Episcopal Chaplain G. Stewart Barnes attributes this new conservatism to insecurity.

"We live in a period of history where every group is expecting sensitivity and recognition," he says.

"I support that. But that also means that when individuals feel that someone else is getting more recognition and acceptance, they are going to be much more vocal about their place in the community."

Barnes, Gomes and Finestone agree that campus shifts such as that towards Christian fundamentalism reflect larger trends in society as a whole.

"This is certainly a presence that did not exist here in the past," says Finestone. "There has been [in society] a return to fundamentalism in many political and cultural lives."

Cyrus R. Mehta, an adjunct associate professor of biostatistics who is the United Ministry representative for the Hindu and Zoroastrian religions, agrees that religious interest at Harvard seems healthy.

"There seems to be a surprising amount of interest in religious matters," he says.

Mehta estimates the size of the undergraduate Hindu community to be around 100, but says that many do not attend weekly prayer sessions for area students hosted by the Swami Sarvagatananda at MIT.

The Study of Religion

In his 1936 history of Harvard, Samuel Eliot Morison said that Harvard had originally been founded "to advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches."

However, John E. Cort, head tutor for the Committee on the Study of Religion, says that absolute morality is "irrelevant" in religion studies today.

"The study of religion allows people to ask the big questions in an academic and intellectually respectable way... rather than [being] simply pragmatic or career-oriented," says Cort.

He says that one of the strengths of the small, honors-only concentration is that it draws a wide variety of people.

However, unlike most other major universities, Harvard does not have a department of religion. The concentration shares all of its professors with other fields. Dr. Herbert F. Vettar, chaplain at the Unitarian Universalist church for the past 25 years, calls this a serious lack.

"To me, it is disturbing that there isn't a department of religion," he says. "There is finally the possibility of undergraduate participation in religion, but there is not budget."