Christian humanists

In June, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences reported to Congress on the fragile state of the humanities in our country. Only 7.6 percent of American college students majored in the humanities in 2010. Programs in humanistic fields, from world languages to the study of religion, are notoriously underfunded. And there is a growing cultural sense that in a difficult economy the humanities are mere luxuries. In November of last year, a Florida task force recommended that state universities charge higher tuition to students majoring in the humanities. Public money, Governor Rick Scott argued, should go to students working in fields that create jobs. Florida, he said, does not need “a lot more anthropologists.”

The report responds to this shortsighted thinking by arguing that the humanities nurture citizens who think and write clearly, bring imagination and critical acumen to bear on the world’s dilemmas, share a cultural literacy that can help bind our diverse society together, and cultivate thoughtful public discourse. The report recommends increased funding for research, the cultivation of master teachers, and the development of a “culture corps” that works with libraries, museums and other public spaces to help pass on humanistic expertise from generation to generation.

The report doesn’t mention religious communities as potential sites for this work. But churches and other religious communities have long helped cultivate humanistic practices and the passing on of literary, linguistic and historical knowledge. We don’t often think of ourselves in this way, but I wonder what could happen if we did. The life of faith is shaped by humanistic practices—especially by practices of reading that generate new ideas, new texts, new ways of thinking and living.