SOME SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT THE HUMANITIES: with Peter Harrison, “Defining and Defending the Humanities”; Michael Ruse, “Willem Drees on the Humanities”; Douglas F. Ottati, “Theology among the Human Humanities”; Lisa L. Stenmark, “ Who are the Humanities For? Decolonizing the Humanities”; Donald L. Drakeman, “Some Second Thoughts about the Humanities”; and Willem B. Drees, “The Coherence and Character of the Humanities: A Reply to Critics.”

Willem Drees’ excellent What Are the Humanities For ? triggered a series of second thoughts about the role of the humanities in modern society. These include several topics on which he and I agree but where we may be out of step with current trends, such as a dedication to “value‐free” scholarship and the continuing importance of the academic study of religion. It also provided an opportunity to question why religion has been excluded from policy debates involving the principal interface between science and religion in the twenty‐first century: the creation of new medicines and their delivery to the billions of religious people around the world. Finally, I question the assumption that studying the humanities necessarily promotes critical thinking and argue that achieving that goal is more important now than ever before.