Hollis Professor of Divinity

{{Short description|Harvard University chair endowed in 1721}} [[File:Andover Hall, Harvard Divinity School - general view.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|Andover Hall at [[Harvard Divinity School]]]] The '''Hollis Chair of Divinity''' is an [[Financial endowment|endowed chair]] at [[Harvard Divinity School]]. It was established in 1721 at a salary of £80 per year by [[Thomas Hollis (1659–1731)|Thomas Hollis]], a wealthy English merchant and benefactor of the university.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wood |first=Nathan Eusebius |title=The history of the First Baptist Church of Boston (1665–1899) |year=1899 |publisher=American Baptist Publication Society |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyfirstbap00woodgoog/page/n200 173] |url=https://archive.org/details/historyfirstbap00woodgoog}}</ref> This chair represents the first professorship in theology in the country,<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Doren |first=Charles Lincoln |title=Webster's guide to American history: a chronological, geographical, and biographical survey and compendium |year=1971 |publisher=Merriam-Webster |isbn=978-0-87779-081-5 |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MVU6DS6Re8gC&pg=PA35}}</ref> and in the early 19th century it was considered to be "the most prestigious endowed professorship in America".<ref name="dorrien">{{cite book |last=Dorrien |first=Gary J. |title=The making of American liberal theology: imagining progressive religion, 1805–1900 |year=2001 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |isbn=978-0-664-22354-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/makingofamerican0000dorr/page/4 4] |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofamerican0000dorr |url-access=registration |author-link=Gary Dorrien |accessdate=23 December 2010}}</ref>

==History== The terms for the new position were drawn up in [[London]] on 22 August 1721.<ref name="1840history">{{cite book |title=The history of Harvard university, Volume 1 |year=1840 |pages=534–37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d44pAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA534|last1=Quincy |first1=Josiah }}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bradford |first=Alden |title=Historical Sketch of Harvard University |journal=[[The Quarterly Register]] |date=May 1837 |volume=9 |pages=321–66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kCcsAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA350 |accessdate=23 December 2010}}</ref> Traditionally, the chair's occupant has the right to graze a cow on the [[Harvard Yard]], but until 2009 none but the first two Hollis professors had done so.<ref>{{cite news |last=Babich |first=Gila |title=Cow grazes in Harvard Yard as professor retires |url=http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1170600412/Cow-grazes-in-Harvard-Yard-as-professor-retires |accessdate=23 December 2010 |newspaper=[[Cambridge Chronicle]] |date=11 September 2009}}</ref> In 2009, upon his retirement, theologian [[Harvey Cox]] restored the tradition and chose Faith, a [[Jersey cattle|Jersey cow]]<ref name="walsh">{{cite news |last=Walsh |first=Colleen |title=Around the Schools: Harvard Divinity School |url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/around-the-schools-3/ |accessdate=23 December 2010 |newspaper=[[Harvard Gazette]] |date=3 September 2009}}</ref> belonging to the Farm School<ref>{{cite web |title=The Farm School: A family farm for the coming generations with school and summer programs |url=http://www.farmschool.org/ |publisher=The Farm School |accessdate=23 December 2010}}</ref> in [[Athol, Massachusetts]].<ref name="cox">{{cite web |title=Renowned Harvard Professor Claims Privilege of Grazing Cow In Harvard Yard |url=http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/pr/Cox_Retirement.html |publisher=[[Harvard University]] |accessdate=23 December 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525124839/http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/pr/Cox_Retirement.html |archivedate=25 May 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Ellis |first=Sam |title=Holy cow! Bovine to visit Harvard Yard |newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]] |date=30 August 2009}}</ref>

Although Hollis was a [[Baptists|Baptist]], 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 polity|Congregationalist]] or [[Calvinism|Calvinist]]. The chair's first occupant, [[Edward Michael Wigglesworth (c. 1693–1765)|Edward Michael Wigglesworth]] (c. 1693–1765), had to swear allegiance to the ''[[Medulla Theologiae]]'', a Calvinist theological manual by [[William Ames]].<ref name="hoeveler">{{cite book |last=Hoeveler |first=J. David |title=Creating the American Mind: Intellect and Politics in the Colonial Colleges |year=2007 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-4839-8 |page=215 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3dB_0cTDKpEC&pg=PA215}}</ref><ref name="observatory"/>

The chair was first unoccupied, briefly, from 1803 to 1805, when the [[Puritan]]s at Harvard ceded power to the [[Unitarianism|Unitarians]]; in 1805, Unitarian Henry Ware assumed the post.<ref name="smith">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Richard Norton |title=The Harvard Century: The Making of a University to a Nation |year=1998 |publisher=Harvard UP |isbn=978-0-674-37295-5 |page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ORAnwKz6qH8C&pg=PA21}}</ref> 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."<ref name="morison">{{cite book |last=Morison |first=Samuel Eliot |title=Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636–1936 |year=1986 |publisher=Harvard UP |isbn=978-0-674-88891-3 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZUUf7ssp1u4C&pg=PA67}}</ref> 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.<ref name="shoemaker"/> It also seems that the original endowment had dried up.<ref name="morison"/> In the meantime, to lessen the possible charge of a "narrowly sectarian education" the chair was moved to the Divinity School,<ref name="shoemaker">{{cite journal |last=Shoemaker |first=Stephen |title=The emerging distinction between theology and religion at nineteenth-century Harvard University |journal=[[Harvard Theological Review]] |year=2008 |volume=101 |issue=3–4 |pages=417–30|doi=10.1017/S0017816008001934 }}</ref> which had been formed in 1816.

