A History of Religion at Yale
Yale—The Beginnings
1701-1740
Amid the religious and moral decay of the late seventeenth century, a group of Connecticut ministers urged Rev. Abraham Pierson of Killingworth to assume duties as rector of a proposed collegiate school which would serve to counteract these very declines which caused James Davenport to declare, "Christ's cause is lost." The school would train men for public employment both in church and civil state.
By 1702, the school had its first students. All gathered in Killingworth under the room and board of Rev. Pierson. The students were required to recite Greek, Latin, the Hebrew Psalter and New Testament, and a number of theological discourses certain to instill in the young men the Puritan ideals of the day.
When Rev. Pierson died in 1707, the students were scattered to Milford and Saybrook. Rev. Samuel Andrew of Milford was chosen as Rector pro-tempore and remained so until the removal of the college from Saybrook to New Haven in 1716. The completion of College Hall in 1718 added stability and order to the low state of affairs assumed with the transfer. Rules began to appear directing students in their daily readings and prayers, their manner of conduct, and the penalty exacted should a student make an offense in swearing, lying, strifes, jesting, uncomely noise or any manner of troublesome behavior.
When Rev. Timothy Cutler was appointed rector in 1719, he arrived to a college of disorder and unruly behavior. Though his career was brief, he soon restored the college to order with the application of new rules and laws. In 1722, Rev. Cutler took orders in the Episcopal church and resigned his position at Yale.
The intimate relationship of the church with the civil government led to disputes with the Governor's office on the subject of the Episcopacy. In order to prevent such actions in the future, the General Assembly and the Trustees of the College voted that all future Rectors or Tutors of the College declare their assent to the Confession of Faith of the Churches in the Colony of Connecticut. For four years the college was without a rector until Rev. Elisha Williams was chosen as the successor in 1726. During his tenure, Yale grew alongside a new movement of thought that would quickly be felt by the Puritan clerics in New Haven. In 1735, Jonathan Edwards decided to no longer preach about Christ, but to preach Christ. It was the beginning of the Great Awakening.
The Great Awakening
1741-1770
"Above all have an eye to the great end of all your studies, which is to obtain the clearest conception of Divine things and to lead you to a saving knowledge of God in his Son Jesus Christ"...Thomas Clap, 1740
When Rev. Thomas Clap assumed the duties of Rector in 1740, he entered at a stormy period. The same year saw George Whitefield, British evangelist and organizer of the Calvinistic Methodists, sweep through the states as a participant in the Great Awakening movement. He appeared in New Haven, leaving in his track the spirit of change, innovation and revolution.
Rev. Clap and Rev. Noyes of First Church (Center) were vehemently opposed to this New Light preaching. For as Clap states, "the great Design of Founding this school was to educate ministers in our own way." The stir of radical preaching was therefore unsettling and dangerous for the seventy-five young men of the college.
Compounding the problem was the Rev. James Davenport, who in 1741, attacked the spiritual piety of Rev. Noyes and formed his own, New Light church (now United Church). The peace and strength of the institution was at risk. Rev. Clap forbade any student or faculty from attending a separatist meeting under penalty of public confession and expulsion.
Two well-known instances of disobedience led to unfortunate expulsions in both cases. The first was in 1741 when a vivacious student religious leader, David Brainerd, discontinued his attendance at First Church and began to think for himself on matters of religion and shared his ideas with members of the class. Many of the students began imitating the ideas and manners of the itinerant preachers and often became critical of their superiors. When two brothers, John and Ebenezer Cleveland, attended a separatist meeting in 1745 while on summer vacation, they were required to make a confession before Rector Clap and several tutors. Upon refusal, they were expelled.
When Whitefield visited for a second time in 1745, the sentiments were unchanged. A period of eight years followed with little religious upheaval. Over time, however, Rev. Clap studied the matter of New Light preaching and observed the work of the separatist church. As his attitude softened, his focus shifted to the inadequacies of Rev. Noyes. In his book Religion and Learning at Yale, Ralph Gabriel delivers a fine description of Rev. Clap's views:
Almost never did the pastor of the First Church expound those robust doctrines of original sin and of the majesty and justice of God that had so long given power to Calvinism. The congregation seldom got a glimpse into the fiery pit. Rev. Clap, listening in his pew, had come to consider the spiritual sustenance provided by Mr. Noyes to be a watery porridge, inadequate for the needs of the spirited young men whom parents had put in the charge of the College.
