• Home

• Browse

• Search

• Advanced Search

• Help

A Guide to the records at the Indiana University Archives

Electronic finding aid encoded by Amanda Harlan

Summary Information

Repository
Indiana University Archives
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library E460
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-1127
Email: archives@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives

Creator
Indiana School of Religion.

Title
Indiana School of Religion records, 1910-1970,  bulk 1952-1967

Collection No.
C251

Extent
4.6 cubic feet

Language
Materials are in English.

Abstract
Established in Bloomington, Indiana, as the Bloomington Bible Chair by the Disciples of Christ in 1910; the name changed to the Indiana School of Religion in 1917. The mission of the School was to provide Biblical and religious education to, and to promote the religious education of, students who attended Indiana University. Collection consists of correspondence, minutes of the Board of Directors, financial records, publications, essays, pamphlets, and posters.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Advance notice is required.

Administrative History

According to its charter, the mission of the Indiana School of Religion was to provide and promote Biblical and religious education to students who attended Indiana University. This statement of purpose was based on the idea that higher education would be incomplete without providing students with instruction in the religious culture of the United States and the world. As a predecessor to the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, the Indiana School of Religion attempted to fulfilled this mission during its sixty-year tenure at the university from 1910-1970.

The Indiana School of Religion began as a small community association formed by the Disciples of Christ in the early 1900’s. Initially, the school was called the Bloomington Bible Chair. This organization was part of the Bible Chair movement of Christian churches around the turn of the 20th century. In 1904 the State Christian Church Convention approved a plea by T. J. Clark, pastor of the Kirkwood Avenue Christian Church in Bloomington, for the establishment of a Bible Chair at Indiana University. Five years later the initiative was taken up by President William Lowe Bryan, and on October 29, 1910, the Bloomington Bible Chair was incorporated, and began holding meetings in the Kirkwood Avenue Church. The name was changed to the Indiana School of Religion in 1917. In its first meeting on November 7, 1910, a Board of Directors was organized, comprised of 11 directors, with Dr. Joseph C. Todd as chairman. Within the Board of Directors, an Executive Committee was organized to carry out the business of corporation between the times of the annual meetings of the board.

Initially, members of the Board of Directors were limited to members of the Christian Church, or Disciples of Christ. Similarly, the group of people targeted for enrollment in the School was the Christian student body and members of the Christian Church within the community. However, in 1922, a resolution was passed to allow members of other religions to hold positions on the board, and the focus began to shift to be more inclusive of peoples of other denominations. By the 1950’s there was a big push to target members of the three major religious traditions: Protestants, Catholics, and Jews.

Beginning in 1914, the Indiana School of Religion was housed in a series of buildings at the intersection of Indiana Avenue and Third Street in Bloomington, directly adjacent to the campus of Indiana University. The initial building purchased in 1914 and which sat on the corner of Third Street and Indiana Avenue burned down on December 26 of that same year. Another building was acquired across the street in 1915, and was used for offices, classrooms and the residence of the Dean until 1921. Other buildings that occupied this area included two student residence halls, Wharton Hall and Bethany Hall; the Bungalow, a residence for faculty members; and the School of Religion Hall, which was used for offices, a chapel, library, and classrooms. In 1956, a limestone building, paid for mainly through a large endowment from the Eli Lilly Company, was constructed on Union and Seventh Streets to provide classrooms, offices, and other necessary facilities for the School in one building.

For the first 43 years, the School of Religion offered courses in religion to university students and the community on a non-credit basis, using facilities adjacent to the Indiana University campus. The expenses for the school and faculty salaries were paid for completely by donors and benefactors. During these first decades, enrollments were not large, and the School struggled to sustain itself. From the 1940’s to the mid-1960’s, there was a great deal of debate over the issue of teaching religion at state-funded schools. Indiana School of Religion officials were heavily involved in researching this issue, putting the school at the forefront for implementing the concept of religious instruction in state-owned institutions of higher education.

