Dyspeptics, mystics and skeptics: The evolution of a scholarly approach to religion at nineteenth century Harvard (Massachusetts)

Should a university advocate a particular religious position? The answer to this question changed during the nineteenth century at Harvard. Since the school was founded in the seventeenth century to promulgate a specific theological agenda, it is not surprising that by the beginning of the nineteenth century it espoused an altered, but still very religious, perspective. In the early 1800s Harvard students were taught doctrinal theology in mandatory classes by their Unitarian professor. President Quincy (1829--1845) recognized the political danger of offending religious conservatives through such teaching, and as a result, he put a halt to theological teaching. Later, President Walker (1853--1860), responding to requests for more religious teaching in the College, tried to establish a middle ground by creating a new "non-theological" chair. During this era, Harvard no longer attempted to inculcate belief in a full system of doctrinal theology. In response to new developments, it reduced its agenda to a central tenet, the defense of the Bible as historically reliable revelation. President Eliot (1869--1909) saw it as inappropriate for a university to advocate any such religious perspective. In his estimation, contemporary academic standards required freedom from any institutional religious position that attempted to control or shape scholarly method. He sought to encourage a "scientific approach" to religion not bound by any pre-existing religious beliefs. Eliot's efforts, combined with the inclinations of a like-minded faculty and the methodology of the "new" Biblical criticism, were largely responsible for a late century restructuring of scholarship in religion at Harvard. Regardless of whatever personal views they held, Harvard scholars could no longer attempt to teach "correct" theology. Their new approach considered the historical and human dimensions of religion as appropriate fodder for academic inquiry. During the course of one century, Harvard had moved from the pursuit of religious indoctrination, to the practice of scholarship deliberately separated from the realm of particular beliefs.