The rotunda of the Divinity Faculty building at the University of Cambridge is pierced through its centre so that on any floor one can look up and see the sky, a feature intended to suggest the free passage of ideas as much as it affords a glimpse of heaven<\/p>\n
For its 800th anniversary this year Cambridge has adopted the slogan \u201cTransforming tomorrow\u201d\u009d, so it is reasonable to ask whether theology and religion have a role in shaping the future as they have shaped the past.<\/p>\n
Students think so: applications to study theology and religion in British universities have been rising steadily throughout the past decade. But plenty of academics think theology has no place in a modern university. Many cannot see the point of it as an academic discipline. According to this view, the discipline of theology as a critical reflection on the faith of Jews or Christians, Muslims or Buddhists, simply does not belong.<\/p>\n