Seminar on Religious Studies in the Modern University Draws over Thirty People
Richard Keshen, Our University, Staff Reporter
On December 4th, over thirty people attended a seminar in the Sydney Credit Room on the place of Religious Studies in the modern university. The seminar was sponsored by the School of Arts and Letters, and was attended by faculty (including science faculty), administrators (three deans were present), and a strong contingent of the non-UCCB public. The seminar leaders were Professors Bowlby and Dalton of the Religious Studies Department at St. Mary’s University. The seminar was chaired by Dr. Charles MacDonald, former UCCB faculty member.
Professors Bowlby and Dalton described the Honours programme in Religious Studies at St. Mary’s, which includes courses in the major world religions, as well as topic specific courses bridging religious traditions. Religious Studies courses at St. Mary’s draw hundreds of students each year, and are typically oversubscribed, said Bowlby and Dalton. There is much appreciation for St. Mary’s programme in the Halifax community. Recently money has been raised from the Moslem community to sponsor a permanent chair in Islamic Studies. There is already a fully endowed chair in Catholic Studies.
Professor Bowlby described the scholarly organizations in Religious Studies and the kind of research being conducted in Canada. He himself has conducted research on Hinduism and is currently working on the issue of religion and multiculturalism. Professor Dalton has done research on Thomas Berry and religion and feminism. She currently writes on religion and the environment, and is very active in CIDA projects in Vietnam and China.
The seminar lasted three hours, and ended with the heartfelt hope, on behalf of both the academic and wider community, that Religious Studies would someday be resurrected at UCCB.
Later that day, one of the seminar participants, Richard Keshen, penned the following:
A Fable
Once upon a time, there was a group of friends whose names were Xavier, Acadia, Allison, Marion, and Breton. They all loved the outdoors, and their friendship revolved around vigorous hikes through the Canadian wilderness. They were a competitive lot, and they often turned their hikes into tests of speed, endurance, and wilderness skills. Now Breton was the youngest and therefore the least savvy of the group, and he often found himself lagging behind the others. Still, he managed to keep within range, and, as he learned the ways of the woods, he slowly but surely gained ground on the others. Then one day Breton sprained his ankle, and for a time was forced to hobble farther behind his friends. Now Breton had a very strong-minded mother, and she said to Breton, “This setback is really fate presenting you with a wonderful window of opportunity to become cutting-edge. What you must do is slice off your feet, acquire the latest body-building technology (easily bought on the web), develop your upper-torso, and learn to walk on your hands. All the economic and technology consultants are telling us that the future lies with people who will be able best to walk on their hands”. So Breton cut off his feet and
learned to walk on his hands. You’ve got to move with future, Breton reasoned, and besides he didn’t want to lose his allowance. Alas, hand-walking proved not to be the great breakthrough the experts had predicted. Breton found he fell farther and farther behind his friends until finally he was deemed to be outside their league altogether. “If only I had kept my feet”, a distressed Breton was heard to mutter, as he was carried off one day to the local community college for occupational therapy.