The Council committee argues, however, that the University would not oppose an emphasis upon religion in course instruction. The council report states that the Harvard Report "recommends principles and raises questions with religious implications. The eventual objective of education, it maintains, is not just knowledge of values but commitment to them."

Throughout the history of Western Civilization, the committee says, men have accepted the religious interpretation of life and found the way to good through religion. "The Harvard Report," it adds, "does not rule out the validity of these religious ideals; it only opposes inculcating a certain religious morality or making a religious ideal the unifying element in liberal education."

The committee feels that education, none the less, should acquaint the student with the questions religion raises and the answers it gives. "Commitment is based on free choice, and choice, to be truly free, demands a knowledge of all the possibilities."

Superficial Contradiction

"The superficial contradiction in the Harvard Report," the committee continues, "in including religious ideals among those to be considered in a liberal education and at the same time opposing religious instruction is easily dissolved. Throughout it is apparent that the Report grapples with the largest problem of leading men to discern and chose good without specifying what the good is. There is no denial of the need for the discussion of religious thought in an education which teaches men to evaluate.

"What it opposes is the domination of education by a single religious ideal or the inculcation of moral precepts. In short, it would disapprove preaching religion while admitting the value of teaching about religion. This is an important distinction that is frequently misunderstood by academicians. Many of them nervously expect teaching about religion always to lapse into preaching. Unfortunately the fear of the one has led to the abandonment of the other in many curriculums."

The Council committee grants that the University in its courses and in its stand in "General Education in a Free Society" does not now specifically encourage individual commitment; yet, in reply, it submits the following statement from President Pusey:

"What every young person seeks in college from liberal education--whether or not he has articulated this--is self-discovery. What he wants most to know is what it means to be a human being, what is expected of him as such, what the world is, and what are the options in it that lie before him, and how he is to get on with others. In short, the really burning question that faces someone trying to live through his mind is what is he to do with his life? What such a person wants--what we all want--is a meaning that becomes a motivating force in our lives. And when we ask this question, whether we are conscious of it or not, we have begun to think religiously, and have begun to ask of God."