STUDY OF RELIGION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19501, 3 December 1926, Page 16

STUDY OF RELIGION.

COURSE AT UNIVERSITY, UNITED STATES INNOVATION. PROGRAMME AT COLUMBIA,. A plan to meet tho religious needs of several thousand students at Columbia University, in the United States, has been formulated, according to announcement recently made by Mr. H, E. Evans, director of the Columbia University Christian Association... Coincident with the increased opportunity at Columbia for the training of ministers, a new student programme centring at Earl Hall will- bo accepted which will connect religious education in the classroom with outside activities and will tend to develop the practical side of the student's religious life.

"The average college student," said All*. Evans, "is seriously interested in religion and wants to know more about it." A new course, the first of its kind adopted by an American college, is being given this year by undergraduates who intend to enter the ministry. According to the president, Air. N. AI. Butler, this courso will result in placing the profession of ministry on the same footing as law, medicine, engineering and other professional fields.

"Approximately 200 students are working in settlements, church clubs and other social organisations and 300 are teaching in Sunday schools. Tho association tries to assist the student in finding a place for the expression of his religious life and in solving his "everyday problems. Twenty to thirty students seek tho association office daily -for advice and counsel on religious problems," said Air. Evans, "and others attend the discussion groups held after tho daily servico in St. Paul's Chapel."

Wide Training for Students. Students who go to the association office are helped in the working out of their problems oi are put in touch with men who can answer their questions. Alany ask the advice of the religious director in decisions about their future professions and work. With the co-oper-ation of Union Theological Seminary, a combined course of general and professional study is offered for intending theological students which will combine general with professional study. ' The courses have been prepared with a view to making certain that students of theology are given an insight into the methods and content of modern science as well as thoso of the economic and social sciences,' Dr. Butler said. "It is hoped that this programme will be imitated elsewhere and that its effect will be greatly to improve the training of future ministers."

Other courses have been planned tor undergraduates who do not expect to niakoi tho ministry their chosen profession, but who wish to make sure that they have taken advantage of their college residence to obtain the elements of a well rounded education. "A controlling principle of these courses of instruction," said Dr. Butler, "is that religion can and should be stated with tho same thoroughness and freedom from prejudice that characterises any one of the secular subjects of study. The personal faith of tho individual and the established tenets of various religious bodies .are, and should always be, respected. The approach to these subjects is in no sense doctrinal or hortatory." A Comprehensive Course.

This subjects of the courses include the Bible, tho study and interpretation of religion, church history and religion as a factor in personal and social life. Dr. Butler said the attendance upon these courses steadily increases and that their good effect is evident.

A phase of the work of the Columbia Christian Association was . related by Mr. Evans, who said thai nearly every Friday afternoon during the school year a group of students from Columbia visit suburban or rural communities for the week end. The students invite the boys of the community to a dinner at which they are given advice and told about the experiences they may expect in their future college days. The students live at the houses of the boys during this time, taking them for outings and planning social programmes for them. On Sunday morning the Sunday schools of the community are taught by Columbia men, and in the evening the students speak for five minutes each on what religion means to them. According to Mr. Evans, such deputations are very successful and often attract the largest audiences the churches have ever had.