A Question about the Religiosity of Programs and Their Professors

[Postbib Yeshuist]

While everyone at Harvard will be Christian

That's a fairly big assumption. You need to define what "Christian" means, first, and second, you need to determine whether the difference between the label and a particular faith stance. I know several people from Harvard in years gone by that would immediately take exception to your statement. I think a better response would be to say simply "those at Harvard will be engaged in the study of topics related to the Christian religion." Beyond that, you're more than likely going to be proved wrong.

Sorry if this response is off-topic, but I was surprised to see such a sweeping statement in a "graduate religion forum."

[jacib]

That's a fairly big assumption. You need to define what "Christian" means, first, and second, you need to determine whether the difference between the label and a particular faith stance. I know several people from Harvard in years gone by that would immediately take exception to your statement. I think a better response would be to say simply "those at Harvard will be engaged in the study of topics related to the Christian religion." Beyond that, you're more than likely going to be proved wrong.

Sorry if this response is off-topic, but I was surprised to see such a sweeping statement in a "graduate religion forum."

I think I fairly well qualified and defined what I meant as Christian in the rest of that sentence that you didn't quote. What I didn't add was that I meant they will "self-identify" as Christian; "they"in this case referring to the MDiv students (as I hoped to make clear in the second half of the clause--though rereading it I can understand the confusion because the original question was about MTS students). That's the part perhaps that was missing. On second thought, I can't guarantee that all the Unitarian ministry candidates identify themselves as Christian. MTS and certainly PhD students may be otherwise affiliated, or non-affiliated.

[Ritualist]

....so back on topic. Anyone here an alumni, attending, or have at least visited Duke, Emory, Harvard, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, or Yale that can give some insight?

I'm a Harvard alumnus from the MTS program and I can tell you that even at the Divinity School I didn't sense that the culture was particularly "religious." Sure, there are people at HDS seeking MDiv's and ordination, but it didn't have quite the convinced or devoutly Christian feel of some of the other schools that I eventually ruled out (ex. Yale or Duke). I am not religious, so the intellectual climate at Harvard was great for me. Still there are a number of "believers," as it were, at Harvard and my classes were very much enriched by the various perspectives to which I was exposed while studying there.

If anyone has any specific questions for me about Harvard, feel free to message me.

[Ritualist]

That's a fairly big assumption. You need to define what "Christian" means, first, and second, you need to determine whether the difference between the label and a particular faith stance. I know several people from Harvard in years gone by that would immediately take exception to your statement. I think a better response would be to say simply "those at Harvard will be engaged in the study of topics related to the Christian religion." Beyond that, you're more than likely going to be proved wrong.

Sorry if this response is off-topic, but I was surprised to see such a sweeping statement in a "graduate religion forum."

I am one such former student who take exception to that characterization, just as you said.

[Postbib Yeshuist]

I think I fairly well qualified and defined what I meant as Christian in the rest of that sentence that you didn't quote.

I disagree, but it's cool. It seems you actually wrote a self-contradictory sentence, but sometimes the written medium doesn't express what we really mean all that well. It's all good