In the second period of his thinking he changes his early
ceremonial god for breadth of mind. He revels in his impartial view
of men and the universe. By turns he calls himself a pantheist,
a pragmatist, or an agnostic. His religious position is at times
summed up in the description of a young college curate by a bishop
who said the young man arose in his pulpit with a self-confidence
begotten of fancied wisdom, saying to his expectant hearers:
“Dearly beloved, you must repent--as it were; and be converted--in
a measure; or be damned--to a certain extent!”
The third stage of the undergraduate’s philosophy is usually in
line with constructive action. He begins to be interested in doing
something, and practice for him, as for men generally, helps to
solve the riddle of the universe. The best test of college theology
or college philosophy is its serviceableness, its power to attach
the student to something which needs to be done, and which he
can do. Many an undergraduate whose college course has seemed an
intellectually unsettling period has found himself upon solid
ground as soon as he has begun seriously to engage in the world’s
work.
Indeed a strikingly aggressive social propaganda is now in
operation in the North American colleges. The college student,
like the modern American, is a practical being and is interested
in securing practical results. His first question regarding any
movement usually is, “What is it doing that is really worth while?”
Recently a graduate of an Eastern university was secured to give
his entire time to the study and promotion of social service in the
colleges of the United States and Canada.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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