Christian colleges

President Johnson bears the burdens of the poor young preacher, 1893-1910

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This illustration accompanies an article describing, and commending, the work and sacrifice of Ashley Sidney Johnson.  I cannot reproduce all of it here, but these details stand out:

A third surprise will be the quality of work that is being done.  We can not too strongly emphasize the fact that Johnson Bible College is not merely a preparatory school. It is easy for those who knew the enterprise and its beginnings to assume that they know it now, but to do so is to miss the facts by far.  The progress made has scarcely a parallel in our educational history.  A word as to courses offered.  The academy or preparatory course provide sixteen units or sixteen hours a week for four years.  Of this work there are four years Latin; two of Greek; three of English; two of science;  two of history, and three of mathematics.  Fifteen units are required for graduation. The college provides a full four years course, two hundred hours being required for graduation.  In the college course, there are five years of English Bible; three of English; two of science and mathematics; three of history; five terms of philosophy; two years of Christian doctrine and evidences; one of Latin, and three of Greek.  The courses are laid out strictly on the basis required by the Carnegie Foundation with the exception of chemistry and physics, for which adequate laboratory and apparatus have not yet been provided.  No college we knew of offers a better course.  The present faculty is is made up of instructors who are competent and well qualified and who do their work with a consecration of purpose and an enthusiasm that is most refreshing.

–“Johnson Bible College,” Christian Standard 46:13 (March 26, 1910), page 538.

"Johnson Bible College," Christian Standard 46:13 (March 26, 1910), page 538

“Johnson Bible College,” Christian Standard 46:13 (March 26, 1910), page 538

This appears to be an editorial, though it is unsigned.

“How to Make a Dollar Go Farthest-And Keep on Going,” Advertisement for TW Phillips, ‘The Church of Christ,’ and the Phillips Bible Institute, 1915

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In one of the most text-heavy ads I recall, Standard Publishing Company melds a sassy illustration to a folksy narrative to push the work at Phillips Bible Institute at First Christian Church, Canton, O.

It is too much to unpack here when a reading of it does better justice than a description.  There are several assumptions under and behind it.

–Notice the confidence placed in the latent power of the printed word.  Both periodical and monograph stand ready, in near martial terms, to carry the banner in the heat of battle.  For whatever overstatement might be here, there is a ring of truth.  The issue of Christian Standard  bearing this advertisement is a folio of 12 x 14 inches, set in small type printed on good paper, 32 pages in length.  Nearly every page carries some kind of typographical flourish: departmental headings, photographic illustrations, cuts and engravings, custom-set ads.  It is an achievement befitting the heyday of print journalism.  And this is the September 4 issue, there’ll be another 32 such pages next week.  By this point in the volume year, our fictional ‘man-with-a-dollar-to-spend’ has received over 1,500 pages…for a subscription price of $1.50, in advance.

–Notice our reader does not appear to be a preacher, educator, or denominational bureaucrat.  He is Average Joe, and our narrator assures us he is well-informed of the goings on among the brotherhood.  One, this indirectly boosts the informative function the publishers desire for the Standard. Two, this indirectly suggests that you, dear reader, can be just as informed. Three, it directly boosts Phillips and his philanthropy.

–It seems clear to me that Phillips’ book is in the eyes of its publisher a representative ecclesiology for the time and place among conservative Disciples, the emerging Christian Churches and Churches of Christ.  Published earlier under the pseudonym of ‘A Distinguished Layman’ we now know its author’s identity and in the edition advertised here we have additional information not included in previous printings.  The book remained in print well into the 1940s, and perhaps longer.  (I should do a precis for TWP.)

So, here it is, the full back-page ad from Christian Standard, vol. 50, no. 49 (September 4, 1915):

Christian Standard, vol. 50, no. 49 (September 4, 1915)

 

Abraham Malherbe asks, ‘Can the library stunt intellectual growth?’, 3 of 3

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[part 1]

[part 2]

—

The college library has a function to perform here that cannot be performed as well anywhere else.  It can help to mediate the past meaningfully if it occupies a place of honor in the life of today’s student.  If it is to have such a place it must be the heartbeat of the campus.  It will have to be the influence that gives a richness to the experience of college that will continue to last.

What does that mean to Abilene Christian College?  It means, if we are to become the cutting edge of Christian witness in our society, that we shall engage our day in vigorous dialogue, bearing Christian witness to the nature of man and God.  It means that we shall be at least as creative in our grappling with knowledge and with the problems of the world as secular education is. If we maintain a proper perspective as we move into the future, we shall do so only if we listen to the voice of the past and allow ourselves to be instructed by it.  For our present interest it means that our teaching and learning will mature only with the aid of an outstanding library.

–Abraham J. Malherbe, “Can the Library Stunt Intellectual Growth?” Horizons 18:1 (Summer 1966), 6.

