Divinings: Religion at Harvard

Book excerpt: Harvard has often been referred to as "godless Harvard." This is far from the truth. Fact is that Harvard is and always has been concerned about religion. This volume addresses the reasons for this. The story of religion at Harvard in many ways is the story of religion in the United States. This edition will clarify this relationship. Furthermore, the question of religion is central not only to the religious history of Harvard but to its very corporate structure and institutional evolution. The volume is divided into three parts and deals withthe Formation of Harvard College in 1636 and Evolution of a Republic of Letters in Cambridge ("First Light", Chapters 1–5); Religion in the University, the Foundations of a Learned Ministry and the Development of the Divinity School (The "Augustan Age", Chapters 6–9); and the Contours of Religion and Commitment in an Age of Upheaval and Globalization ("Calm Rising Through Change and Through Storm", Chapters 10–12).The story of the central role played by religion in the development of Harvard is a neglected factor in Harvard's history only touched upon in a most cursory fashion by previous publications. For the first time George H. Williamstells that story as embedded in American culture and subject to intense and continuing academic study throughout the history of the University to this day.Replete with extensive footnotes, this edition will be a treasure to future historians, persons interested in religious history and in the development of theology, at first clearly Reformed and Protestant, later ecumenical and interfaith.