The seed was planted for a new religious establishment within the walls of the college. To forward this goal, a Professorship of Divinity was established in 1746 by a gracious gift of the Honorable Philip Livingston. By 1753, the students and tutors had left their rented pews at First Church and worshiped by themselves in College Hall. Communion, however, was still observed at First Church.
By 1754, funds were sufficient to call the Rev. Napthali Daggett as the first Professor of Divinity. By 1757 a petition from students and tutors led the corporation to approve a separate college church. "In consequence of it, the Rev. Daggett preached a sermon in the Hall adapted to the occasion, and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was attended with all proper solemnities on the 3rd of July, for the first time, in Yale College." Thus began the first college church in America.
By 1759, Yale's religious and academic needs made a chapel building imperative. Ground was broken for the building, later to be called the Atheneum, but was not complete until 1763. Prayers were held twice daily, once in the morning and once in the evening, always led by the President. On Sunday's, the Professor of Divinity would preach a sermon "in the course of a Body of Divinity, Doctrinal and Practical; and occasional Discourses or Lectures at other Times." Two years later, Rev. Clap resigned his presidency. Dr. Daggett was elected pro-tempore, and by the next year, held both the office of Professor of Divinity and President.
The Revolutionary Age
1771-1794
The general mood of the students, even the nation, was changing. When Daggett came to office, he faced a growing sentiment against authority and a rise to independence of the students. It appeared that the nation and college mirrored one another. According to Professor H. B. Wright, "faculty supervision, always essential in student religious life, gave way almost entirely to student liberty, which, devoid of the necessary restraining influences, became license.
These were years when, under the stimulus of the religious and political movements of the day making for freedom, all men thought. Free thought raised doubt. And doubt, undirected and left to run its course, produced infidelity." President Daggett proved mediocre in his administrative duties. His thoughts, and strengths, were national. The paternal and moral association of Clap was left to the tutors, many of whom joined the faculty during the Daggett years. Among the noted was Timothy Dwight.
As the affairs of the religious campus crumbled, the attention of students and tutors turned to the national scene. In 1773, violence in Boston echoed in the chapel as students departed services one cold December morning. A few years later, war was declared, and President Daggett, being a true Patriot, resigned his office.
As the British forces approached, the faculty was forced to disperse students to the interior of the state. As the Professor of Divinity, Daggett visited the students as often as possible. However, by 1779, Daggett led forces against the British invasion of New Haven, his fearless conduct exciting acts of cruelty on his person which eventually led to his death.
The Reverend Ezra Stiles was called from Newport, Rhode Island to succeed Daggett. Stiles was perhaps the most learned man in the nation of his day. He laid the foundations for education and the extension of a broad University for Yale, although the fulfillment never happened in his day.
When Rev. Daggett succumbed in 1780, Rev. Samuel Wales of Milford assumed duties of the chapel. His presence in chapel was of marked contrast to Daggett. Younger in years and of a commanding manly beauty, he was an eloquent speaker who appealed to all with his solemn, weighty and impressive style. It was at this time that the number of church members, including the college officers numbered twenty-one. In view of the fact that the student population was around two-hundred, this clearly shows a poor condition for religion on the campus.
The effects of the war, the lingering residue of the Awakening and the death of Rev. Wales in 1794 and President Stiles in 1795 brought to a close nearly the first century of the college and an embittered period in desperate need of reckoning. The Providence of God was working, however, and a new Daniel would arise to judgment and revive the spirit of the campus.
Timothy Dwight and the Revival Movement
1795-1860
When Timothy Dwight accepted the Presidency in 1795, the college was in a most perilous condition. Dwight, though, was a remarkable man, and his tenure in office marks the beginning of a great history, intellectual and religious, for the second century of the College.
