LIVERPOOL HOPE is only the latest university where a theology and religious-studies department has been significantly reduced in size and capacity or closed altogether, Dr Mathew Guest, Professor in the Sociology of Religion at Durham University, says.
He hopes that universities are not making decisions of this kind simply on the basis of which subjects are most likely to attract the most students in the immediate future, but, he says, “I would not be surprised if that was the case.”
Some senior managers in universities see theology as “a bit of an oddball”, he suggests, because they do not understand what it is, or what it is for. “I’ve met enough academics in my time who haven’t got a clue what my subject area is — whereas it would be unthinkable for them not to know what history was about, or English literature, or psychology.”
Meanwhile, departments with “theology” in their title are at a disadvantage in attracting a diverse range of students, because few outside the private-school sector are familiar with the term by the time they reach their A levels, he says.
“You ask young people, ‘Do you want to do theology?’ and they have no idea what it is.”
Professor Guest also suggests that, at universities, senior managers who believe that society has become more secular and less dependent on religion as a source of significance may regard a degree in theology as “a bit like a degree in superstition”.
“Sometimes there is a cloistered side to the discipline that comes out in some of its champions [and] that reinforces the sense that it is not really part of the world everyone else inhabits.”
The argument that theology and religious studies (TRS) is serving the Church or the Christian community works in a seminary context, “but I don’t think it works in a university context any more as the principal rationale for the subject. TRS thrives most when it is diverse, interdisciplinary, and culturally engaged.”
THE pressure on universities to find savings has only increased the need to make the case, “more frequently and powerfully”, that TRS is an important field of study, he says.
“It is not enough to go to senior management and say: ‘But theology is really important.’ The case has to be made in terms that people who make decisions about money can understand. Can we build up a solid external funding base? Can we demonstrate that what we are doing relates to many other things in the world that they recognise as important? Can we be innovative and impactful? Can we engage with stakeholders effectively?”
TRS UK represents the subject across the sector, and continues to campaign for its visibility and relevance. Furthermore, Professor Guest says, “some very useful voices in the British Academy have been arguing the case, though I don’t think that has made any difference yet.
“The days may be over when you could get a few of the great and the good to send a letter that says ‘How dare you close this department?’, and anyone would listen. We do need a much stronger campaign. . . The financial situation really is dire in some places, and it’s difficult everywhere.”
One of the strongest arguments for resourcing TRS, he says, is that religious education in schools is compulsory across the state sector and yet is “woefully” undervalued and under-resourced.
“Religious literacy is so important in the 21st-century world, with all its complexity, but young people are not being taught by people who are trained in this specialist area — because so few undergraduates have been persuaded that TRS is a worthwhile subject to pursue.”
Read more on the story in our Leader comment, Comment, and Education features
