Letter from the Dean

CIRCA News from the University of Chicago Divinity School A CENTURY AGO, SHAILER MATHEWS AVERRED THAT “RELIGION IS THE EXPERIMENT by which we test the immortality of our souls.” A member of the Divinity School faculty and a Dean for over twenty years, Mathews was one of the great expositors of the social gospel, its tireless advocate in innumerable venues around the nation. Through this work Mathews sought to articulate a conception of religion that reflected and extended, rather than opposed, the development of scientific methodologies. Yet Mathews also did not wish religion to ence. Religion according to Mathews is not, be merely one in an increasingly lengthen- with all due respect to Mircea Eliade, an irre- ing list of exemplars of cultural expression. ducible human phenomenon. It is, rather, one Thus he both insisted on the standard of of the ways–for Mathews, the best way–by disinterested reason in assessing faith and Letter which we attempt to describe and act upon dogma, and situated religion at the occupa- our most central convictions about meaning tional center of all statements of what is of and value. In this Mathews endorses the motto most enduring value. His vision promoted of the sixteenth-century Reformations of both utterly open inquiry into the received from the Christianity regarding the confusion of reli- truth of religion, and the conviction that no gious practice with its object. Yet it was also full articulation of our enduring humanity the case that to avoid this confusion was to could be realized without it. Dean affirm the central participation of religious In our own new century, Mathews’ defini- thought in what Alfred North Whitehead tion remains pertinent for at least two reasons. termed “the adventure of ideas.” For Mathews First, Mathews made the bold choice to define himself, this meant religion’s role as a central “religion”, yet he did so as an apologist for bulwark of democracy and civil society; but the Christian tradition. His first word is not it is in principle a very broadly based con- “Christianity”, even as his final phrase, “the nection with not only politics but history, immortality of our souls”, underscores that philosophy, and art. his own American Baptist heritage was very No great idea, especially one so strikingly near at hand as he wrote. His formulation formulated, is a stranger to controversy. Mathews implies that any articulation of religion must labored throughout his public life to satisfy embrace simultaneously the daunting task both the concerns of his American Baptist of generalization and its own location in a brethren, who feared that he had forsaken the particular circumstance. The challenge then tradition and its dogmatic trappings, and a becomes the establishment of genuine com- world of emerging social scientific thought plementarity between the general and the that had vitally informed his work yet seemed specific. Each is utterly crucial, and each increasingly indifferent to religion. It required requires the other. Mathews recognized that every bit of Mathews’ intellectual and rhetor- the religions as a cohort require some asser- ical skills to maintain the balance of his artic- tion of collective identity if their nature and ulation. History teaches that he was adroit in role in the world are to be understood. Yet No great idea, especially ways that others who shared his vision were he also recognized that, absent specification, one so strikingly formulated, not. His example and those of his contem- the assertion would lack the existential pull poraries underscore a set of challenges now that marks religious claims on humanity. is a stranger to controversy. commonly recognized by religious leaders In this Mathews’ theology anticipates such in a world where misunderstanding, and later articulations as theologian Paul Tillich’s ultimately disorientation, threaten both description of religion as expressive of an articulation of “ultimate concern”. With it articulation and practice. “ultimate concern,” and philosopher Emmanuel came the important affirmation that reli- But Mathews’ own footing was sure, and Levinas’ characterization of religion’s capacity gion transcends its social and historical he can serve as guide as well as harbinger as to return our gaze. Tillich and Levinas each moment, and points to the part of us that we go forward, regardless of our own partic- wrote out of a specific religious tradition and, transcends our own time and place. ular vantage on religion and the religions. as such, their characterizations of religious At the same time that he affirms transcen- For us, the landscape may seem not only experience necessarily differ; yet, their respec- dence, Mathews acknowledges in his uses of different but more difficult than it was for tive efforts reflect a common concern to the words “experiment” and “test” that reli- Mathews: Our society is acutely aware of articulate the nature of religion that Mathews gion is a human effort. It is a hypothesis about religion’s force in contemporary life, and