When Harvard College became the first institution of higher education in North America, it was founded on religious terms. While exploring truth claims about the natural sciences and humanities, students were also trained to study the divine and spirituality, beings and principles not physically measured. Most others in the Ivy League, and many beyond, followed this model.
Over the last few centuries most colleges have adopted a secular posture, including Harvard. The reasons for this shift are too numerous to explore now, but college students are consequentially theologically illiterate. This ignorance is damaging.
Theology is relevant today and for all people.
Theology is relevant anthropologically. First, let us momentarily grant that religious beliefs could be completely false — billions of people all throughout history have been entirely disillusioned by false ideas. If this is the case, these beliefs provide us with incredible insight into the human condition throughout time. Through theology we palpably come to understand the metaphysical aches of humanity and various remedies put forth.
But, importantly, millennia of this treatment does not merely exhibit a binary world in which God exists or does not. Details are important. Human psychology did not just wishfully fabricate a unidimensional father above but rather wrote volumes of text to describe an entity with complex personality; The human heart did not whimsically fall in love with a deistic God who is indifferent to his creation, rather man’s imagination developed an entity that operates uniquely within history and actively within the nuances of the human soul. You see, theological details illuminate an important part of our ancestry that is rarely acknowledged — the infinite within us that peers past the physical world into a land of embodied metaphysics, and indeed Truth itself. If it’s right, praise God. If it’s wrong, it is man’s most telling and creative feat.
Theology is relevant politically. Consider diplomatic relations with predominantly Muslim countries. Engaging with a people whose very way of life largely relies on the foundational principles of Islam demands theological competency for effective communication. Conversely, comfortably feeding our biases and assumptions with media sound bites and Islamophobic rhetoric only sets the stage for discord.
Instead of silently propagating in our own communities a fear of Jihad and Sharia that tempts us to justify the vilification of an entire religious tradition, we have the ability to engage. We can make the effort to engage Muslims in serious and honest dialogue before engendering political platforms of bigotry. Ignoring the theological underpinnings that drive cultures around the world is irresponsibly indulging ignorance, often at the expense of peace and tolerance.
Or, let’s bring it back home and briefly consider the present cultural rift over homosexuality. Most condemn Christianity for operating anti-progressively when it comes to its rigid understanding of marriage and sexuality. However, this rigidity is not grounded in the subjective hatred of a few in power. The doctrine of marriage, and even celibacy, within the Church is fundamentally a demonstration of humanity’s relationship with God, and the gendered elements of this relationship are so for a reason. To bend these elements out of shape is not to dismantle all of Christian faith, but it is to undermine one of its sacramental cornerstones. To be clear this is not to justify intolerance or vilification of the LGBT+ community in the Church’s name, rather it is to acknowledge that the topic at hand is much more complex and personal than either side often makes it out to be.
Due to the grandiosity of the topic, details matter more in theology than any other discipline. Indeed these details are worshiped and served. To be theologically illiterate is not to understand the deep ethical considerations large bodies of people maintain when acting in the social sphere.
Theology is relevant interpersonally. At the center of these political ideologies are the individual people right next to you. It is they who vote, go to war and picket. If they have any religious background, this will invariably affect the core of these decisions and thus the core of their identity. As such, theology is a window into the mind and heart of your neighbor. When you read the biblical story of Job, you are not just reading about an archaic mythologized tale about a man struggling with theodicy, you are encountering a text that millions of Muslims, Christians and Jews alike run to in times of pain and confusion. Theology lays the foundation for personalities of many students on our campus.
We do not ask you to pick up Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology or cozily sit down with The Creed of Imam al-Tahawi next Friday evening. You don’t even have to attend church or a prayer service. But at the very least ask your religious friends why they do; It’s an easy place to start.
Karl Johnson is a junior economics and chemistry major from Detroit. He is the editor-in-chief of The Hopkins Dialectic.
Hammaad Shah is a senior public health major from Gaithersburg, Md. He is the former president of the Johns Hopkins University Muslim Association (JHUMA).
Correction: Shah's name was previously misspelled. Additionally, he is the former, not current president, of the Muslim Association.
