by John Strong

On a hot afternoon in June, 1994, I had the privilege of meeting the founder of the Department of Religious Studies, Dr. Gerrit tenZythoff, for lunch at Rembrandt's Restaurant in the Sheraton hotel, Springfield, MO. The topic of conversation? I enjoyed hearing the myriad of stories about the founding of the department, told by one of Springfield's best story-tellers. In the end, I learned that the department was founded by people who not only had foresight, but more than anything else, people who donated their time and talent with selfless dedication.

The story of the department really stretches back to the late 1930s. At that time, there were no classes being offered in religious studies. Nor were there any campus ministries. There were, however, a group of students interested in Christian ministry and wanting some initial training in that direction. These students would meet on their own every Wednesday night at Grace and St. Paul's Methodist Churches. Finally, they went to Dr. Roy Ellis, president of the school, then known as Southwest Missouri State Teachers College, in order to ask for some classes to be offered. He found Dr. F. W. A. Bosch, who was ministering at what is now Westminster Presbyterian Church, to teach a few classes. Though no one knew it at the time, before he retired in the mid 1950s, Dr. Bosch would leave his ministry at the church to teach full time and would eventually found Missouri State's Department of Philosophy.

In these early years, Dr. Bosch offered classes dealing with topics such as homiletics and how to teach Sunday School. He was apparently a very effective and learned teacher. His classes, however, clearly violated church and state mandates in the U.S. constitution. That such classes were in violation of the constitution was made clear by the 1964 "Schemp" decision, which stated that classes promoting one religion could not be taught in a public institution. It is worth noting, however, that this same decision paved the way for the Department of Religious Studies, for it acknowledged that the objective study of religion was an important part of a liberal arts education. Hence, this court decision literally reshaped the study of religion at Missouri State.

In the 1960s, denominations became concerned for the needs of their students who attended state institutions. Consequently, they established campus ministries. These ministries came to play an important role in the creation of the department. In the mid-1960s, the campus ministries offered classes off-campus. These classes were authorized by accredited denominational schools, and thus, they were considered to be legitimate college courses by the North Central accrediting association and could be transferred into a students record. This put the college in a difficult position. It could not teach religious studies courses, but it could accept such courses. At the same time, the president of the school, Dr. Arthur Mallory, realized that the institution sat in the midst of the Bible belt. Indeed, he regularly wrote letters to area ministers to let them know what Missouri State was doing for their students. And so, in the late 1960s, the college began to explore forming a Religious Studies department. The interest that began with a small group of students in the 1940s had been transformed, but it was not discontinued.

During the time when this interest was building in the administration, the history department added a new faculty member, Dr. Robert Flanders. He plays an important role in the story because, though he grew up in Humansville, Missouri, he had previously taught at Ohio State University, where he worked with a young professor specializing in immigration history, Dr. Gerrit tenZythoff. These two men were very good friends, and when the administration began searching for a person to create the new Department of Religious Studies, Dr. Flanders knew who to suggest.

The administrators who were working to create this department, Dr. Mallory, the president, Dr. Robert Gilmore, the dean of the College of Letters and Humanities, and Dr. Duane Meyer, the dean of the Faculty, had a clear vision for the department, which guided them to establish the department on a solid foundation. They all understood the importance of religion in human life and history. Moreover, they were each academically rigorous, and demanded the same from the new department.

Gerrit tells a very interesting story about his interview with Dr. Mallory. It was actually conducted at an annual shrimp feast at the First Baptist Church. Dr. Mallory asked about Gerrit's position on the then current debate over which translation of the Bible to use, the RSV or the King James. Gerrit replied that if he had his wishes, he would use neither of these translations, but unfortunately the students would not be able to read the translation of his choice. "Oh, why is that?" Dr. Mallory asked. "Because I prefer the Dutch translation!" Gerrit responded. The entire table erupted into laughter, and the rest is history. Gerrit explains that this answer turned out to be very important because it told them something very important about Gerrit. First, religion was not merely an academic discipline for Gerrit, but something that he understood personally. Second, Gerrit would bring a broad, international perspective to the topic. These elements continue to be hallmarks of the department.

