What Should Religion Departments Teach?

“This is the paradox of the study of religion. It studies the faith of other people but, infidelity to the university, cannot participate in faith. Departments of religion are the only departments forbidden to be committed to their own subject, compelled to act as though it did not exist. We can do anything we want to do with the study of religion except for one thing: we cannot, professionally, take it seriously, believe that it is true, or act on that belief.”