The line that Marty is drawing is perfectly sensible, and
enforceable in a public school context. The problem, though, is that
religious traditions and institutions often do, and are perfectly
entitled to, re-configure these sorts of categories according to
their own best lights.
For example, most of the Bible and Jewish History courses,
and many, many, other courses, taught in the Rabbinical program at
the Jewish Theological Seminary, which ordains Conservative Rabbis,
could easily be taught in a public university's Judaic Studies
program. That is largely because the Conservative movement embraces
the "academic" historical-critical method in studying such
topics. For that matter, even the education at more "traditional"
yeshivas, which is generally averse to historical-critical inquiry,
might still be transposable to a public educational setting, in that
it largely focuses on the internal, logical, analysis of Talmudic and
other Jewish legal texts. Yet, in a larger sense, both JTS and
traditional yeshivas are clearly engaged in a devotional enterprise,
not to mention the fact that they are training clergy. (A further
complication is that, in Jewish thought, learning and study are
themselves devotional acts.)
All this is not to say either that the Washington
restriction is incoherent or that Davey is wrong. I'm only
suggesting that they pose difficulties, and that those difficulties
arise in part from the many ways that religious traditions draw their
own lines between scholarly inquiry and devotional study.
Perry
Marty Lederman writes:
The test in Washington is whether the required courses for the major
involve instruction aimed at inculcating religious belief in the
doctrine of a particular religion -- or disbelief. Are they
devotional in nature or designed to induce religious faith or
promote a particular religious truth? If so, they're
ineligible. Or, perhaps more to the point: Could the courses be
taught by a *public* university in Washington?
*******************************************************
Perry Dane
Professor of Law
Rutgers University
School of Law -- Camden
217 North Fifth Street
Camden, NJ 08102
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.camlaw.rutgers.edu/bio/925/
Work: (856) 225-6004
Fax: (856) 969-7924
Home: (610) 896-5702
*******************************************************
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