A gulf between institutions
Schubert Ogden, with a foreward by Susanne Johnson, Contributing Writers
Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: Opinion
The prospective coming of the George W. Bush Presidential Library, Museum and Institute has prompted us to carry on discourse, public and private, about the nature of liberal arts education and what it means to be a "university."
It has been my privilege to count among my dialogue partners my esteemed and now retired colleague, Schubert M. Ogden, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theology, and former director of the Graduate Program in Religious Studies. Inasmuch as I found his e-mail writings to be significantly insightful on key facets of the matter before us, especially the Bush Institute, I sought his permission to lift out the mid-section of one particular email, and reproduce it here in The Daily Campus under the affixed title.
For further explication of his thinking on the "university," he directed me to "Theology in the University: The Question of Integrity," in Ogden, Doing Theology Today (Trinity Press International, 1995) pp. 80-91. This essay, from which Ogden draws below, originated as an address made (at the request of then-Provost Ruth Morgan) to the Collegium-comprised of SMU Chair-holders and University Distinguished Professors. The quote by Matthew W. Finkin, former SMU Professor of Law, is from a report he prepared for the American Association of University Professors.
Susanne Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Christian Education
"There is 'a great gulf fixed' between a university, on the one hand, and a proprietary or sectarian institution such as the proposed Bush policy institute on the other." -Schubert M. Ogden
"A school of law endowed by its creators to train students as laissez-faire or Marxist lawyers, and measuring its faculty against a requirement of faithfulness to the doctrines thus set down, has every right to exist, but it has no right to class itself as a seat of legal learning on a par with free institutions. Neither would a school of law with commitments to religious orthodoxy.…
It has been my privilege to count among my dialogue partners my esteemed and now retired colleague, Schubert M. Ogden, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theology, and former director of the Graduate Program in Religious Studies. Inasmuch as I found his e-mail writings to be significantly insightful on key facets of the matter before us, especially the Bush Institute, I sought his permission to lift out the mid-section of one particular email, and reproduce it here in The Daily Campus under the affixed title.
For further explication of his thinking on the "university," he directed me to "Theology in the University: The Question of Integrity," in Ogden, Doing Theology Today (Trinity Press International, 1995) pp. 80-91. This essay, from which Ogden draws below, originated as an address made (at the request of then-Provost Ruth Morgan) to the Collegium-comprised of SMU Chair-holders and University Distinguished Professors. The quote by Matthew W. Finkin, former SMU Professor of Law, is from a report he prepared for the American Association of University Professors.
Susanne Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Christian Education
"There is 'a great gulf fixed' between a university, on the one hand, and a proprietary or sectarian institution such as the proposed Bush policy institute on the other." -Schubert M. Ogden
"A school of law endowed by its creators to train students as laissez-faire or Marxist lawyers, and measuring its faculty against a requirement of faithfulness to the doctrines thus set down, has every right to exist, but it has no right to class itself as a seat of legal learning on a par with free institutions. Neither would a school of law with commitments to religious orthodoxy.…
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Dr. Andrew J. Weaver
posted 3/02/07 @ 6:49 AM CST
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 @ 11:34 AM CST
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 @ 1:43 PM CST
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…)
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