Harvard Faculty Share Impact of Faith on Scholarship

UPDATED: March 5, 2017 at 1:13 p.m.

Harvard faculty spoke about the intersection of faith and scholarship, posing questions of meaning and purpose in academia at a panel hosted by the Harvard Chaplains Wednesday evening.

The faculty panel featured Harvard Law School Dean Martha L. Minow, Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures professor Ali S. Asani ’77, and Astronomy professor Owen J. Gingerich. The panel is the first in a series—called the Meaningful Life Initiative—aiming to broadcast various ways in which professors involve their spiritual backgrounds in their work.

Getzel Davis, chair of the university programs committee for the Harvard Chaplains, said he chose Asani, Gingerich, and Minow to speak at the event because of the religious influences behind each professor’s career path.

“We found a group of professors who all mostly teach, from an academic perspective, not about religion, but whose perspectives on their work are deeply informed by their spiritual and ethical convictions,” Davis said.

He added that the panel looks to engage with differences in each scholar’s faith traditions.

“We’re not trying to find the lowest common denominator, but really we try to find where we have real difference, but ability to teach each other and grow from exploring that together,” Davis added.

The discussion was moderated by Karen-Alexandra Nogues ’18, who asked the panelists about the influence of their respective faith traditions in their academic and professional lives. According to Nogues, the panel looked to provide an opportunity for students who are starting their careers to hear personally from faculty members about their paths towards meaning and purpose.

“That’s what we’re really trying to get at with this discussion— how are they making a difference, are they feeling like they’re living fulfilling lives in their various careers,” Nogues said.

The panelists spoke about a variety of academic and faith-based issues, each relating to their professional background. Minow, who teaches constitutional and public law, spoke about the abilities and limitations of the legal system, citing the rights-based system of American law and the duty-based system of Jewish law as influential in her work.

“A right is meaningless if there isn’t a duty on the other side,” Minow said. “I don’t think of [Judaism] as a faith tradition so much as a way of life.”

Asani spoke about the importance of breaking down religious illiteracy and stereotypes within his scholarship and teaching, testifying to the importance of faith in a contemporary context.

“Religion is just seen as an ideology, or an identity, and people forget that religion is also faith,” Asani said. “Those faith perspectives are often forgotten when people start thinking about religion as political ideology, construct, orthodoxy, or a use for power. Religion is some kind of an ‘ism,’ and faith is drowned out.”

Wednesday’s event ended with a question and answer period between panelists and undergraduates.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: March 5, 2017

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the title of Getzel Davis. In fact, he is Chair of the University Programs Committee for the Harvard Chaplains