would have appreciated and applauded. the place of divinity in our midst. It was for the challenge has less to do with awakening To suggest that religions are about “the Mathews a profound mistake to confuse any those who slumber, and more with clarify- immortality of our souls” was Mathews’ religion with its object of devotion or rever- Continued on page 5 AUTUMN 2006 | NUMBER 26 Faculty News and Notes Visiting Faculty his fall, the Divinity School welcomes one new full-time Two new visiting faculty join us this aca- faculty member, one new associated faculty member, and demic year. Yairah Amit will be Visiting Lecturer in Hebrew Bible, and Dalit Rom- two visiting faculty members to its fold. For online faculty Shiloni will be Visiting Assistant Professor T of Hebrew Bible. news updates, please see http://divinity.uchicago.edu/whatsnew/news Yairah Amit .html. To access online faculty profiles, which include biographies, (M.A., Hebrew photographs, and contact information for each faculty member, please University; Ph.D., Tel Aviv University) see http://divinity.uchicago.edu/faculty/index.html. emphasizes critical approaches to the study of the Hebrew Appointments Bible. She is especially interested in aspects of story, history, ideology, and editing, and in the combination Fox Appointed interest in theoretical issues in the History of of these four in the biblical text. Starting Assistant Professor of the Religions, and is also working on a manuscript History of Religions comparing Euro-american and Southeast Asian from these different viewpoints, she ana- mass media in their respective articulations lyzes the short textual unit as much as whole biblical books. Richard Fox became of religion, violence and the war on terror. Assistant Professor of Dalit Rom-Shiloni the History of Reli- (Ph.D., Hebrew gions at the Divinity New Associated Faculty School, effective July University of Jeru- 1, 2006. Kathleen Neils Conzen, Professor in salem, Israel) was He comes to the History, focuses on the social and political trained in biblical Divinity School from history of the United States in the nine- studies and Ancient Williams College teenth century, with a special interest in Semitic languages, in Williamstown, issues of immigration, ethnicity, religion, with an emphasis on Massachusetts, where he was Visiting Assis- western settlement, and urban develop- epigraphy and pale- tant Professor of Religion in the Religion ment. She teaches courses and seminars on ography of North- Department. American urban history, nineteenth-century West Semitic dialects. Her academic inter- Fox received his M.A. and Ph.D. from social history, the peopling of the U.S., ests are Judean theology and ideology of the the School of Oriental and African Studies, western and rural history, and nineteenth- sixth century BCE, specifically concepts of London. His primary research and teaching century political culture. Current projects God in times of national crisis, ideology of interests lie in the historical and ethnographic include books on nineteenth-century German- war, and ideological conflicts over concepts study of South and Southeast Asian religions, American efforts to develop and defend a of exile. She teaches courses on Israelite/ with a special emphasis on Indonesia and the theory of pluralistic democratic nationalism Judean theology and ideology of the pre- Malay region. His current research focuses and on German peasant settlement in the exilic and exilic eras, biblical historiography, specifically on the mediation of religion in frontier Midwest, and a work-in-progress prophetic literature, and inner-biblical contemporary Bali through texts, television, on America’s diasporic German Catholic interpretation as a key to the prophetic and theatrical performance. He has a strong milieu. message and literature. 2CIRCA Faculty Notes Arnold, Smith Win Top AAR for the category Book Awards of Constructive - Reflective Studies, is his first book. Smith University of is a historian of reli- Chicago faculty gion whose research have won two of has focused on such the three awards wide-ranging sub- given for best books jects as ritual theory, of the year by the Hellenistic religions, American Academy nineteenth-century of Religion, an Maori cults, and the notorious events of association of some Jonestown, Guyana. His book Relating 10,000 scholars Religion: Essays in the Study of Religion devoted to the (2004) was honored in the AAR category academic study of religion. The Awards for for Analytical-Descriptive Studies. Excellence in Religion, among the most The awards will esteemed honors given to scholars of religion, be presented at the have been given this year to Dan Arnold, American Academy Assistant Professor of the Philosophy of Reli- of Religion’s annual gion in the Divinity School, and Jonathan French Give Meltzer meeting on Saturday, Z. Smith, the Robert O. Anderson Distin- High Academic Honor November 18 in guished Service Professor in the Humanities Washington, D.C.

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