Big questions

Christian Century, May 31, 2005

BIG QUESTIONS: A national study of the religious beliefs and behaviors of college freshmen found that they don't always know what they believe, but they are interested in grappling with the big questions of life. Unfortunately, college and university faculty are reticent to talk about "meaning" issues in class.

There are exceptions. Mark Wallace, who teaches a course called "Religion and the Meaning of Life" at Swarthmore College, says that it is possible to deal with the big issues without promoting a particular ideology. He usually has three times more students sign up for his course than he can accept. And Richard F. Galvin, who teaches "The Meaning of Life" at Texas Christian University, in which students read Plato's Dialogues and works by Nietzsche and Mill, tells his students "that there is plenty of time to be worried about their careers but this might be the last time they get to talk about big questions" (Chronicle of Higher Education, April 22).