LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
RELIGIOUS TEACHING AT OXFORD.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] 8134—Your Oxford correspondents have not, as it seems to me, fully stated their own arguments. The province of the Univer- sity, they say, is only to consider the sufficiency of a candidate's intellectual knowledge. Even this assertion requires limitation, for the appointment of an examiner notorious for his immoral
life would be almost universally disapproved. Nor, on the other hand, would a candidate, however brilliant his intellect, obtain high honours in moral philosophy and other schools, if be were to argue against the views held to be orthodox by the examiners. This, however, is not the point to which I ask your readers' attention.
We have now among our Graduates and Professors some Jews, whose intellectual position no one calls in question. They have a right, then, it would seem, to be examiners in the New Testa- ment, being intellectually competent. But the appointment of a Jew to such a post would be a reductio ad absurdum, which would at once bring about the abolition of all religions examinations, —the end which one, at least, of your correspondents evidently desires. The abolition of all instruction in religion must follow, for no one now lectures on any subject which has not a quotable price in the Schools. If divinity lectures are to cease, why not sermons ? If sermons, why not chapel services ? In short, to be consistent, the University must have nothing to do with religion in any form. This is the conclusion at which one party aims, as some of its members candidly avow. The recent con- test has been a great help to them. To be able to put forward an estimable, cultivated, religions Nonconformist as the object of their sympathy, was a piece of good-luck hardly to be hoped for. In general, Nonconformists may be relied upon to help non-Christians; but it is very seldom that they have so irre- proachable a leader. Churchmen should have seen this, and have declined the challenge so cleverly thrown down to them. Their want of liberality and of political insight has in this, as in many other instances, led them to a serious mistake, and has given the University Secularists an unhoped-for gain.
Let me not be mistaken. I have no fear for religion in Oxford. Its parish churches, of more than one school, have a more numerous attendance of thidergraduates than was ever &nom,. before. Sunday evening sermons for Undergraduates last year were listened to by audiences which filled the spacious church ; meetings in behalf of Missions, or the cause of Tem- perance, purity, and the like, seldom fail to attract. I have no fear for religion, yet I do not wish to see the University secu- larised. These old chapels, some of them of rare architectural beauty, their religious associations blended with art, music, and all the poetry of rich historic interest, are a main feature of that inexpressible charm which Oxford has for her best sons When they are left to the excursionist, who has duly subsidised. the porter at the gate, Oxford will be, to many of us, another place.
But there is another point not to be overlooked. If the Uni- versity is only a place for testing intellectual knowledge, what possible excuse can there be for requiring the costly and bur- densome condition of three or four years' residence as a pre- liminary to a Degree ? The London B.A. Degree is probably a better test of intellectual knowledge than the same degree at Oxford. Why should the latter be denied to thousands who could pass the intellectual test with the preparation they can more economically, and perhaps more safely, obtain at home ? The interests of the married tutors and lecturers in Park Town ought, no doubt, to be tenderly dealt with ; but the University is rich enough to provide for them. I, for one, if it is settled that the University has no other province but the testing of intellectual knowledge, am ready to agitate for the admission, without residence or residential expenses, of tbo body of the people to its membership and its Degrees.—I am, Sir, &c., OXON1ENSIS.
P.S.—I may just observe that the question of the fitness of the Thirty-nine Articles to form part of the religious subject of examination did not fall within the scope of this letter.
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