Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1987

Abstract

I want to direct attention to only one of the many important issues raised by Professor Cramton's article, namely the peculiar division between academic and religious thought in our culture. In the academic world we tend to speak as though all participants in our conversations were purely rational actors engaged in rational debate; perhaps some people out there in the world are sufficiently benighted that they turn to religious beliefs or other superstitions, but that is not true of us or, if it is true, we hide it, and it ought not be true of them. Ours is a secular academy and, we think, a secular state. Connected to this view is our sense of a total opposition between the religious and the rational-by definition, one excludes the other.

Comments

AALS is the copyright holder of the edition of the Journal in which the article first appeared. The contents of these publications may not be reproduced or distributed, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of the AALS. This article was written in response to Roger C. Cramton, "Beyond the Ordinary Religion ," Journal of Legal Education 37, no. 4 (1987): 509-518, and was originally published as White, James Boyd. "Response to Roger Cramton's Article." Journal of Legal Education 37 (1987): 533-534.

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