At this point in our lunch, Gerrit added an important footnote regarding the objectivity of the department. "People have asked me," he said, "whether we require a profession of faith to teach in our department." "Of course not!" he always replied. But he continued to state that it was important to recognize who the students were that sat in the classroom and to be responsible to them. "I have no tolerance for a professor who does not understand and respect the faith of their students. It is not the teacher's job to destroy the students' faith." From the beginning, then, the Department of Religious Studies at Missouri State has sought objectivity. It seeks neither to convert a student to faith, nor from faith. It seeks only to understand the power and influence of religion in human life. This policy began with its founder.

The first years of the department were marked by dedication. At this time, the department consisted of Gerrit and a secretary (a job that was filled very early on by Mrs. JoAnne Brown, who is with the department to this day). Who taught all of the classes? Again, the department owes a debt of gratitude to the campus ministers. They, with the permission of their denominations volunteered their time and talents to the students and the University. John Wilson (then the minister at South Avenue Church of Christ, now a dean at Pepperdine University), Tom Raber (a Methodist minister at the Ecumenical Center), Jim Robinson (a Presbyterian minister at the Ecumenical Center), Charlie Johnson (a minister at the Baptist Student Union), and Douglas McGlynne (an Episcopalian minister at St. James) all volunteered to teach classes without pay.

As Gerrit tells the story, the faculty committee tended to look down their noses at these teachers as being merely "men of prayer." But when they came before this committee for evaluation, Gerrit reports that "to a man the committee decided that these teachers were intellectually and academically sound, and that they should continue to teach." In those earliest years, then, the dedicated work that these ministers volunteered helped to launch the department in a professional manner, one that satisfied even their critics.

Together with these campus ministers, Gerrit set out to build the department. He first created the course "Religion and Human Culture" (REL 100), a course that is still the foundation course for the department. And as he was able, he built further relationships that he later used to expand the department. In doing so, he attempted to address certain needs he saw in southwest Missouri.

For example, he knew that the Jewish community could not afford to hire a full time rabbi. Instead, they would use the rabbi at the federal medical prison, who would weekly fly into the area to minister to Jewish prisoners to lead their Friday night services. Gerrit suggested that if the synagogue could hire a rabbi, he could possibly have him teach a course and thus supplement the salary. As a result, Rabbi Uriel Smith became the first full time rabbi of the United Jewish Congregations in Springfield.

Gerrit laughs as he tells a story about a student who came into his office "so excited that he could not sit down." "Do you know that my Old Testament teacher is a rabbi?" the student asked. "Yes, I do," came Gerrit's response. "Do you know that he is Jewish?" the student asked again. "Yes, I believe that is a requirement of rabbis," Gerrit said with a smile. "Well, do you know that this Jewish rabbi also knows the New Testament?" the student finally asked. "We would not have hired him if he did not," Gerrit stated. The conversation continued for quite a while as the student explained how impressed and pleased he was with his Hebrew Bible teacher.

In 1973-74, Gerrit was able, for the first time, to pay his teachers. At this time, they also hired their first full time faculty members (other than Gerrit), John Wilson and Robert Cooley (shared with Sociology and Anthropology). The department was already offering minors, and in 1982, they offered a major in religious studies. In the fall of 1994, the department began to offer an M.A. in Religious Studies, the only such masters program to be offered in a public institution in the state of Missouri.

When the department opened its major, it received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in order to better understand how to run the department. But instead of bringing to campus a few experts to deliver some theoretical papers, Gerrit and his team used the money to travel to Arizona State University and the University of Northern Colorado. He was particularly interested in see how Northern Colorado ran a religious studies department at a state university located in an area with a large Mormon population. John Orr from the University of Southern California, who had oversight of the grant for the NEH, once asked "Do you know what you are doing?" "Not really," came Gerrit's reply. But he persisted in the belief that he needed to see how these successful programs worked in order also to build a successful program.

Throughout the history of department, the goal has been to establish and maintain a department that provides an education that students want to receive and teachers want to teach. This goal, Gerrit states, has never changed.

 (Written February 5, 1995)