UK University Blog

Following the Auguste Comte (1798-1857), the creator of the field of sociology, real science prevents religious deliberation and empirical exploration is the only trustworthy path to truth. At the end of 1870s, William Graham Sumner, a professor of Yale University in political science, accepted Herbert Spencer’s textbook that was called The Study of Sociology, regardless of the book’s description of Christianity as a superstition which true scientists should be rid of. He wrote that Mr. Spencer’s religious attitudes seemed to him of very small importance. When he was searching for a textbook on sociology, the subject whether it was a high-quality or accessible book from a scientific point of view, absolutely occupied his attention. Following the Professor Sumner, religion was the best inappropriate for the subject matter of sociology. 

Religiously associated universities like my own Hardin-Simmons University have the contrary position. They describe knowledge and motivation with respect to God. Faith forms their vision of ethics, law and justice. In business colleges, faith can point future business people a mission, an idea of discovering better ways to give food to the poor and dress the naked and give water to the thirsty. 

It’s a precious calling. Nowadays the poorest Americans have better houses and better food and possess more private property than the average American all over the twentieth century. Full expenditures in the lowest-profit one-fifth of household are bigger than the expenditure of the average household at the beginning of 1970s, even after adapting for inflation. The inventive energies of businesspeople are responsible to some extent. 

 It’s the duty of the religious university to infuse in its students a feeling of calling. It is the duty of the university’s business school to provide students with technical knowledge to accomplish that calling.