Religion’s significant role on campus and across the state cannot be underestimated in order to gain a better appreciation for Wisconsin’s culture and climate, according to religious studies professors Corrie Norman, Susan Ridgely and Jordan Rosenblum.
In their Tuesday lecture “Lived Religion in Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Idea,” Norman, Ridgely and Rosenbaum emphasized the ways religion and the search for meaning manifest themselves both directly and indirectly in all aspects of life, influencing the values and decisions of entire populations.
“It’s here, it matters to people, it happens in multiple ways and sometimes the best ways to see it is not to look for it in the grand ideas of the John Bascoms, but to look for it at the kitchen tables, in the gas station diners, in the cornfields, in the coffee shops of Madison,” Norman said. “You may not hear it in the language of sacrality, but you will hear it in the longings of the people who are trying to make meaning and just want someone in the academy to listen to them.”
For Norman and her colleagues, these religious voices carry important messages. They are a connection point between the university and communities across the state, and a lens through which the needs and values of these populations can be better interpreted and represented.
“We want a dialogue with all these people because we think that some of these tools for thinking about religion might be helpful. We want to know who’s here, and who’s here across the state,” Norman said. “We want people across the state and across the campus to know that the things that matter to them are things that we think are respectfully worthy of study and consideration.”
The tools that Norman and her colleagues talked about are also critical to the Wisconsin Idea—the UW System’s grounding principle for outreach to the state.
“This is not just sitting with people, but really being with people, in their spaces, to be with people on their terms,” Ridgely said. “Those are some of the skills that religious studies can teach students and can pass on through our scholarships, to the rest of the state and to the rest of the nation and beyond.”
