Academics, and the matter of Belief

Menachem Mendel posted an interesting excerpt from Wellhausen, the father of Biblical criticism

"I became a theologian because the scientific treatment of the Bible interested me; only gradually did I come to understand that a professor of theology also has the practical task of preparing the students for service in the Protestant Church, and that I am not adequate to this practical task, but that instead despite all caution on my own part I make my hearers unfit for their office. Since then my theological professorship has been weighing heavily on my conscience."

I think that this teaches us a great deal. It is rare that a Rav or mechanech or other keli kodesh, whatever his personal beliefs may be, serves a negative role in terms of hashkafa (all the stories of maskilim infiltrating chadorim in Europe notwidstanding). If he loses his faith, he resigns, or becomes an unorthodox rabbinic functionary ( I can, of course,  think of some exceptions, but they are rare). On the other hand, "academic" scholars, many of whom have come from similar backgrounds and received the same education,  write and publish some very bad and injurious material. Why is this so?

I think that the loss of practical orientation and dissapearance of personal responsibility for shaping rabbinic  students, actual living breathing human beings with souls, is one of the major reasons that academic Talmud scholarship was able to range so far from the traditional sphere. I's far easier to publish papers than to tear down the faith of a real person -  face to face. Even a scholar who lost his faith wishes that he had retained it and does not want to play a negative role in someone else's spiritual life. Academics, on the other hand, do not sense the same responsibility and therefore often write and publish irresponsibly.

 

Comments

[Jonathan]

Also, university departments of religion manifest today the convergence of numerous streams of frankly anti-religious sentiment: post-modernist, feminist, secular humanist, etc. The system rewards such approaches and scorns taking religion seriously on its terms.

Wellhausen's stated aim in developing the school of Biblical Criticism was the discrediting of the Old Testament and hence Judaism. That he was also part of the assault on traditional Christianity was I suppose for him just an unintended but inevitable consequence.