Shakespeare Lite

Monday, March 8, 2004

I recently listened to a lecture by David L Kirp, author of “Shakespeare, Einstein and the Bottom Line,” on Book TV. (OK, I am a nerd who listens to lectures on CSPAN.) Kirp illustrated how universities dealt with declining enrollments in the early 1990s. For example, USC offered a course popularly referred to as “Shakespeare Lite.” Flyers advertised the class as “no more boring studies on dry Shakespearean literature”. Students were encouraged to bring popcorn, and experience “Shakespeare in the park”. This was a class where a student could get three units for doing little more than showing up. Such courses require no study, no creative thinking, and no expansion of one’s understanding. Many universities lost their focus, attempting to make their colleges “profit centers”. Sane minds eventually prevailed. Such great institutions as Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, and our own USC, reestablished classical education, and narrowly averted the “McDonald’s University” syndrome. Once again, a degree from Dickinson or USC means something to their graduates, because they must EARN it. And the biggest surprise was that enrollments went up as academic rigor increased.

Shakespeare Lite! I wonder if the church has come up with our own version of “Jesus Lite”! No more discipleship, serious Bible study, prayer, dealing with tough theological matters, or social action. No personal sacrifice. Just bring the popcorn and join us for an hour of “Jesus in the park”. Could it be that the easier we make discipleship, the fewer people respond? I like what the Apostle Paul called a “mature faith”, one tempered with personal sacrifice and spiritual struggles. Let us resolve to never offer to God that which costs us nothing.

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