A quotation to ponder

Worth thinking about. Startlingly scornful, but still important. From a 1986 article by Ivan Strenski in JAAR, arguing against the putative rapprochement between religious studies and theology.
Key quotation to ponder:

"As a profession, we are disgraced by the fact that Americans look first to almost any other discipline than ours when it comes to matters where religion itself is central. But we have only our drooling over nationally self-indulgent problems of adolescent religious questing to blame for this. How many courses of mock mysticism and pseudo-soul-saving have passed as regular options in religious studies? That part of the legacy of the 1960's we could safely shelve. How much of the current drive to re-theologize religious studies represents the same concerns to save the souls of young people in our care? More than we might care to admit.
I do not reject the counselor's commission, but religious studies needs to strike the right balance between existential and educational commissions. Unless we are to become the walk-in therapy center for the university, we have to re-establish the balance in favor of knowledge and education, hard thinking and good writing -- which themselves put the existential concerns of adolescents -- whether narcissistic or not -- into perspective so that they can successfully overcome them. There really is a world out there beyond the existential anxieties of youth. The 'others' really exist, with their histories, customs, interests and so on. We are a nation more and more unavoidably part of that world scene; yet more ignorant of it than ever. Moreover it is a world scene of equals in which we will no longer be able to enjoy the privileges of special treatment. We will have to know as much about 'them' as they have, for some time, known about 'us.' Religious studies had better be there in the arena of public knowledge where it is needed, if we want to be part of the future."
Ivan Strenski, "Our Very Own 'Contras': A Response to the 'St. Louis Project' Report," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 54.2 (Summer 1986), 323-335, p. 332.

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