Re-examination of conscience: How faith evolves during the college years
St. Joan of Arc Chapel on campus
In a world of concrete materials — from structures, to mathematical equations, to historical dates — a constant abstract is the realm of the spiritual and Godly. Confrontation of the unknown can be an uncomfortable yet daily question for many college students, especially those attending a Catholic institution. Higher education demands a delicate balancing act from students, which can create difficult situations and foster questioning in their lives.
“It is almost a daily struggle,” said Claire Anglim, a Catholic senior in the College of Communication. “Having conversations with people whose views radically differ from mine; it can be tempting to go back and forth.”
Anglim’s experiences were echoed nationwide in a study of college students at a wide range of universities, conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute. The research found from freshman year to junior year, college students’ overall level of spirituality increased. However, these same students also less regularly attended religious services.
This type of change is normal, said Steve Blaha, assistant director of Campus Ministry.
“We’ve grown up with our parents’ faith, which is a transitory faith,” he said. “Folks fall out, stop going to church, its all part of the growing process. We need to ask, ‘Who is He?’ ‘How do I relate?’ With this questioning and testing, there is a natural healthy backlash against practices of faith in homes growing up.”
Some students say this “transitory faith” is exactly what they bring to campus. Jordan Allen, an atheist and senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, grew up in an evangelical tradition. He said he always had second thoughts about his religious experiences, but he didn’t fully disconnect from the religious sphere until freshman year.
“By the end of high school, I knew I wasn’t feeling it,” Allen said. “But I didn’t want to create conflict, so coming to school was a good, clean break.”
Entering this time of transition has varying effects on the spirituality and faith life of incoming students. “I had no real expectations about my faith life coming into Marquette,” said Jacob Jasperson, a senior in the College of Business Administration. Jasperson was raised in the Lutheran church and is a candidate for confirmation into the Catholic church today. He said his faith was strengthened from being surrounded by other devout Catholics and inter-religious dialogue, which, according to Blaha, is a staple of Campus Ministry.
“Having students from Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and a variety of other backgrounds is a great blessing. Period,” said Blaha. “It creates a wonderful place to talk about interfaith and how the faiths of the world have similar but different visions.”
This dialogue supplements a rigorous and thorough course load requiring careful thought and analysis of the world around us, said Bobby Lima, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.
“Studying has opened up more who I am. I am constantly forced to research policy, and I always find which side I agree with,” he said. “I think (students) are ready to experience new people, ideas and opinions on faith when they come to college.”
Allen agreed, and he believes that we should strive for more questioning in our daily life; not only internally, but externally as well.
“I would hope that at some point, with education in general, and especially at Marquette, people would be forced to encounter, in some respect, things that they had never thought of before,” Allen said.
It is a question of critical thinking, and sometimes the world encourages tolerance to a fault, Allen said. He believes that we ought to question what others believe in, in order to help them understand why they believe things and to understand their logic for ourselves.
According to the UCLA study, college students are open to different perspectives on spirituality. The study found that seven in 10 college juniors agreed that people can grow spiritually without being religious, a growth of 12 percent from when the same students took the survey freshman year.
“If people don’t feel included or that the church isn’t reaching out to them, then why should they make an effort?” Anglim said. But, she countered, “It is still really important to be religious. You need to have people in the Catholic church who are passionate about it as well as changing things they think may be wrong. If people don’t stay, nothing will grow better and closer to God.”
Lima, who was raised Catholic, participated in the Christian Leadership Retreat at Marquette prior to his freshman year but infrequently attends Catholic mass. He said that although part of it may be laziness, many people don’t feel the need to be validated by attending religious services. But he maintained that spirituality may become more important in students’ lives because of the issues they face as growing adults.
“It has a lot to do with living on your own,” Lima said. “There have been many things that I have gotten through here that I didn’t feel like I could get through on my own. I think my faith has something to do with that.
Blaha agreed that being away from home for the first time, forming relationships, reaching a higher level of education and beginning to look for careers and vocations are all parts of life that are practical and future-oriented and ignite the question of faith. These experiences not only create a part of faith formation, but also moral and ideological formation as a whole.
Many students change political, social and cultural opinions during college years. The UCLA study found that as students age, they tend to become more liberal.
“If liberal means critical thinking and careful evaluation of the world, then that’s exactly what the Catholic faith is about,” said Blaha. He said a critical intersection between college life and faith is when students are able to look at reality from different perspectives and strive to understand and explain it.
This can be a struggle for students, Anglim said. “They see the value in helping others in their faith, but then the church’s teaching focuses on rules. That is what is so beautiful about the Jesuit identity of Marquette. You can be Catholic and question — it’s the Magis, the moral, going above and still being considered Catholic,” she said.
But Allen said it is important to note that religion and spirituality should never be a means to the end for morality.
“I always say, ‘Would you not have been concerned about (Hurricane) Katrina absent your religious superstition?’ People have emotions and morals naturally, the big problem is when people say they are only mobilized to do good because of their faith,” Allen said.
All of the students agreed that in order to balance their lives, they maintained an open viewpoint to others’ opinions and tried to encourage discussion in the appropriate atmosphere.
“It’s great to question things and to come in contact with different opinions and ideas,” said Jasperson. “But only if it’s done in the proper way and context can it lead to a more informed and thorough understanding of your position.”
Tags: atheism, catholic, catholicism, church, education, evolution, faith, faith life, ideals, jesuit, marquette, morality, religion, struggle, transformation
Loading ...