The Hollis Chair of Divinity is an
endowed chair at
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...
. It was established in 1721 at a salary of £80 per year by
Thomas Hollis, a wealthy English merchant and benefactor of the university. It is the oldest endowed chair in the United States, the first professorship in theology in the country, and in the early 19th century it was considered to be "the most prestigious endowed professorship in America".
History
The terms for the new position were drawn up in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
on 22 August 1721.
Requirements for the professor were not very sectarian, although Hollis made a requirement of character: "That he should be a man of solid learning in divinity, of sound, or orthodox principles, one well gifted to teach, of a sober and pious life, and of a grave conversation." Traditionally, the chair's occupant has the right to graze a cow on the
Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard is the oldest and among the most prominent parts of the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The yard has a historic center and modern crossroads and contains List of Harvard College freshman dormitories, most ...
, but until 2009 none but the first two Hollis professors had done so. In 2009, upon his retirement, theologian
Harvey Cox
Harvey Gallagher Cox Jr. (born May 19, 1929) is an American theologian who served as the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, until his retirement in October 2009. Cox's research and teaching focus on theological developments i ...
restored the tradition and chose Faith, a
Jersey cow belonging to the Farm School in
Athol, Massachusetts.
Although Hollis was a
Baptist
Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
, he had enough faith in the liberal and tolerant atmosphere at Harvard to endow the chair and allow the president and faculty of the university to appoint theologians to the chair, with the condition "that none be refused on account of his belief and practice of adult baptism." Hollis's "sound and orthodox principles" initially meant
Congregationalist or
Calvinist
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
. The chair's first occupant,
Edward Michael Wigglesworth (c. 1693–1765), had to swear allegiance to the ''
Medulla Theologiae'', a Calvinist theological manual by
William Ames.
The chair was first unoccupied, briefly, from 1803 to 1805, when the
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
s at Harvard ceded power to the
Unitarians; in 1805, Unitarian Henry Ware assumed the post.
Proponents of the Unitarian faction pointed out that it would be impossible to find a man orthodox enough for the 1720s in the early nineteenth century; "orthodox" they interpreted as following "the general sentiment of the country."
In the 1830s, Harvard found itself in financial trouble and at the same time was moving away from the teaching of religion.
Josiah Quincy III, then-president of Harvard, refused to nominate a successor for Henry Ware, and the post was left unoccupied a second time.
It also seems that the original endowment had dried up.
In the meantime, to lessen the possible charge of a "narrowly sectarian education" the chair was moved to the Divinity School,
which had been formed in 1816.
Chairholders and denomination
*
Edward Wigglesworth (1722–1765);
Calvinist Congregationalist
*
Edward Wigglesworth (son of the previous occupant; 1765–1792);
Calvinist Congregationalist
*
David Tappan (1792–1803);
Calvinist Congregationalist
*
Henry Ware (1805
–1840); Unitarian Congregationalist
*
David Gordon Lyon (1882–1910
); Baptist
*
James Hardy Ropes (1910–1933); Trinitarian Congregationalist
*
Henry Cadbury (1934–1954); Quaker
*
Amos Niven Wilder (1956–1963); Congregationalist
*
George Huntston Williams (1963–1980);Unitarian
*
Richard Reinhold Niebuhr (1981–1999)
*
Harvey Cox
Harvey Gallagher Cox Jr. (born May 19, 1929) is an American theologian who served as the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, until his retirement in October 2009. Cox's research and teaching focus on theological developments i ...
(1999–2009); Baptist
*
Karen Leigh King (2009– )
Episcopalian
References
External links
History of Harvard Divinity School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Professor of Divinity, Hollis
1721 establishments in the Province of Massachusetts Bay
Financial endowments
Divinity, Hollis
Divinity, Hollis