For the health of human thought, religious experience needs consideration by our universities. The words 'religious experience' seem better to use here than the word 'religion,' because that word 'religion' is apt to be divorced from experience and given a derivative meaning. Religion is not itself a philosophy of religion, a formulation of religion, an organization of religion. Dogma, while immensely important, is actually a generalization of religious experience. Ecclesiastical organization is significant only because it is an attempt to preserve opportunities for religious experience.
Religion is a way of living in terms of contact with Reality, personally conceived.
If we do not give to men a knowledge of the technique involved in religious experience, we deprive them of part of their birthright. There are many people to whom such statements as these will have no meaning whatever. There is no use discussing with such persons the place of religion in an educational programme. But there are many, increasingly more, who will realize the truth of what has been said. Perhaps we may hope for a day when such persons may determine the policies of our American institutions of higher learning.