The student who burst into his office seemed so distraught that Professor James A. Martin Jr. of Amherst College's department of religion has never forgotten him. "Sir," said the student that day two years ago, "I am at the end of my rope. I have now lost my faith in science, and I gave up religion long ago! What am I to do?" The student, in a sense, was asking the question on behalf of a whole generation that has found an urgent desire to believe. Today on campuses across the
U.S., the young American is searching for answers in an area that his prewar counterpart was all too ready to scorn.
In its current quarterly report, the Carnegie Corp. of New York gave a preview of a survey made by four Cornell sociologists of 7,000 students at twelve colleges and universities. Of those questioned, eight out of ten said that they feel a need for a religious faith. Only 1% described themselves as atheists. Though the tendency, said the report, is not toward any particular creed, today's students seem fairly well agreed that there must be some religious system "based on God as the Supreme Being." Other signs of a new interest in religion on U.S. campuses:
¶In 1933, Yale offered only three undergraduate courses in religion, one of which (Biblical literature) had only four students. Today the university offers twelve courses, and Biblical literature alone has 400 students. Meanwhile, the Yale Co-op lias had such a demand for religious books that it has set up a separate section for religion.
¶ In 1936, says Episcopal Minister Frederic Kellogg of Cambridge, Mass., only about 35 Harvard students showed up for Sunday Episcopal services. Now 500 come on Sundays and 200 come on Wednesdays. Church attendance in the Yard is also up—from 400 two years ago to an average Sunday turn-out of up to 1,000. ¶In 1928, the University of Chicago employed one chaplain. It now has eleven full-time chaplains and 13 part-time workers. When Theologian Paul Tillich arrived to deliver a series of lectures, so many students wanted to attend that Tillich had to move to a hall twice as big as the one
originally assigned.
¶In 1939, Princeton's first course in
religion had 20 students. Now 700 Princetonians are enrolled in various religion
classes, and the university has started a
new program leading to a doctorate of
philosophy in religion.
¶At the University of California, facultymen have started meeting once a week
for special seminars on religious topics.
Full Turn. Though the new enthusiasm is not yet universal, almost every campus has felt it. "I've been in the dean's office for more than 20 years," says Nicholas McKnight, dean of students at Columbia College, "and never have I seen such a wide interest in religion among the students."
To some observers, the return to religion is actually a revolt against revolt. As previous generations felt it necessary to throw off old orthodoxies, so this generation is ready to discard yesterday's iconoclasm, which had become a sort of orthodoxy of its own.