical reflection upon faith, in our Religious Studies Departments.The reason for this is that many Religious Studies departments have moved towards models and methods that belong to the intellectual family of the Social Sciences.I believe we would do well to return explicitly to the humanities branch of the University.We made the shift to the Social Science models in the interest of objectivity, because we feared we would ignore the softer, or even previously silenced voices in religious discourse.This shift brought with it problems that have overwhelmed its more positive effects.I am convinced that we can return to an explicitly theological methodology without privileging one voice.Theology, which used to be the center of gravity for the university's purpose, at least when the university was invented, has been either relegated to the fringes of the academic disciplines or in 95