During his first seven years, between 1795 and 1802, less than ten percent of the student body professed religion openly. After the death of Rev. Wales in 1794, the Corporation faced considerable difficulty in filling his vacated position. Failing to do so, the trustees offered the duty to President Dwight. Clearly, his abilities in the pulpit did more to further the religious and academic mood of the community than in any other way. His intent was to enlarge the Collegiate advantages and change the course of instruction, thereby continuing the ideas of Stiles that Yale should be a University. The College consisted of only five tutors at the time of his accession, but soon thereafter, Dwight added a Professor of Law in 1801, a Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1803, a Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in 1804, and a Professor of Hebrew, Greek and Latin in 1805. While he tried to establish a Medical School at the same time, funding was not procured until later.
As for religious matters and the Chapel, the time passed, in 1800, when only one student was present at communion. The effect of Dwight's ministry, however, soon defeated the infidelity prevailing across the campus.
In 1802 the first of a series of revivals saw the admittance of twenty-three students into the College Church. The next year, thirty-two more were admitted by profession of faith. In fact, nearly one-third of the two hundred and thirty students were reckoned as Christians. In addition, Dr. Dwight would conduct personal interviews and prayer meetings with the students and tutors with the result of many public confessions of faith. The religious life on campus was an integral part of the daily regimen. Chapel was held twice daily, at 5:30 AM and 6:00 PM, there were three Sunday services, and Saturday evening recitations. The revivals of Dwight continue through his Presidency.
The revival of 1812-1813, though, was led by the students, in particular, the Moral Society which had recently formed in response to the prior revivals in the Chapel. George P. Fisher, in his History of the Church of Christ in Yale College, affords a fitting description to the revival movement under Rev. Dwight and his successors.
"The revivals in college, both ancient and recent, have been under the guidance of experience and discriminating men. They have not been seasons of mere agitation, but times when religious instruction has been carefully imparted. They have been proved to be genuine by the improvement in morals, which has invariably followed in their train. And they have supplied the churches of the land with a body of ministers whose ability and devotion to their work are beyond a question."
When Jeremiah Day assumed the Presidency in 1817, Yale entered a period of remarkable stability. Beginning the same year we have consistent church records for religious activities on campus and the Church of Christ at Yale. Also in the same year, Dr. Eleazar Fitch was appointed Professor of Divinity and retained that position for thirty-five years, during which time he served as the college pastor alongside his colleague, Professor Chauncey A. Goodrich. Though Fitch was admired and respected by everyone, extending to the boundaries of the nation, his strange nervous disorder confined him to a man of study rather than effective in dealing with the pastoral duties of his congregation. Whereas Fitch was the preacher, Prof. Goodrich was the pastor.
The Old Chapel gave way to a new one in 1824. In response to the revivals begun under Dwight and continued during the pastorate of Fitch, the religious activities were expanded and room was needed for the growing student body. The Second Chapel was dedicated on November 17, 1824 with a sermon given by Dr. Fitch. A description from Rev. D. K. Turner furnishes a complete picture of chapel life in the mid nineteenth century:
Morning and evening prayers were held in the Chapel commencing in the morning in summer at five o'clock and in winter at six o'clock, and in the afternoon at five or six o'clock according to the season. On Sunday morning the service was half an hour later. All the students in the four regular classes were required to attend; if any one was absent four times in one term without a proper excuse he would receive a warning from the Faculty; two warnings were followed by a letter to his parents; and three warnings by suspension. The Old Chapel was filled, the Seniors sitting in the middle block of pews nearest the pulpit, the Juniors in the next most eligible seats, and the Sophomores and Freshmen in those towards the door.
In the morning there was no singing, but in the afternoon a choir of twelve or fifteen students sang a hymn announced from the pulpit. No books were distributed through the audience and no voice was heard below the gallery.
On the Sabbath public worship was held twice a day, at which Rev. Eleazar T. Fitch, D. D., Pastor of the College Church, preached usually a doctrinal discourse in the morning and one of a more practical character in the afternoon.
As early as 1812, music was supplied for services in the chapel by The Beethoven Society. The purchase of the Hook organ in 1851 signalized a breach in the Puritan tradition of New England. As Gabriel states, "the College Church had taken the position that beauty as well as preaching can enrich the life of the spirit."
