Ohio Wesleyan University - Le Bijou Yearbook (Delaware, OH)

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Professor Robert Montogomery is new to the Ohio Weselyan Religion Department this year. Professor Montgomery re- ceived his A.B. from Depauw, his B.D. from Garrett, and his Ph.D. from Yale. Some of his special interests are Jewish and Greek philosophy and backgrounds in the rise of Christianity. Outside the classroom, Mr. Montgomery is serving as advisor to the Junior class. His sincere interest in the students and what they are doing have already made him a great favorite on the Wesleyan campus. The Religion Department of Ohio Wesleyan University endeavors to provide the student with an understanding of the Bible. In the re- ligion course which every student is required to take, each student is assisted in combining new religious insight with the best of his previously acquired religious wisdom to form his own, personal, integrated, and reasonable religious philosophy. He is especially urged to develop a philosophy which will prove to be adequate when applied to the problems of contemporary life and will lead to a richer life through un- derstanding of the conditions necessary for sat- isfactory relations between man and his fellow man and between man and his God. Students majoring in pre-theology and religion are given the opportunity to develop a more complete philosophy. The members of the department are: Professor Robert Montgomery, Professor Albert E. Suthers, Ass ' t. Prof. Robert Fichter, Richard Gay, Director of Religious Activities, Assistant Director Frances Janes, and Assistant Professor Goldie McCue, the Department Head. Religion students gain practical experience by teaching Sun- day School classes in Delaware churches. Professor Suther ' s Biblical Lit students take down another point in a lecture on the development of the Bible. 29

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Department of Religion Today, all Wesleyan students meet for one hour three times a week to hear some of the most prominent persons in political, academic, and religious fields. These meetings, which con- stitute the largest required chapel in any American university, have a historical basis as old as the university itself, for the first meeting of the college students was a chapel service. The underlying idea at the beginning of these chapels was the Ohio Wesleyan family at prayer. In the early years, there were two chapels a day and later five chapels a week, each of which included a short worship service. Now, one chapel a week is a religious service, one has an educational basis, and one is spon- sored by student government. We have reached beyond their religious significance alone, to grasp common knowledge and common experience. These chapel experiences, perhaps more than any other part of our college life, tend to give unity and loyalty to Ohio Wesleyan students and graduates alike, and some of the programs prove to be long remembered. 28

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Department of Philosophy One of the aims of Ohio Wesleyan is to provide a liberal edu- cation; to prepare one for a better life. Philosophy serves this purpose in two ways. First, it unites the subjects one studies to give him a more concise meaning of the whole. One might say his other courses such as chemistry, psychology, and re- ligion, are the separate pieces of a jigsaw puzzle while philosophy is the completed picture. Secondly, philosophy provides the students with a way of thinking. How can he organize himself in society? Should he concentrate on the present or a seemingly more valuable future? In studying philosophy he learns to correlate the answers to these questions. When the book is laid aside he is better prepared to face the world and adapt himself to a complex society, having obtained a more coherent picture of life. The beginning course, to which all students ate introduced, is a brief survey of the meaning of philosophy, its relationship to science and religion, the differ- ent schools of philosophy and the realm of values in the social scene. Writings of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle are studied as well as thoze of our contemporary believers. If the student is interested in any particular phase of this subject, many ad- vanced courses are available to him. These include history of various periods, logic, ethics, and philosophy in relation to art and religion. Department members are: Dr. Lloyd Easton, chairman, Dr. George Conger, and Mr. Robert Fichter. A student of Plato, laying his books and notes aside, contemplates this great work and tries to decide what place these . . ■I 30