In an earlier post, James Poulos decries the lack of priority given to the humanities versus the sciences. I am a Ph.D. candidate in the humanities and have every interest in seeing that area of inquiry become the focus of dollars and attention. Nevertheless, I can’t bring myself to hope that more students will be steered in that direction. Although I am a faithful disciple of the humanities, I often take comfort in the fact that the majority of students won’t have much exposure to the offerings on hand. Better they remain busy with their business and engineering degrees than that they should hear too much of the soul-killing discourses that reign in the older buildings on campus.

Now, I acknowledge that the situation could be improved. I presented a paper at a conference at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta put on by people like Joseph Knippenberg and Peter Augustine Lawler. Dr. Knippenberg asked me to dinner where I met several faculty members from around the state who were a bit (SSSSSHHHHH) conservative and maybe even (quietly now) Christian. All in all, it was delightful time and I would have been pleased to trust my children’s higher education into the hands of such people without a second thought.

At this point, at least, I’m not persuaded that the type of folks I met in Atlanta are adequately represented on faculties around the country. And if not, then I’m not sure we should want to see more young minds filled with the deliverances of the discipline, love it though I do.