Finding God, Intellectual Stimulation at the Divinity School

Richard R. Niebuhr '47, Hollis professor of divinity, has a love for teaching and learning.

Niebuhr, an accomplished scholar and researcher, has relished his academic career.

"Since our 50th reunion is coming up, I've started to think about the fact that 50 years have passed," Niebuhr says. "I don't mean to sound smug, but I don't think that I could have chanced into a better life than teaching here.... It is continual intellectual stimulation."

Neibuhr's "chance" began when he was in the Navy. He had applied and been accepted to Harvard as a civilian, but enlisted in the Navy when he turned 18. Ironically, his officers' training unit was stationed at Harvard, where he lived in Eliot House. Two of Niebuhr's peers in the officers training program, Steven M. Shafroth '47 and Raymond F. Sullivan '47, will also be returning to Harvard for the reunion.

Along with classes in naval engineering, Niebuhr was allowed to take one elective. Thus began his study of philosophy.

"It became clear to me that when I returned to Harvard as a civilian...I Wanted to concentrate in philosophy," Niebuhr says. "I found it fascinating."

During his years as an undergraduate Niebuhr felt pressured to "keep his head in the books." He says she felt he needed to "make up for lost time" because of his years in the service.

Niebuhr narrowed his focus to religious philosophy and decided to enter Union Seminary in New York City after his graduation from the College. After several years as the pastor of a small church in Cornwall, Conn., Niebuhr says he "felt the pull to come back and enter a Ph.D. program." He received his doctorate in theology from Yale in 1955.

After he taught for several years at Vassar College, Harvard invited Niebuhr to join the Divinity School faculty. Niebuhr's appointment was part of an effort to rebuild the school.

"Initially President Conant had initiated a study to see whether the divinity School should be abolished or pumped with money," Niebuhr says, referring to James B. Conant '14, the University's leader at the time. 'they started to rebuild it in 1954."

Niebuhr, who started at the Divinity School in 1956, said that the revitalization effort drew "many, many more students" to the Divinity School. Since the school is nondenominational, it attracted young people who wanted to study particular aspects of religion, according to Niebuhr.

Niebuhr's daughter, Sarah L. Niebuhr, says that her father "talks with fondness" about the relationships he forms with students.

"He enjoys teaching as well as advising," says Sarah Niebuhr. "I think it's neat that he has maintained that focus. I think I was always looking for that at college."

The Divinity School grew in the late-1950s until it became "one of the major doctoral programs in religious studies in America," Niebuhr says.

"It drew students from all over the world and all corners of religion, a heterogeneous students body," Niebuhr says.

"The mixture of people who have just received their B.A.s with those who have come from business, law or even medicine is really exciting," he adds.

The project that Niebuhr says influenced his career the most was the creation of an undergraduate concentration in the comparative study of religion.

Niebuhr says that it was "some of the most exciting work we've ever done," discussing with pleasure his two partners in the project, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies Diana L. Eck and Professor of the History of Religion and Islamic Studies and Master of Currier House William A. Graham.

The question that the three had to answer was: "What should a concentration in the comparative study of religion look like in a liberal arts context?" Niebuhr recalls.

The plan the trio created relied heavily on tutorials, since the concentration only admitted a handful of students. The religion Faculty received "enormous help from people in other parts of the Faculty," Niebuhr says. "That was one of the most fascinating parts of it, getting to know Faculty who had a strong interest in religion, and religion in their own fields.

In 1979, after three years, the from the concentration, whose first class graduated in 1977, was approved by the Faculty.

At that time, Niebuhr, who had been on leave, returned to a much changed Divinity School.

"I felt as though I was being reeducated and was much more conscious of connecting the study of theology with other liberal-arts disciplines," Niebuhr says.

"The most marked changed in my interest has been my shift from being mostly interested in German theology to American religious thought and literature," he adds. Niebuhr has written analyses of the work of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

As in the Divinity School, Niebuhr says he noticed a marked change in the College population when he returned to the undergraduate scene. Since admissions policies had changed drastically, it was overall a more diverse group of students, he says.

"I liked that women were there," Niebuhr said. "That's probably from my experience teaching at Vassar."

Niebuhr's teaching didn't stop at Harvard. Both of his children Gustav and Sarah, cite their intellectual growth.

Gustav Niebuhr, who is the chief religion reporter for The New York Times, cites the many trips the family took during his childhood.

"Through him and also through my mother I developed an appreciation for nature and the outdoors," Gustav Niebuhr says.

The family took rafting trips in Colorado and other western states. The elder Niebuhr still enjoys horse-back riding in the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming.

"I did two whitewater float trips, just me and my father, when I was a teenager," says Sarah Niebuhr, who lives in Jackson, Wyo., and is a special-education teacher and education diagnosticist.

"I think that was very special, a huge influence on my life," she adds. "He was active in enjoying the out doors and finding a peace there. That is one of the reasons why we live here now."

In addition to recreational trips, Niebuhr has traveled extensively for his career. He has spent sabbaticals in Heidelberg, Germany; Cambridge, England; and Kyoto, Japan.

"[The sabbaticals] had to do with research and with writing; in Japan, with teaching," Niebuhr recalls. "I was teaching in an American studies program."

Niebuhr's family accompanied him to Cambridge in 1965 and 1966. The family visited London, various castles and other historic sights on the weekends. Niebuhr's knowledge of history enhanced their travels, according to his son.

Richard Niebuhr is also the great-nephew of distinguished theological Reinhold Niebuhr, author of Interpretation of Christian Ethics.

"My father influenced me in the way a parent can in terms of reading," says Gustav Niebuhr. "He really encouraged both fiction and nonfiction.... I gained a tremendous amount intellectually from him, for which I am very grateful."