Villanova University, for those who are unaware, is an Augustinian Catholic university. I would identify myself as an Episcopalian, but not a practicing one. More accurately, I am what they call a "Chreaster" (a Christian that only attends church on Christmas and Easter.) I have faced some challenges as a non-Catholic while attending this religious institution.
A lot of students at Villanova organize their schedules around attending mass. As none of my friends from my hometown made an effort to attend church, this idea is foreign to me. The emphasis on attending a service at least once a week separates me from my peers, for I have not yet attended a mass. Although I am not against going to church, I couldn't imagine myself going every Sunday.
Relating to this, I was in shock on Ash Wednesday. I was not even aware of the holiday and was startled when I saw students walking around with ashes on their foreheads. Despite there being a number of kids without these ashes, I felt almost judged for not going to this mass and joining my classmates in this religious ceremony.
One of my required classes called Moderns is taught by an Augustinian priest. I feel awkward voicing my opinions on religious matters because we certainly have different views. My related Ancients class was taught by an English professor, and we focused more highly on interpreting regular books.
However, in this class, every book is relating to God and all of our discussions seem to point back to God. Don't get me wrong, I think some of these conversations can be interesting, but as most of my classmates are practicing Catholics they seem to be able to contribute better to these discussions than I can.
Coming into Villanova, I was aware that I had to take a theology course, and I was not looking forward to it. I attended public school so we never talked highly about religion, and I was scared that it would just be forcing us all to believe in something. My experience in my theology class, however, has been eye-opening.
The class is taught by a historian of religion, not a theologian. We talk about God in an objective way, and question the Bible and religious teachings and aren't just blindly accepting God's words. This class makes me feel better about coming to a religious institution, for I think it is important to be critical of one's beliefs.
Overall, despite sometimes feeling like I am isolated from my religious classmates, I have found that going to a religious institution has broadened my understanding of what it means to believe in religion. It has taught me to question religion and be tolerant of those who have different beliefs than me.