The revivals continued throughout the terms of Fitch and Goodrich, with conversions in the hundreds. In 1854 Rev. George P. Fisher accepted the pastorate of the College Chapel, entering during mounting tension between the North and the South. Within six years a division would once again affect the Chapel and religious life of the University.
The Changing Scene of Religion
1861-1900
Whether the War affected the religious life of Yale is unquestionable. Unlike the previous war for independence, however, the Civil War did little to unify the students and the administrative forces in harmony. The stability which so dominated the previous fifty years was but a memory of the old orthodoxy. Various preachers rotated through the chapel, among them Theodore Woolsey, who ascended to the Presidency of the University in 1842.
Perhaps the War did have an effect on the independent thinking of the students. During this period, the necessity of a college pastorate gave way to the realization among the laity of the privilege and responsibility of conducting its own religious thinking and carrying out the practical Christian work thereunto appertaining. This was none the less encouraged by the short tenure of two college pastors. The Rev. William B. Clarke held the post of the Chittendon Professor of Divinity (formerly the Livingston Chair) between 1863 and 1866. Following him was the Rev. Oliver E. Daggett, who likewise held the post for three years between 1867 and 1870. The abolishment of compulsory chapel attendance at the Sunday afternoon service came in 1872. The intent was not to undermine the chapel, but to aid in its appeal. For the next seven years, the College President and various tutors filled the pulpit; needless to say, the quality of religious instruction varied.
Life in the chapel is best viewed from an outsider. This account comes from a visiting Englishman in 1869:
"All the students are compelled to attend the daily morning service, which takes place at eight AM. The chapel is a frightful building fitted up in the coldest and meanest meeting-house style. At the end is a pulpit containing a sofa, and in front of the pulpit a small parlour table and two hair seated dining room chairs. But cold and mean as is the chapel, the service is colder and meaner still. Any more heart-chilling and profane performance could scarcely be imagined. The students, on entering, either commenced a conversation with their friends, or applied themselves, with great diligence, to the subject-matter of the lectures which were to follow after the service. In no instance did any one engage in private prayer. After an interval an old gentleman, in black tie and black greatcoat, ascended the pulpit and sat down on the sofa, where he was soon joined by another old gentleman, with whom he had a short confabulation. The second old gentleman stood up and read, and read wretchedly, a portion of Scripture. A grand metrical Psalm was then sung to a grand tune by a choir of students in the gallery, all the rest of the congregation continuing to sit. Till the moment of their standing up, all the choir were either talking or at their studies. My next neighbour was deep in a French reader. At the end of the Psalm, the choir sat down and re-applied themselves to their lessons, while the rest of the audience lounged forward or looked about them; the old gentleman in the pulpit meanwhile drawing out a long, wrangling, extempore prayer, the course of which he informed the Almighty of several circumstances which had fallen under his own personal notice. During the prayer no knee in the whole congregation was bent. The instant the prayer was ended, and before an Amen was pronounced, the students began to beat a hasty retreat from the chapel. The air of utter carelessness and irreverence, which was universal, was chilling to witness. If the congregation had disbelieved in the existence of God it could not have been worse. Such being the spiritual food which Puritanism has to offer to her sons in her own chosen home, who can wonder at the unbelief and unbounded immorality which is making New England a byword even in the United States? Her children ask of her bread, and Puritanism gives them a stone."
It should not, however, be assumed that religious life was dead and without merit. Despite the lack of an organized system of Christian work, several individual and unassociated forces made up in righteousness. This was the period when the Bethany Mission Sunday School was begun, the Y.M.C.A. under the auspices of Dwight Hall, the Student Deacons of the Chapel, and a number of independent student groups contributing to a healthy religious tone and the overall moral character of the community. Indeed, the relationship between these organizations and the chapel was fruitful. Men of outstanding character, whose political, social and ecumenical merits contributed to the Christian enterprise consistently filled the pulpit on Sabbath mornings. The duty of a college pastor was increasing, and it was seriously questioned whether one man could attend to those duties. For ten years William Barbour filled that position until he resigned in 1887. The current thought was then to have various preachers occupy the pulpit. With a growing student body of diverse religious backgrounds, the new system of preachers could easily adapt to the needs of the time. Timothy Dwight, the current President of the University, served as acting pastor of the church. This would be the last time a President would fill this position. In June of 1876, Battell Chapel was dedicated as a memorial to those fallen in the Civil War. It was considered the most beautiful college chapel of its day, and even continues to command a high degree of respect for its splendid Victorian Gothic architecture.
