DEAN FENN EXPLAINS PURPOSE OF DIVINITY SCHOOL

This is the eighth of a series of articles which is being published in the Crimson, written about the work of the various graduate schools by their respective Deans or leading professors.

Dean of the Harvard Divinity School,

The Harvard Divinity School represents today the original purpose of Harvard College. "Dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust," our Puritan ancestors founded here a College. In sympathy with their purpose John Harvard drew his memorable will. Natural science was little known and less regarded; business was so simple as to require no special training; medicine was hardly on its way to becoming a science; law was meanly esteemed, as Lechford found, for the colony meant to the governed by the laws of God as given in the Bible and interpreted by the ministers. The ministry was the only profession for which academic preparation was provided. Harvard College, then, began as a School of Theology. Its aim was to educate learned ministers for the churches. Its course of study was such that a graduate was ready to enter at once upon the work of a minister.

With the increase of knowledge and the expansion of interests, the curriculum of the College broadened. Theology, too, gradually enlarged its scope. Accordingly, less time was allowed for theological studies while more was required. Candidates for the ministry fell into the habit of remaining at college after graduation in order to pursue theological study under the guidance of the Professor of Divinity. Finally, a theological school became a department of the University carrying on the original purpose of the College, to provide the churches with learned ministers.

Purpose of School Has Changed

That purpose has been differently apprehended at different times in the history of theological education. At first it meant a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek languages, and consequent ability to interpret the Bible correctly. That idea has almost disappeared. Few recent graduates of the Harvard Divinity School have studied Hebrew, and a knowledge of Greek is not required for its degree. There are, however, subjects which a learned minister is expected to know--the Bible, church history, theology,--and which form a large part of the curriculum of all Divinity schools, but of late there have been significant additions which indicate another view as to a "learned minister" and a somewhat different approach to the traditional subjects.

Of all human interests, the religious is one of the oldest and most influential. Historically it has been fruitful of both good and evil. It has inspired some of the worst crimes as well as some of the noblest enterprises of mankind. When aroused to activity it has been sometimes an uplifting and sometimes a degrading influence. Its power for good or evil is so great that it imperatively needs wise guidance. A learned minister today is one who is sufficiently familiar with the history of the religious interest to direct its activity into ways of present helpfulness. To this end, a knowledge of the history of religious is indispensable. In the study of Christianity, the particular form of religion which most nearly concerns us, the history of the religion of Israel, of the beginnings of Christianity, of the Christian church, is a study of religious interest in successive modes of expression. Theology aims to correlate this interest, intellectually apprehended, with the present methods and results of other sciences, and practical Theology to direct its activities in ways suited to present social needs and conditions. This is the view of a learned minister which now prevails at the Harvard Divinity School, and this is the principle animating the courses which it offers.

School Not Denominational

Harvard College was founded by Puritans, the Harvard Divinity School as a department of the University was endowed by Unitarians, but the Divinity School today is no more a Unitarian than the College is a Puritan institution. The constitution of the School explicitly provides that "no assent to the peculiarities of any denomination of Christians shall be required either of the instructors or students." The Faculty comprises teachers from many communions; the students come from different denominations in which, after graduation, they render acceptable service as ministers. No teacher in the School ever thinks of harmonizing his instruction with that of his colleagues. When inquiry is made, as it not infrequently is, what the Harvard Divinity School teaches on this or that particular topic, the Dean can only reply that the inquirer must consult the individual members of the Faculty for there is no uniformity of doctrine in the School. A student hears conflicting views and must make up his own mind. While this principle of undenominational theological training has the great advantage of encouraging in the student independence of thought, it has certain disadvantages. In present conditions, nearly every minister enters the service of a church connected with a particular denomination, and it is highly desirable that he should be familiar with the tradition and customs of that denomination, and as a student, become intimate with those who are to be his professional colleagues. Accordingly students have often been advised to take at least one year of their divinity school work in a denominational school as a fitting and useful complement to study in the Harvard Divinity School. The affiliation of several such schools in the neighborhood,--Baptist, Methodist, Trinitarian, Congregational, Episcopal,--with Harvard University affords here exceptional opportunities for a combination of the advantages of a denominational with those of an undenominational school.

For admittance to the School, the degree of A.B., or an education equivalent to that represented by the degree, is required, and the alternative is so strictly interpreted that it is almost never accepted. The School confers the degrees of S.T.B., S.T.M., Th.D. The S.T.B. degree is awarded not upon the satisfactory completion of a specified number of courses, but upon the passing, after three years spent in theological study, of an examination, partly oral and partly written, covering the entire field of theological study. The present tendency of the School is toward offering fewer courses and providing more direct personal guidance by members of the Faculty to students who are encouraged to work by themselves.

Many Scholarships Offered

The expenses of the Harvard Divinity School are greater than at most other schools of theology. It has, however, scholarship funds which enable it to give substantial aid to exceptionally promising students. No scholarships are granted except to students of high academic record.

There is a traditional notion that to be a minister one must have a "call," an unmistakable supernatural intimation that this is the particular work appointed for him by God. Certainly no man should think of entering the ministry unless religion means much in his own life, but beyond this his own tastes and aptitudes constitute the call to the ministry. He must be sincerely interested in other men, willing to help the, and be helped by them (for the relation is reciprocal) through the religious interest. The work of the minister is exceptionally diversified, and while no one man can do it all equally well, it would be strange if, in some part of it, any man could not find room for the exercise of his peculiar gifts.