Antes/Contemporary Views, 17. O Felix Culpa!

This essay will deal with the issues arising in teaching religion in contexts where an instructor efrom a religous studies background is confronted with the "religious illiteracy" of students on the one hand and theologically "informed" colleagues on the other hand. It uses as an example a survey of the history of Christianity in which teacher and students are examining the theological points debated during the council of Nicaea. The author argues that, ideally, anyone teaching a course that has to do with religion should be engaged in the ongoing formulation/elaboration of a theory of religion capable, as a meta-language, of accounting for the views and the very existence of theological doctrine given that these are components of the architecture of some religions.