Davidson religion faculty upset about Reformed chair
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 14, 2005
Besides fallout from the Davidson College Board of Trustees’ decision to open membership to non-Christians, there has been unrest in the Department of Religion over the board’s companion proposal for an endowed chair of Reformed theology.
The campus newspaper, The Davidsonian, reported in its March 23 issue that religion professors were upset for a number of reasons – including a concern that a Reformed chair would give too much emphasis to Christianity.
“Creating a chair in Reformed theology isn’t bad, but it has to do with the timing,” religion professor W. Trent Foley told The Davidsonian. “To add another position of theology at this time gives us too much of one thing, namely Christian thought, and makes us short on others.”
Other faculty members expressed concern that a Reformed chair could detract from religious studies in which the college currently lacks expertise, including Islam.
Foley told the student newspaper that news of the proposed Reformed chair – the money still must be raised – was “something of a sucker punch. Procedurally, it was done in a way that dishonors the Religion Department.”
After hearing about the endowed chair, Dr. Karl Plank, chair of the Department of Religion, arranged for his faculty to meet with Davidson President Bobby Vagt and Clark Ross, the dean of the faculty.
Vagt would make no comment about the discussion. “It is my policy not to talk about meetings with departments,” he told The Davidsonian.
Ross, however, told the student newspaper that the meeting was helpful and that he recognized the potential difficulties of establishing a new chair.
“The decision happened largely independently of us, and while no department completely controls its own destiny, I was concerned about the way we as a department would participate,” Plank said.
The Davidsonian story noted that in the past members of the religion faculty had bristled before when they had little say about what areas would be taught in the department.
Davidson College lists eight people as the faculty for the Department of Religion: three full professors, two associate professors, two assistant professors and one lecturer. Timothy Beach-Verhey, the lecturer, is the only one who is ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Information posted on the college’s Web site for the Department of Religion does not indicate that any of the members of the religion faculty focuses on a Reformed perspective of faith. But the faculty does include specialists in Hinduism, Islam, Asian religions and other religious perspectives.
The chairman of the department is Plank, an Episcopalian who “teaches Biblical Studies and Jewish Literature and Thought and has special research interest in biblical intertextuality, hermeneutics, and monastic spirituality.”
The other full professors in the department are:
- William K. Mahoney, who “teaches courses on Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and topics in the comparative study of religion and has special research interest in the contemplative and mystical dimensions of religions originating in India.”
- Foley, who “teaches in the area of early Christianity and has special research interest in Christianity in early Anglo-Saxon England.”
The associate professors are:
- Lynn M. Poland, who “teaches in the areas of modern religious thought and Christian theology, with special interests in the history of biblical interpretation, gender, and ecology.”
- H. Gregory Snyder, who “teaches courses on New Testament literature, Jesus, Paul, and selected topics in early Christianity.”
The assistant professors are:
- Jung Lee, who “teaches courses in East Asian religions and comparative religious studies.”
- Anne Blue Wills, who “teaches courses in American religion and culture, specializing in nineteenth-century women’s religious activism.”
Beach-Verhey, the department’s lecturer, is also director of the college’s Program for the Theological Exploration of Vocation. He teaches courses in theological ethics.