Grace Theological Seminary - Xapis / Grace Yearbook (Winona Lake, IN)

Page 27 text:

and to take sides according to their inclinations. Professor McClain, making his an- nual report for the seminary to the board of trustees, April 25, 1933, re- ferred to this unhappy situation in part as follows: “Since the church commits its ministerial students to the college for a period of 4 years, a very grave responsibility rests upon the college teachers. Upon their per- sonal attitudes will depend largely whether or not the student comes to the seminary with his life purpose in- tact or seriously damaged. .. .I think the board should give some serious consideration to this matter. I have tried to present it as generally as pos- sible’ (18). This report was accept- ed by the board without any dissent- ing votes or any challenge from the administration. Upon several occasions Professor McClain protested to both the presi- dent and dean of the college, pointing out that the continuation of these conditions would be certain to bring the entire school under serious criti- cism. Meeting no favorable response, an appeal was made to the board rec- ommending the adoption of an official statement of faith as a standard by which the fitness of teachers could be determined. Although strongly op- posed by the college administration, the board appointed a committee to formulate such a statement. This committee brought in a statement, prepared in its original form by Pro- fessor McClain, covering the funda- mental Christian doctrines held in common by most evangelical believ- ers, but omitting the distinctive doc- trines of the Brethren denomination because at least half the college fac- A familiar scene in Winona Lake. ulty were members of other denom- inations. The adoption of the “‘state- ment” was bitterly fought by the col- lege officials, but when it became evi- dent that it would pass, the president agreed to accept it and guarantee its adoption by the college faculty if the board would not require each teacher to sign it. The hour was late, the members were tired, and the compro- mise was accepted. At the time it seemed a great victory, for at last the college had a definite standard of faith. But that proved only the be- ginning of the battle. The seminary faculty adopted the new statement at once and published it prominently in the Seminary catalog (19). Later the college faculty, in an atmosphere of restrained hostility, passed a mo- tion to adopt it with a few scattered “ayes.” The majority did not vote, very evidently to permit the fulfill- ment of the administration’s pledge to the board. The president had copies made and mailed to the minis- ters of the church, but refused to pub- lish the statement in the college cat- alog, and never made any serious effort to apply these standards of faith to any individual member of the col- lege faculty. At the same board meeting of 1933, the late Dr. J. Allen Miller became PAGE 21

Page 26 text:

PAGE 20 Prof. Melvin A. Stuckey: depart- ment of Homiletics and Practical The- ology, with an adjunct in Church His- tory. Prof. Kenneth M. Monroe: depart- ment of the Old Testament and He- brew, with an adjunct in Archeology (sys In delivering his address as the moderator of the General Conference of the Brethren Church, August 26, 1930, Professor McClain said, ‘This fall for the first time in the history of the Brethren Church we shall be able to offer our young men a regular 3 years’ seminary course for college graduates. .. . It seems to me, there- fore, that this General Conference should take cognizance of the situa- tion and recommend to the various districts and congregations a whole- hearted support of the seminary pro- gram’ (16). In response to this rec- ommendation by the moderator, the Conference by formal action recom- mended to the churches the new sem- inary program (17). The seminary opened in Septem- ber, and Dean J. Allen Miller, writing of the need of advanced training for the ministry, in the Brethren Evan- gelist of September 20, said, ‘Such a school we have opened for the first time this week at Ashland College... a graduate school of theology of such rank as the highest type of evangel- ical faith and life joined with a ripened and broad scholarship can offer... . We are making this begin- ning now. We must have time to justify this advanced step. . . . May God bless the task to which we now anew consecrate ourselves” (p. 2). VI. Progress of the Seminary in an Unfavorable Environment (1930-35 ). The new arrangement began with the enthusiastic support of all the ' evangelical pastors and churches which had been praying and working for such a school. Most of the newly adopted program for the Seminary was quickly placed in operation un- der the direction of the associate dean, Prof. Alva J. McClain, who pre- pared the first catalog and wrote much of its material which embodied the educational objectives and ideals now being perpetuated in Grace The- ological Seminary. From the begin- ning at Ashland, the original cata- log carried as a statement of Chris- tian faith the document adopted by the Brethren National Ministerial As- sociation in 1921 under the title, ‘““The Message of the Brethren Ministry.” The seminary began in the fall of 1930. Two years later the number of regular students had grown to 18, and a steady stream of preseminary stu- dents were moving up through the college. However, even this early the seminary program was meeting a cool reception on the campus, and occasionally open hostility. In cer- tain college classrooms teachers were expressing critical attitudes toward some areas of Christian truth. The seminary faculty, in counseling with its preseminary students in the col- lege, felt it their duty to help these students to maintain their Christian convictions. Thus it was inevitable that tensions would arise. In the gen- eral chapel exercises, with speakers from both college and seminary fac- ulties, opposing religious viewpoints were often expressed. Students were quick to sense these conflicting views

Page 28 text:

PAGE 22 dean emeritus and Professor McClain was made the dean of the seminary. By 1934 the difficulties of the col- lege had increased. It had been re- moved from the list of accredited in- stitutions. The confidence of many pastors had been shaken by the ad- ministration’s failure to apply the standards of faith. Among the col- lege students there was much discon- tent, Many preseminary students being disturbed by anti-Biblical atti- tudes in certain classrooms; while on the other hand the worldly majority were clamoring for greater liberty than allowed by the somewhat feeble rules. The tension between seminary and college was heightened when the president suddenly stopped three seminary professors from teaching Bible classes in the college, and also ruled that no college credit would be given for Bible courses taken by col- lege students in the seminary classes (20). In the college certain promi- nent teachers, for reasons of their cs ies Eugene Allen and Dr. McClain at the 1942 graduation. own, secretly began to agitate for a change of administration. The board of trustees, at the spring meeting of 1935, accepted the resig- nation of President Jacobs and elect- ed to that position Dr. C. L. Anspach, a former dean of Ashland College. The death of Dr. J. Allen Miller had left vacant the professorship of New Testament and Greek in the semi- nary, and to this position the board called Herman A. Hoyt, a brilliant linguistic student and protege of his former teacher. VII. A New Administration and Its Trojan Horse (1935-37). President Anspach’s administra- tion began auspiciously and with promise of a better day. He was ac- quainted with the situation at Ash- land, having talked with many of the pastors who were solidly behind the seminary and disturbed about the college and some of its teachers. He had consulted at length personally with Dean McClain before coming to the presidency, pledged his faith and adherence to the college standards of faith, said he would publish them in the college catalog and “stand by” them. In a letter to Dean McClain dated February 11, 1935, Dr. Ans- pach said he had decided to accept the presidency. As to the “liberal” trends at the college, he frankly ad- mitted that wrong teaching had been going on there, but stated that his policy would be to “reorganize with the Wheaton |College| viewpoint” and “contact conservative men in all denominations”; that in this “direc- tion there was hope and none in the direction of liberalism” (21). This