These are challenging times for the Humanities. Before explaining what I mean, let me share something of my own story.

I teach Biblical Studies in the Theology programme at the University of Otago. My particular field is Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament.

Strictly speaking, Theology is not a Humanities subject at all, because it is ultimately concerned with matters divine rather than human, but since the Jewish and Christian scriptures reflect deeply on what it truly means to be human, they surely have a place among the Humanities in secular universities.

I remember being drawn to the magic of the ancient world as a child, through the BBC documentary In Search of the Trojan War, first screened in 1985.

Bible studies with Jehovah’s Witnesses convinced me that there was merit in learning to read the Bible in

its original languages, if only to prove them wrong, and studying in a school with a large Jewish population opened my eyes to the joys and mysteries of Hebrew.

Studying the Reformation in my final two years at school then helped me to see that studying Theology

at university might well be both fascinating and worthwhile.

Biblical Studies is a rigorous and exacting discipline. It requires precise attention to difficult and ambiguous texts written in three ancient languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek). It is also enormously enriching. Whether one is open to accepting their religious claims or not, the biblical texts challenge us to recognise the many ways in which human beings, just like us, once thought and reasoned differently from the way we do.

I began studying the biblical texts out of curiosity and historical interest. I continue to study and teach them because I believe the Jewish and Christian traditions have a morally, spiritually, and intellectually valuable contribution to make to our common good.

Why, then, do I say that these are challenging times for the Humanities?

I am not referring to the numbers of students enrolling in Humanities courses at universities, or to their ongoing financial viability, or to the threat posed by AI to traditional methods of teaching and learning in the Humanities.

Or to the “usefulness” (or otherwise) of Humanities degrees, or even to the ability of Humanities graduates to secure meaningful employment. I am referring mainly to how Humanities subjects are perceived by the wider public.

In a thoughtful opinion piece (Opinion ODT 26.8.26), Gareth Jones has reflected on the lessons to be learnt from the tragic case of Jason Arday, who died last month shortly after resigning from a professorship in Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge.

His resignation followed a media storm prompted by accusations that he had plagiarised significant portions of his doctoral thesis at Liverpool John Moores University.

I have no wish to comment further on this sad case, but as Prof Jones points out, the very public media storm that preceded and followed Arday’s death highlights the fine line that exists between universities and the general public.

Although some academics still exist in a sort of “ivory tower,” most interact in various ways with the societies in which they live. There are, however, variations between different disciplines and how they are perceived by the wider public.

The health sciences are mostly viewed in positively, whereas many of the Humanities are perceived to be “of questionable merit.”

Prof Jones concludes: “The challenge facing university authorities is to demonstrate that this simplistic contrast is false. It is also to ensure that falsehoods and misrepresentations are not rewarded.”

The Humanities are often perceived as a “soft” option, of dubious relevance or merit. This is in contrast with the physical sciences, which have an obvious value in terms of deepening our understanding of the world in which we live, and whose study requires unflinching rigour and the careful sifting of hard evidence.

Yet the Humanities and the Sciences alike are both ultimately concerned with the sincere, rigorous, and disciplined search for truth.

I am not sure that the Humanities can be defended on the grounds that they are “useful,” at least in not strictly pragmatic or utilitarian terms.

With some exceptions — Law, for example — most Humanities subjects are not vocational and do not lead to an obvious career path.

We can talk earnestly about critical thinking and transferable skills, and we should, but we still need some idea of why it might be valuable immerse oneself for three or four years in the study of some specific branch of human culture, often acquiring a significant burden of debt, with no guarantee of future employment.

Instead, we could ask what is necessary for a democratic society to flourish. I suggest that for a democratic society to flourish, for it to be morally and, indeed, spiritually healthy, there needs to be a critical mass of people capable of drawing deeply from the wells of our shared cultural and intellectual traditions in order to make prudent and morally sound decisions for the sake of the common good.

This is where the Humanities have an invaluable contribution to make.

I would like to offer a modest proposal. I suggest that a truly valuable Humanities degree, in this place, would be grounded in the study of languages — I would argue, te reo Māori and some combination of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, though there are many other possibilities — with serious attention to the richness of the mythological, literary, philosophical, and religious traditions that have been handed down to us in those languages.

Students would learn the discipline without which serious language learning is impossible. They would learn the value of intellectual integrity and the importance of treating one another with the dignity that is their due.

They would learn to think critically about complex moral issues, while reckoning with the challenge of learning how other people have perceived the world differently.

They would, in this way, be equipped to apply the insights of ancient wisdom to the many challenges of living in the modern world.

James E. Harding is associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, University of Otago.