Run like hell and worship God." . . . . Fiftieth Report, Class of 1886

When Harvard was an infant, its religious critics called it "intolerant"; in its youth they termed it "liberal." When it achieved manhood its nickname became "Unitarian." But middle life and recent history have made "pagan," and "Episcopal and Jewish run" more appropriate.

Throughout the history of the College which began Pro Christo et Ecclesia Religion has been a serious question and an unanswered problem.

The questions and the problems of Religion have changed, however. They have changed because Harvard is in many respects a synonym for liberalism, and because liberalism has become ever more liberal. They remain persistent and difficult.

Religion at All?

In early history the question was what kind of religion should be associated with the University. Lately the dominant question has been whether it should be so associated at all. In answering this question and its corrolaries, the Administration and the student body have affirmed that it shall; but more questions involving how it shall be so associated now face the University than perhaps at any other time in its history. These questions are important since they affect the whole idea of Harvard as a university.

This difficult problem has come about at the University for several reasons. Immediately after the war Harvard was in a religious condition that can be termed nothing less than a dilemma. On the graduate level the Divinity School was about to collapse. Phillips Brooks House--for better or for worse--had strayed far from its underlying religious principles. The head of Memorial Church, because of responsibility at the failing Divinity School, could not spend sufficient time at the Church. Most important, the religious complexion of the student body had changed radically.

On the other hand, there was and is a "religious revival" in the nation--brought about, in part, by the appeal of the church in the anxiety of the present world and in part by the increased effort of the churches to appeal to more people in more ways.

Harvard's answer to the questions thus raised has been largely in favor of Religion. Its final assurance of continuation in this direction came last spring when a man who is vitally interested in religious faith succeeded a man who was indifferent to it as President of Harvard.

The University under President Puscy has forged to fit the situation a policy of religious affirmation without compulsion. In order to understand the significance of this step and the questions that remain to be solved it is necessary to understand the general religious tenor of the Harvard of the past as well as of the present.

Beginning in Orthodoxy

Harvard was established with the rigorous religious restrictions of seventeenth century New England, and got its first large gift from a young minister--John Harvard--in 1638. But liberalism clashed with orthodoxy even at its inception. This time liberalism lost out. The college's first president, Henry Dunster, was forced to resign because of his doubts as to the validity of infant baptism. Cotton Mather, a later president wrote of him, "he fell into the briers of Antipacdobaptism."

The early records of the college contain many references to punishment of students and reprimanding of faculty and presidents for indiscreet references to the scriptures. The following was one of the regulations in 1643: Every schollar shall be present in his Tutor's Chamber at the seventh houre in the morning, immediately after the sound of the bell, at his opening the scripture and prayer. So also at the fifth houre at night, and then give account of his own private reading in the scriptures."

But the students of the seventh century and of the 200 years which followed were much like the Harvardmen of today in their dislike of and revolt against petty regulations. As a result the history of religion here during these two centuries is largely a history of revolt.

Finally, in 1886, requirement of attendance at chapel were dropped. Since that time there has been no religious compulsion. Many of the manuscripts and reports of the period immediately prior to and following this action show the general attitude to the services and the reasons that they were retained so long.