The One About Religion And Multiculturalism...

Or why Religious Studies as an academic area is totally stupid.

My blogging aim for this week is to provide you with a run-down of all my classes here at the wonderful University of Ottawa. However, as I will be only in the second/third class for them, you're going to have to bear in mind that I am liable to change my opinion of them at will because I will mature and because I am fickle.



The first class I'm going to introduce you to is Religion and Multiculturalism in Canada. I'll be honest, I chose it mainly from Krista saying how big multiculturalism is here in Maple Leaf Land, but I do find it to be quite dry thus far. Perhaps the main thing I've discovered so far from this course is that Religious Studies really is a whole different kettle of fish to Theology - and I flipping well know which I prefer!

We were discussing in class today about what we define as our culture. The more obnoxious in the class forewent describing themselves as Canadian for some precocious, wishy-washy answer about diversity of heritage. Vom. I outed myself as a Brit; I said I preferred to be idenetified as English (which will of course change if Andy Murray wins the US Open this evening!)

However, as the discussion went on, we moved to talking about how culture is often seen as being synonymous with religion. We discussed about France where what is a perceived attack on culture is actually on religious practice. The prof brought up several example of non-religions, ie atheism, cults, spirituality etc and asked whether religion and spirituality and superstition were one and the same. I put my hand up to say that identifying a person's culture as religious may not be how that person would choose to identify themselves.

Fascinating compulsory read for the class.

I gave myself as an example. I am a Christian. To the world, my church-going, bread-breaking and Bible-reading is identified as being religious. However, I would define myself not as religious but as someone with a living faith, a relationship. The prof meanwhile basically called me out as some follower of superstition and weak spirituality and basically completely didn't grasp the crux of point at all. And this is why I think that Religious Studies is a totally banal field. What really struck me out the RS majors in my class was their complete lack of empathy and how they completely detach themselves from the lived experiences of the religions they're studying. At Exeter, whether you are Christian, atheist, agnostic, every theology student has an inante ability to to look at the who behind the what. This is what, I think, sets theology a part as an academic discipline, and is where RS simply cannot compete. RS is a clinical discipline which seemingly manages to study people without understanding the very essence of what makes a human a human.

If I had been in a theology class this morning, giving the earlier example, my point would have been totally understood. In the hands of a theology student, they would take from my example that I'm referring to a practical application of the doctrine of the Trinity - the mutual indwelling at the heart of Christianity which transcends Christianity as a dictionary defined religion. But in a class of Religious Studies students, they just think I'm some goofy foreigner.

Perhaps I'm taking what happened in class today too much to heart? However, I cannot help but feel that theology is a much richer discipline that creates much better employees if nothing else. These RS students I'm stuck with for the next year hold steadfast to their views but without the empathy that renders them arrogant as opposed to having integrity.

A girl called Christina came up to me after class to say she totally got what I meant - and I'm so thrilled her postgrad plans are to do theology!

One thing is for sure, theology is by far and away superior to Religious Studies!