After the retirement of Joseph Todd in 1952, Rev. Daniel J. (D. J.) Bowden was appointed as director of Indiana School of Religion in 1953. In that same year, Indiana University established an “Area of Comparative Religion” within its College of Arts and Sciences, supervised by a faculty committee with Dr. John W. Ashton as chair. Many courses taught in this area were by faculty of the Indiana School of Religion, who were given the title of lecturer by the university. This resulted in the first religion courses to be taught for college credit at Indiana University, with Harold E. Hill of the School of Religion being the lecturer for these courses. However, at the time it was unconstitutional to use tax money to support these faculty members, so they continued to be paid through School of Religion funds.

In 1963, two factors played in transferring the responsibility of religious studies from the School of Religion to Indiana University. First, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that tax money could be used to teach religion on a non-sectarian basis. Second, the university received a grant from the Danforth endowment that supplied monies for the purpose of religious instruction. As a result, an interdisciplinary committee was formed to decide the future of religious studies at Indiana University. Joseph Sutton, the chair of the committee, recommended that there be a clean break from the School of Religion. The following year, Indiana University commenced its Religious Studies program, with courses still being taught primarily by School of Religion faculty members. However, in 1965, Religious Studies was established as a department of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the university decided to start from scratch and appointed new faculty and staff from outside the School of Religion, placing the existence of the School in jeopardy. Over the next five years, the Indiana School of Religion was gradually forced to close shop.

Eventually, D. J. Bowden, director of the School, was offered an appointment in the university’s scholarship department. Although Harold Hill was kept on as an instructor, he resigned from this position after disagreements with Joseph Sutton, who had become Dean of College of Arts and Sciences, and left to teach at the University of Tulsa. The School of Religion building was sold, and the monies invested into an endowment. The Board of Directors at the School of Religion was persuaded to transfer these funds, along with the annual income from the school’s primary endowment, to the Religious Studies program. This money allowed the program to make headway as a full-fledged department because they could hire teacher assistants to take some of the burden of instruction off the young faculty, thus expanding the available courses. By 1970, there was little left of what was once the Indiana School of Religion, and on May 20 of that year, to officially terminate its existence, a resolution was adopted at a meeting of the Board of Directors to dissolve the school and all its organizations.

Arrangement

Records organized into six series: Board of Directors administrative files; Correspondence; Financial records; Publications; Subject files; and Writings.

Scope and Content

The Indiana School of Religion records span the years 1910-1970. These records are organized into six series: Board of Directors administrative files, Correspondence, Financial records, Publications, Subject files, and Writings.

The Board of Directors administrative files series span the years 1910-1970. This series is divided into six sub-series: Committees, Elections, Governing documentation, Meetings, Minutes, and Reports. The Committees sub-series includes folders from the Committee on Instruction and Educational Policy and from the Executive Committee. The Elections sub-series consists of lists of elected officials up to 1921 and those whose terms expired between 1954-1964. The Governing documentation sub-series includes articles of incorporation, constitutions and by-laws, amendments, contracts, and policies. The Meetings sub-series consists of the working papers from the meetings of the Board of Directors, including both annual and special meetings. These papers include minutes, agendas, and items of discussion. The Minutes sub-series consists of two bound volumes and one loose folder of minutes from both the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. The final sub-series, Reports, includes reports of the professional activities of the faculty and official reports on the activities and progress of the School of Religion. This series is organized alphabetically.

The Correspondence series spans the years 1911-1967. This series consists of letters and memoranda to and from the Indiana School of Religion. Included in this series are letters between Joseph Todd and J. K. Lilly in the late 1940’s-early 1950’s concerning securing funds for the new building; recommendation letters for D. J. Bowden; and memoranda between the heads of the School of Religion and the Board of Directors. This series is organized alphabetically by subject or correspondent.

