EDUCATION AND RELIGION

Evening Star, Issue 20572, 26 August 1930, Page 9

EDUCATION AND RELIGION

DENOMINATIONALISM DEPRECATED SYDNEY PROFESSOR'S VIEWS [SriCUL TO TK» ' Stak.’] . AUCKLAND, August 25. “ There has never been more interest in religion than in the present day. but it is not so much in organised religion. It is an interest that seeks to find the nature and function of religion in human life.” This statement was made by Professor S. Angus, professor of New Testament studies at St. Andrew’s College, Sydney University, who is a through passenger by the Aorangi. He is going to Columbia University (New York) as a visiting professor, and will temporarily take the chair of history or religion. Professor Angus has written religious books, tho chief of which aro ‘ The Religious Questions of the GrfficoRoman World’ (which is widely used in the United States), ‘Mystery Religions and Christianity,* and ‘ The Environment of Early Christianity.’ “ Religion has no place, in the New Zealand or Australian universities. It is banned,’’ said Professor Angus, _ In America religion and religious subjects are studies just as are history or chemistry. Many students taking up subjects for masters’ or doctors’ degrees at Columbia University, for instance, take religion as one of tho subjects to qualify for the pass.” ' In Professor Angus’s opinion, denominationalism is carried to excess m Australia and New Zealand. Ho said that religion had been identified with denominationalism, which was .only a phenomenon of religion Religion did not exist for denominationalism. Religion was as necessary in higher education as art or philosophy. ‘‘ Where would education be without art?” ho said. “ Education without religion is a loss. Denominationalism is no friend to religion. I do not believe in an international church, but I do believe m a universal interest in religion and individual apprehension of it. I know it is impossible for all to agree on religion any more than for all to agree on politics. You cannot make, two persons exactly similar in any religious thing.” ... , Professor Angus has either been a student at or holds degrees of a number of universities, including Queen’s University, Belfast; Princeton University, United States; Marburg and Berlin Universities, Germany; and the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. For the last three years he has been a visiting professor to Columbia University. He has been for sixteen yeans in Australia. ... . .■