The Twentieth Century and the Chaplaincy
The first twenty-five years of the twentieth century brought marked changes to the chapel and the scene of religion at Yale. Various preachers, mainly from the Divinity School, occupied the pulpit in short increments. In 1901, the church, now known as the Church of Christ in Yale University, was reorganized in order to reflect a non-denominational character and respond to the diversity of the student body. At the same time, all doctoral tests of admissions were removed and the church found new strength for a new day.
The advancement in all areas of society in the early part of the twentieth-century took its toll on religious life and the chapel. After World War I, students and faculty questioned whether faith and the growth of liberal arts could coexist and justify the old laws of the days past. No longer could the students fit into the space of Battell Chapel; two morning services accommodated the freshmen and the three upper classes. Once separated as a unified class, the question of compulsory chapel emerged. The Fellows of the Corporation appointed a committee to seek a solution. Acting pastor Dean Walter Brown recommended the total abolition of compulsion. In order to maintain a sense of religious duty to the students and prevent public criticism is the face of religious decline, the Corporation acted with the establishment of a full-time University Chaplain and plans for a new chapel. The Reverend Elmore M. McKee was elected in 1927. McKee was well suited to his affairs, and his attention was focused entirely on the community of the chapel. His familiarity with the Episcopalian forms brought to the chapel a new level of ritual and dignity. He pushed for a new Gothic chapel to be situated on Cross Campus, but his cause was an old and lost effort.
As secularism spread, it eventually provided the major outlook of educated Americans well into the mid century. When the Reverend Sidney Lovett was appointed Chaplain in 1932, he faced the daunting task of bridging the new youth with the old theology, easing the dismayed soul of the secular era. Lyman Spitzer, Jr. writes:
Reverend Sidney Lovett comes among men most critical of the Christian church. His task is to adapt the beauties of the life of Jesus and the morals of the Old Testament to the needs of modern ambitious youth. He comes to a "godless place," where enthusiasm, hope, and especially openmindedness reign supreme. May he prosper here.
During the 1960's and early 1970's, Reverend William Sloane Coffin, Jr. occupied the pulpit. He brought to the chapel a strong sense of social and political understanding, coupled with a remarkable ability to communicate his positions on civil rights and anti-war sentiments. Since that time, three Chaplains have led the religious life of this campus and served as pastor of the Church. The Reverend John Vannorsdall, who led the program for renovating Battell, was appointed in 1976. The Reverend Harry B. Adams, a beloved figure in the New Haven community served between 1985 and 1992. The Reverend Frederick J. Streets served as the sixth University Chaplain and Pastor of the Church from 1992 until 2007.. Under his leadership, the chaplaincy became more intentionally multi-faith in focus. The church which had been affiliated with the United Church of Christ, reaffirmed its identity as an ecumenical worshipping community, and became known as The University Church. The seventh University Chaplain, Sharon M.K. Kugler, was appointed in July 2007. Ms. Kugler, a Roman Catholic, is the first woman named as chaplain. The chaplaincy is increasingly focused on supporting and encouraging the expression and vibrancy of a wide array of religious traditions on campus. At the same time, The University Church continues the strong tradition of Christian worship. The current pastor of the Church is the Reverend Martha C. Highsmith, who also serves as the Deputy Secretary of the University.
Bibliography
Religion and Learning at Yale. Gabriel, Ralph Henry, 1958.
Christian Activity at Yale. Wright, H. B. , 1901.
God and Man at Yale. Buckley, William F. Jr., 1951.
Annals of Yale College. Baldwin, Ebenezer, 1838.
Yale: a pictoral history. Holen, Reuben A., 1967.
Yale Men and Landmarks in Old Connecticut. Thomas, Herbert, 1967.
Fifteen Years in the Chapel of Yale College. Porter, Noah, 1888.
Yale College. Kingsley, William L.
