|
RELIGION
AND THE UNIVERSITY
Jefferson
Letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, 1822
This
letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper is a summary of the previously
discussed minutes from the University of Virginia Board
of Visitors meeting. For a more comprehensive overview
of that piece, see the preceding introduction. Of particular
interest in this letter is Jefferson's characterization
of the different religious sects. Some, he thought,
would establish their several institutes of religion
with pure intentions. Others, he confessed, would do
so out of jealousy and competition. Regardless of the
motive, Jefferson hoped that the gathering of so many
different religious sects in an atmosphere of learning
and enlightenment would soften their tempers and lessen
their prejudices, thereby producing, overall, a more
peaceful and moral general religion.
RJ&L
Religious Institutions Group
Monticello,
November 2, 1822
DEAR
SIR,--
*
* * *
In
our university you know there is no Professorship of Divinity.
A handle has been made of this, to disseminate an idea that
this is an institution, not merely of no religion, but against
all religion. Occasion was taken at the last meeting of
the Visitors, to bring forward an idea that might silence
this calumny, which weighed on the minds of some honest
friends to the institution. In our annual report to the
legislature, after stating the constitutional reasons against
a public establishment of any religious instruction, we
suggest the expediency of encouraging the different religious
sects to establish, each for itself, a professorship of
their own tenets, on the confines of the university, so
near as that their students may attend the lectures there,
and have the free use of our library, and every other accommodation
we can give them; preserving, however, their independence
of us and of each other. This fills the chasm objected to
ours, as a defect in an institution professing to give instruction
in all useful sciences. I think the invitation will
be accepted, by some sects from candid intentions, and by
others from jealousy and rivalship. And by bringing the
sects together, and mixing them with the mass of other students,
we shall soften their asperities, liberalize and neutralize
their prejudices, and make the general religion a religion
of peace, reason, and morality.
*
* * *
Source:
Thomas Jefferson: writings 1463-65 (Merrill D. Peterson
ed., 1984).
|
