Harvard’s HDS

I could not myself but be tempted by the webinar topic religion and slavery… Yet noting the seven scholars obscuring the relations by their each clarifying them, I thought to Q for an A how such and they relate to those “non-scholars (eg ‘believers’) who want answers, not complexities and unanswerable questions”.

Just at about 1 hour 23 minutes – just as I was ready to give up waiting for an answer and leave the webinar – the hostess said she wanted to answer one question “From Steve Lapayroose”.

As it happened, some four of the scholars gave their answers essentially of their relation of scholarship and society, “non-scholars” wanting answers.

They each turn(ed) to “faith”, personally. “Faith” was what sustained and gave meaning to their lives, their scholarly work and teaching, and yet it clearly was, in the main, distinct.

So that at core their “faith” and their scholarship were different realities in their lives, scholarship, and teaching.

This helped answer deeper questions I had had after periodically visiting and attending events at HDS in my first two years after necessarily escaping self-exile in Russia.

Their “faith” sustained these scholars in their lives, scholarship and teaching – but their faith, their beliefs, were distinct.