Religion professors and students at Amherst concurred that although revelations in self-understanding are essential and central to the college undergraduate experience, spirituality is a deeply personal issue that cannot be fully addressed in a classroom setting.
Students noted that revelations in self-understanding are difficult to encourage. "The type of thinking that leads to self-understanding is difficult to encourage because the endeavor requires a deep and persistent commitment that cannot be forced upon anyone," said Casey Guenthner '08. "It is still possible to address questions about the meaning of life, religion and spirituality in an entirely academic way, focusing on rationale. Such rationale can influence self-understanding, but only if an attempt is made to explore it on a personal level."
Guenthner agreed that courses within the curriculum geared specifically toward enhancing spirituality would not promote students' self-understanding. "Spirituality is too personal an issue to be addressed in a classroom setting, and examining it in any detail requires an entire lifetime, not just a semester," said Guenthner. "The best thing a class can do is to encourage students to question most critically the beliefs they maintain most adamantly."
Professor of Religion Jamal Elias reiterated Guenthner's opinion. "It is a major purpose of Amherst's curriculum to make students more reflective as human beings; furthering their self-understanding is an integral aspect of that," he said. "One hopes to accomplish this by making individual students grow as thinking beings, not by telling them who they should be, since that is for them to decide on their own."
Elias, however, added the importance of separating personal beliefs and academics. "There is a clear distinction between giving students the freedom to develop religiously and spiritually on the one hand, and using the classroom to promote specific religious ideologies on the other," said Elias. "Amherst already does a great deal to facilitate students' abilities and desires to live rich lives in the religions to which they belong and to explore other traditions and ideologies. However, such activities are structurally distinct from the college curriculum, and have no place in that aspect of life at a school like Amherst."
Professor of Fine Arts Joel Upton, however, believes that it is vital to the wellbeing of the College's curriculum that issues concerning spirituality be properly addressed. "Dismissing spirituality as inappropriate is to abdicate our work as teacher," he said. "I believe that conversation concerning spirituality in the academy needs to begin with a careful and unbiased definition of the word [spirituality] itself."
Assistant Professors of Religion Andrew Dole and Maria Heim also explained that the term "spirituality" needs to be clearly defined, and distinguished from religion. "'Spirituality' is a notoriously poorly defined term. The definition provided by the UCLA survey is not particularly helpful." According to Dole, "spirituality" in the survey is defined as seeking out opportunities to grow spiritually, considering oneself a spiritual person, and having an interest in integrating spirituality into one's life. "The way to address the problem, I think, is to break the term 'spirituality' into its component parts and to discuss the propriety or impropriety of making the development of those parts goals of higher education," said Dole.
Stephen Xue '06, a transfer student, discussed how spirituality was central to his experience at another university. "I studied at a state university on the West Coast before coming to Amherst. In their freshman inquiry class, a year-long mandatory course, students were asked to write reflective essays at the end of each term." Xue added, "I think self-understanding or the importance of a rich spiritual life is forgotten among many students. Anything that could spur discussions on the subject is beneficial to the community."
Furqun Fazal '08 agreed with Xue. "A student's college experience is very important for self-understanding," said Fazal. "I think one of the reasons why I joined Amherst College is because the school is small enough to give me a chance to reflect on who I truly am and what I should do in my life, both personally and professionally."
Fazal added that faculty could encourage self-reflection without the pretext of "spirituality." "Incorporating spirituality into a course should be passive rather than active. Spiritual self-reflection should be a by-product rather than a central theme of a course," he said.
Guenthner, however, pointed out that in the end, interest should come from the student. "Professors can encourage students to explore ideas in a personal way, but motivation to do so can't come from them," he said.