Well, that will do for now. As promised, here is the full article. In 2011, Malherbe came back to ACU to deliver the major address to the annual meeting of Friends of the Library and his reflections on the beginning of that organization add to our understanding of his 1966 article.

He issues another challenge. One quote:

“We are celebrating the Friends of the Library and I have been talking about books, and I hope there will be somebody else whom you will listen to who will talk about books and the need for books every time the opportunity arises.  The library has come a long way [and you have a long way to go].  You only have about a half million volumes and that counts everything.  If you look at how many volumes you have accessioned since I left here 43 years ago…ain’t much.  If you have the ambitions that you do have and should have for this place, you need to do a lot of work over there. …”

–Abraham J. Malherbe, Address at the 2011 Friends of the ACU Library Annual Meeting

Dr. Malhebre, ever the advocate for the library!

Abraham Malherbe asks, ‘Can the library stunt intellectual growth?’, 2 of 3

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[part 1]

—

As a teacher he will soon realize that he must continue his own development if he is to perform his function well.  The professor who feels a responsibility to his students is forever trying to catch up with the rapidly receding frontiers of knowledge.  If he is in the least conscientious he will keep those frontiers in sight.  If he is most fortunate he will work under circumstances that will allow him to help in pushing them back.  But to be at all adequate as a teacher, he will have to have at hand the resources that will make it possible for him to continue to learn, and that means that he must have a good library available.  If he does not, like his students, he too will become stunted in his growth.

–Abraham J. Malherbe, “Can the Library Stunt Intellectual Growth?” Horizons 18:1 (Summer 1966), 5.

Abraham Malherbe asks, ‘Can the library stunt intellectual growth?’, 1 of 3

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The Summer 1966 issue of Horizons contains a direct challenge to improve the esteem in which the Abilene Christian College community holds its library.  Malherbe, then  Associate Professor of Bible, stressed that a library held in high esteem is proof that the school takes seriously the life of the mind and the challenge to engage the world as it is.  Put simply, such reflects how seriously the school takes its vocation, profession, and mission.

Specifically, Malherbe argues the evidence of this proof lies in the nature, condition, and adequacy of its library facility; the scope, caliber and quality of collection it stewards; and the use made of it by both professorate and student body alike.

Together, these reflect the value the library holds within campus culture.  An inadequate facility, a substandard collection, or its neglect by either (or both!) the teachers and students of a school betrays the low esteem in which the library is held.  Borrowing from Elton Trueblood, he argues that a Christian school which views its mission of advancing Christian scholarship and forming Christian scholars as a sacred task will consider it blasphemous to pursue such a mission in a shoddy manner.  Put positively, the Christian school will rise to the demand of its sacred calling and put excellence into practice in the classroom, in the lab, in the lecture hall, and in the library.

Malherbe’s essay is provocative and carries several assumptions along with it.  I do not have time just now to probe either these assumptions or to situate the piece within the institutional context that frames it.  Below and in two future posts I will supply quotes from his article and this will have to do for now.  Then I will post the essay in full.

—

The college without a good library is impoverished, and its teaching function will show the signs of its malnutrition. It is impossible to educate young people adequately for tomorrow’s world with yesterday’s facts and last year’s facilities. Classroom work ceases to be preparation for life in the world when there is no library that can contribute successfully to its enterprise. Under these circumstances the classroom can only too easily become a refuge from the complex life that most men have to live. The student is being stunted in his education when he cannot continue in the library the educational experience that started with the lecture.

–Abraham J. Malherbe, “Can the Library Stunt Intellectual Growth?” Horizons 18:1 (Summer 1966), 4.

The upside down chapel

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I’m still thinking, and this is another diversionary post.  The thesis comes along, but this is another post that needed to get out of draft and into the world.  The haphazard series on libraries from several months ago had me looking through all the academic catalogs I have managed to find across the Restoration Movement colleges, universities, and graduate seminaries.

In the course of this I have noticed a time or two, but not noted in any formal way, their descriptions and expectations regarding chapel.  And by “chapel” I mean–and they mean– a regularly scheduled period of Christian worship.  Sometimes this is called ‘chapel,’ sometimes ‘chapel exercises’ or ‘daily chapel’ which indicates frequency.  ‘Daily chapel’ seems to be the norm.  Also, and further, the seemingly normal content of these chapel services is singing, prayers, and a short speech or homily.  It appears that even when the assembly served other functions, the religious content in a worshipful setting seems to be the norm.  As often as not this functions as a school assembly for the purpose of disseminating information or as a platform for some other kind of program that by itself may not be religious or devotional in character.  Sometimes the same assembly serves two functions, the line of demarcation being the ‘closing prayer.’ As often as not attendance is required and compulsory without pre-planned exception.  By the time I arrived on the campus of David Lipscomb University a student could skip chapel a few times per semester without penalty.  After that, it was ‘chapel probation’ which entailed who-knows-what;  I never got that far.  I used my skips, but I did not exceed them.  It would be worth comparing the ‘chapel skip’ phenomena across schools and over a period of time.  It seems that now the practice is to accumulate a certain number of ‘chapel credits’ by attending who-knows-what (at ACU it seems almost anything can be incentivized by attaching ‘chapel credit’ to it) who-knows-how-many times in a semester or year.

