[Buddha-l] Dangerous religious literature?

[Joy Vriens]

Richard,
>>From what I have been able to gather, Imitatio Christi is not among the  
>approved books, nor are any of the desert fathers. Years ago I taught a class  
>in which the Philokalia was required reading, and many of the Christian  
>students found it quite off-putting. A couple even suggested I had smuggled a  
>Buddhist text into the course; they were quite sure no Christian could ever  
>have written texts like those in Philokalia. The same students were equally  
>put off by Augustine and Aquinas. Pretty much anything before Billy Graham or  
>Timothy LaHaye seemed dangerously anti-Christian to them. The state of  
>Christianity in contemporary America is not a pretty sight. 

How students have changed. They used to be distrustful of anything taught by "the establishment". It's hard to imagine how anyone studying anything wouldn't like to look at the sources and the sources' sources and contradictory sources for more insight. If the program itself is already limited and doesn't include those authors and if the students themselves lack the simple curiosity to read up on them, then what in heaven is coming out of those universities? 

Joy