Spring Break
A gulf between institutions
Schubert Ogden, with a foreward by Susanne Johnson, Contributing Writers
Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: Opinion
Likewise, all of its members, and most especially the relatively permanent members that make up its faculties, must be free as individuals to carry on their proper business: to serve the fundamental cause of human life, of living, living well, and living better, but to do this in their own appointed way-not directly, but only indirectly, by furthering, in one way or another, the process of critically reflecting on life so it may be lived more abundantly. By contrast, a proprietary or sectarian institution such as the Bush Institute would be constituted for the very different purpose of serving life directly-not by critically reflecting on the claims of its foundation or relation, but by simply making or implying them in another form by propagating the teachings or the policies that it exists to further.
Whereas the university exists, above all, to criticize all such teachings and policies, such an institute's sole purpose is to rationalize them. And it is for this reason that there is "a great gulf fixed" between the purpose that SMU professes to serve in calling itself a university and the purpose to be served by the proposed Bush institute.
The gulf is rightly said to be great, because it is nothing less than the gulf between critical reflection and uncritical rationalization-between institutional autonomy and academic freedom, in the case of the university and its members, and institutional subservience and academic bondage, in the case of the institute and any of its members who could fairly claim to serve its purpose. Thus, to paraphrase the statement above: The housing of an unfree institution such as the Bush institute is proposed to be within the free university that SMU professes to be would be a contradiction: such an institution might be in the university but, being unfree, would not and could not be of the university, and it has no business being there.
About the writer:
Schubert M. Ogden is a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theology and former director of the SMU Graduate Program in Religious Studies.
Whereas the university exists, above all, to criticize all such teachings and policies, such an institute's sole purpose is to rationalize them. And it is for this reason that there is "a great gulf fixed" between the purpose that SMU professes to serve in calling itself a university and the purpose to be served by the proposed Bush institute.
The gulf is rightly said to be great, because it is nothing less than the gulf between critical reflection and uncritical rationalization-between institutional autonomy and academic freedom, in the case of the university and its members, and institutional subservience and academic bondage, in the case of the institute and any of its members who could fairly claim to serve its purpose. Thus, to paraphrase the statement above: The housing of an unfree institution such as the Bush institute is proposed to be within the free university that SMU professes to be would be a contradiction: such an institution might be in the university but, being unfree, would not and could not be of the university, and it has no business being there.
About the writer:
Schubert M. Ogden is a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theology and former director of the SMU Graduate Program in Religious Studies.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Dr. Andrew J. Weaver
posted 3/02/07 @ 7:49 AM EST
Professor Shubert Ogden was the most important and influential teacher in my life. His passion for the truth and fierce integrity is recognized within the church and the academy. (Continued…)
Mark Monson
posted 3/02/07 @ 12:34 PM EST
I have never heard anyone argue that the Bush Institute's policies cannot be questioned, or "reflected upon." Any "great gulf" that exists is in the mind of those who are scared of opinions different from their own. (Continued…)
Barbara Nordfors
posted 3/05/07 @ 2:43 PM EST
I congratulate the publishing of Schubert M. Ogden's letter. Beautiful! Because a Southern Methodist University education represented/represents innovation and creativity, I, a former Montanan, desired 40 years ago to be a student on the campus of SMU . (Continued…)
Post a Comment