I have questions about just what our practices and expectations have been across time and across the schools.  Some schools a fair piece back did not require attendance.  Others did.  Some required attendance at daily chapel and at a Sunday morning assembly at a local church.  There’s the point of my inquiry: just what were the expectations and what was the stated rationale?  Daily chapel matches a daily meeting in a course in the English Bible at Nashville Bible School from its beginning and my hypothesis is that sets the stage for later practice among the schools established and operated by alumni of NBS and DLC.

Whether compulsory attendance requirements were, or remains, a good idea is also worth exploring.  What would an upside-down chapel look like in 21st century Christian higher education? I have no inkling when, or if, I can ever get to it, but it is an idea worth exploring.  After the thesis.

The campus library: materials, media and facilities support learning

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Learning Resources Center

The O. V. C. learning resources center is composed primarily of a library collection of several thousand books and audiovisual services for the institution. Newer materials, media, and other facilities are being added as quickly as possible to support the learning process..

—Bulletin 1965-1967, Ohio Valley College (Parkersburg: Ohio Valley College, 1965), 12.

In 1965 Mary Bynum Gunselman served as head librarian.  She received the B.A. from David Lipscomb College and the M. A. in library science from George Peabody College.  She came to OVC with a decade of experience in public school teaching.  She held memberships in the American Association of University Women, National Education Association, and Beta Phi Mu, the National honorary library science fraternity (p. 8).  Her husband Marshall served OVC as Dean and it is perhaps due to the Gunselman influence that the campus library functions under the title of ‘Learning Resources Center.’

The photo below is from p. 10

Library, Ohio Valley College, 1965

The campus library: training for better understanding and more intelligent use of libraries

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Libraries

The College Library is located on the ground floor of Elam Hall. The book collection represents a well-organized, carefully selected library to meet the needs of the students. The reference collection contains encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other tools best adapted for the research work required of junior college students. The Library receives regularly eighty periodicals, including the religious publications of the brotherhood. A large number of these periodicals are bound and added [p. 16] to the permanent collection. The leading newspapers of the country are also in the reading room

In order for the student to have a better understanding of books and a more intelligent use of libraries, some attention is given in the English courses to the use of library tools and to methods of research.

Attention is also given to the promotion of wholesome recreational reading by preparing reading lists and library displays.

Nashville is famous for its schools and libraries. No better libraries can be found in the South. Here are located three Carnegie Libraries, the new Joint University Library, Peabody College Library, and Vanderbilt University Library. Students of David Lipscomb College have access to these fine libraries.

A separate library with a supervised study hall is maintained for the students in the high-school department. The resources of the college library are also available to the high-school students.

Each library is under the supervision of a trained librarian and a staff of student assistants.

—David Lipscomb College Bulletin, Annual Announcement and Catalog Number 32.1 (May 1944): 15-16.

In May 1944, Elsie Draper is Librarian at David Lipscomb College..  She earned the B.S. from Tennessee Polytechnic Institute in 1931 and attended Peabody College in the summer quarters from 1933-1937.  From 1931-1937, she taught French and English and served as a Librarian in the Jackson County Central High School in Gainesboro, Tennessee.  She began her tenure at DLC in 1937.

The campus library: a major asset of an academic-religious institution

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The Library

One of the major assets of an academic-religious institution is its library. The Harding School of Bible and Religion has a growing, well-selected religious library including journals, facsimiles of the three major Biblical manuscripts, rare books and Bibles, a microfilm reader, and other valuable materials.

The library is housed in the air-conditioned School of Bible and Religion building with the classrooms, making it easily accessible to the students. A special substantial fund is allocated from year to year for the acquisition of well-selected religious books which will strengthen continually the library resources for the students.

In addition to the library of the School, students have access to the valuable private library of 11,000 volumes of Dr. W. B. West, Jr., Dean of the School.  Students also have access to the Memphis public libraries, including the special reference and research Cossitt Library, which is part of the Memphis public library system, the library of Southwestern at Memphis, and the library of Memphis State University, and can borrow books from the 50,000 volume collection of the Harding College Library in Searcy, Arkansas.

—Harding College School of Bible and Religion General Information Bulletin 1958-1959 (Memphis: Harding College School of Bible and Religion, 1958) 10.

At this early point, no librarian is listed in the bulletin.