==Chairholders and denomination== *[[Edward Michael Wigglesworth (c. 1693–1765)|Edward Wigglesworth]] (1722–1765);<ref name="hoeveler"/> Calvinist Congregationalist<ref name="morison"/> *[[Edward Wigglesworth (1732–1794)|Edward Wigglesworth]] (son of the previous occupant; 1765–1792);<ref name="observatory">{{cite journal |title=President Quincy's Statements Exposed and Corrected |journal=[[The Christian Observatory]] |year=1847 |volume=1 |pages=500–507 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3LDSAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA503 |accessdate=23 December 2010|last1=m'Clure |first1=Alexander Wilson }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The National cyclopaedia of American biography, Volume 9 |year=1899 |publisher=J.T. White |pages=237–38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nl8oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA237}}</ref> Calvinist Congregationalist<ref name="morison"/> *[[David Tappan]] (1792–1803);<ref name="dorrien"/> Calvinist Congregationalist<ref name="morison"/> *[[Henry Ware (Unitarian)|Henry Ware]] (1805<ref name="smith"/>–1840<ref>{{cite book |last=Herzog |first=Johann Jakob |title=The new Schaff-Herzog encyclopedia of religious knowledge: embracing Biblical, historical, doctrinal, and practical theology and Biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical biography from the earliest times to the present day, Volume 12 |year=1929 |publisher=Funk and Wagnalls Company |page=272 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ouAtAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA272 |editor=Albert Hauck |editor-link=Albert Hauck |accessdate=23 December 2010|display-authors=etal}}</ref>); Unitarian Congregationalist<ref name="morison"/> *[[David Gordon Lyon]] (1882<ref>{{cite news |title=The History of the Divinity School |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B5IBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA117 |accessdate=24 December 2010 |newspaper=[[Harvard Alumni Bulletin]] |year=1916 |pages=114–18}}</ref>–1910<ref name="retire">{{cite news |title=Prof. Lyon to retire: He becomes professor emeritus after 40 years' service at Harvard |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/11/26/103577410.pdf |accessdate=24 December 2010 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=26 November 1921}}</ref>); Baptist<ref name="morison"/> *[[James Hardy Ropes]] (1910<ref>{{cite book |title=Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduate |publisher=[[Harvard University]] |pages=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5t8TAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA22|year=1920 }}</ref>–1933); Trinitarian Congregationalist<ref name="morison"/> *[[Henry Cadbury]] (1934–1954);<ref>{{cite book |last=McKim |first=Donald K |title=Dictionary of major biblical interpreters |year=2007 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-2927-9 |pages=272 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oFLGroLOKq8C&pg=PA272}}</ref> Quaker<ref name="morison"/> *[[Amos Niven Wilder]] (1956–1963);<ref>{{cite news|title=Amos N. Wilder, a Bible Scholar, Literary Critic and Educator, 97|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/04/obituaries/amos-n-wilder-a-bible-scholar-literary-critic-and-educator-97.html|accessdate=27 June 2011|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|date=4 May 1993}}</ref> Congregationalist<ref>{{cite web|title=Wilder, Amos Niven. Papers, 1923-1982|url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:div00641|accessdate=28 June 2014}}</ref> *[[George Huntston Williams]] (1963–1980);Unitarian<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=2671190|title=In Memoriam: George Huntston Williams, Harvard Divinity School Hollis Professor of Divinity, Emeritus, Dies at 86|journal=The Sixteenth Century Journal|volume=31|issue=4|pages=1081–1082|last1=Petersen|first1=Rodney L.|year=2000|doi=10.1086/SCJ2671190 }}</ref> *[[Richard Reinhold Niebuhr]] (1981–1999)<ref>{{Cite web |last=gazetteimport |date=2006-06-15 |title=Tom's of Maine founder endows HDS professorship |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2006/06/toms-of-maine-founder-endows-hds-professorship/ |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=Harvard Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kaufman |first=Gordon |date=2000 |title=Dick Niebuhr: Some Personal Memories |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1510190 |journal=The Harvard Theological Review |volume=93 |issue=1 |pages=3–5 |doi=10.1017/S0017816000016631 |jstor=1510190 |issn=0017-8160}}</ref> *[[Harvey Cox]] (1999–2009);<ref>{{cite news |title=Cow in the Yard |url=http://harvardmagazine.com/breaking-news/hollis-professor-harvey-cox-brings-a-cow-to-harvard |accessdate=22 December 2010 |newspaper=[[Harvard Magazine]] |date=10 September 2009}}</ref> Baptist<ref>{{cite news |title=Theology: Life in a Defatalized World |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,941039,00.html?iid=chix-sphere |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080510084335/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,941039,00.html?iid=chix-sphere |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 10, 2008 |accessdate=27 December 2010 |newspaper=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=2 April 1965}}</ref> *[[Karen Leigh King]] (2009– )<ref>{{cite web |title=King, Madigan Receive New Faculty Posts at HDS |url=http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/article_archive/FacultyAppointments.html |publisher=[[Harvard Divinity School]] |accessdate=23 December 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525130812/http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/article_archive/FacultyAppointments.html |archivedate=25 May 2011 }}</ref> Episcopalian

==References== {{Reflist|2}}

==External links== *[http://hds.harvard.edu/about/history-and-mission History of Harvard Divinity School]

{{Hollis Chair}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Professor of Divinity, Hollis}} [[Category:1721 establishments in the Province of Massachusetts Bay]] [[Category:Financial endowments]] [[Category:Professorships at Harvard University|Divinity, Hollis]] [[Category:Professorships in divinity|Divinity, Hollis]]