The Financial records series spans the years 1910-1970. This series consists of files, reports, and ledger books that contain the financial history of the School of Religion. The series includes the official Treasurer or Financial Secretary record books from 1910-1953; audit reports for the 1950’s-1960’s; and copies of donation and pledge agreements. Most of the ledger books in this series are oversized and have been housed in separate boxes, comprising Box 5 and most of Box 6 of this collection. A list of these oversized items is included at the end of the folder list below. Please ask staff for more details on viewing these oversized materials. This series is organized alphabetically by subject. See Box 5 and 6 for oversized material in this series.

The Publications series spans the years 1910-1963. This series is organized into five sub-series: Announcements of Courses; Bloomington Bible Chair; Bulletins; Pamphlets and Posters; and General. The Announcements of Courses sub-series consists of pamphlets that were published on a semester basis, providing a list of courses, who was teaching, and the dates and times of the course. These differ from the bulletins in that they are limited to providing information on courses; provide less detail; and are usually smaller in size and breadth. The Bloomington Bible Chair sub-series includes publications from the first years of what would become the Indiana School of Religion, including a series of programs from the Kirkwood Avenue Christian Church at which Joseph C. Todd was pastor until being named director of the School of Religion. The Bulletins sub-series includes one bound volume of the official bulletin of the Indiana School of Religion, spanning the years 1910-1929, as well as loose copies of bulletins between 1913 and 1963. There is not a complete run of bulletins. Bulletins include news and events concerning the School and often advertised courses for the upcoming school year. The Pamphlets and Posters sub-series consists of advertising flyers and posters, as well as informational pamphlets, on the School of Religion and its activities. The General sub-series includes a copy of Indiana University Newsletter that was devoted to the School of Religion; copies of The Y-Angle, the local YMCA newsletter, from 1950-1951; and addresses published by the Indiana School of Religion. Topics of these addresses focus on religious instruction in higher education. This series is organized alphabetically by sub-series, and chronologically within each sub-series.

The Subject files series spans the years 1915-1970. This series chronicles the activities of the Indiana School of Religion. Subjects include the dedication of the new building in 1956-1957; a study of religion in state universities; and biographical information on Joseph C. Todd, the school’s first director. See Box 6 for oversized material in this series.

The Writings series includes short essays on the topic of religion in the university. The first folder includes a history of religion at Indiana University up to 1847. The last folder includes six undated short essays or articles by Joseph Todd focusing mostly on the importance of religious instruction at the University. This series is organized alphabetically by author.

Photographs and artifacts related to the collection were removed and stored separately from the collection. Please ask staff for more details.

• Indexing Terms

• The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in IUCAT, the IU Libraries' online catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the catalog using these terms.

• • Names
  • Indiana School of Religion --History --Sources.
  • Indiana School of Religion --Archives.
  • Indiana School of Religion --Records and correspondence.
  • Indiana School of Religion --Administration.
  • Disciples of Christ. Bloomington Bible Chair --History --Sources.
  • Disciples of Christ. Bloomington Bible Chair --Archives.
  • Disciples of Christ. Bloomington Bible Chair --Records and correspondence.
  • Disciples of Christ. Bloomington Bible Chair --Administration.
  • Disciples of Christ. Bloomington Bible Chair.
  • Todd, Joseph Clinton, 1879- --Archives.
  • Todd, Joseph Clinton, 1879- --Correspondence.
  • Todd, Joseph Clinton, 1879- --Correspondence. Selections.
• • Topics
  • Religious education --Indiana --Bloomington --History --20th century --Sources.
  • Universities and colleges --Religion.
  • College students --Religious life --Indiana --Bloomington --History --20th century --Sources.
  • Religion --Periodicals.

Separated Material

Photographs were placed in the Photograph collection.

Two block stamps were transferred to the Archives' realia cabinet.

Duplicates, financial statements, and receipts whose retention date had expired were discarded.

Administrative Information

---

Accessibility Help