Cast a gaze from State Street to the grand entrance of Angell Hall. Just above the Doric columns, the words inscribed in stone read, “Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” Students likely walk past the words that originate from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 without noticing the inscription or thinking twice about the underlying meaning.

Today, the University has no religious affiliation. During its early years, the University dropped its ties to Christianity and emerged as a fledgling research university — striving to establish a reputation. Religious dogma was removed from the school’s curriculum, and since the late 19th century, the University’s religious connections have changed drastically in name and recognition.

Despite a lack of concrete affiliations, in practice and thought, religion still plays an important role on campus, whether in the classroom, a synagogue, mosque or church, the Shapiro Undergraduate Library reflection room or the steps of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library where Diag preachers loudly voice their beliefs.

A historical perspective

The University currently boasts a strong curriculum in religious studies, with renowned scholars in fields such as Judaic Studies, Islamic Studies and courses in the New Testament. Yet there is no formal department of religion, and the Program on Studies in Religion, which was founded in 1966 by Biblical Studies Prof. David Noel Freedman, has been in suspension since 1999.

This minimalist approach to religious study contrasts with the past when students attended compulsory chapel services, and the highest members of the administration were also members of the clergy.

Henry Tappan, the University’s first president, lends his name to Tappan Hall, which houses the University’s History of Art Department. He was also a key figure in the gradual move toward secularization.

The University’s historic definition of separation of church and state on campus meant only that the University did not favor a particular denomination of Christianity. Though it was non-sectarian, the entire school was Christian from 1837 to 1852. The all-male student body woke at 5:30 a.m. Chapel services were at 6 a.m. in the now nonexistent University Hall and the services were overseen by the President of the University.

“In those days, non-sectarian was the progressive notion,” Sociology of Religion Prof. Terence McGinn said. “Private colleges might have been specifically Baptist or specifically Methodist, so the public universities were distinguishing themselves from those sectarian colleges by saying they didn’t support a specific denomination. But of course, they still believed in the importance of religion.”

Tappan took office in 1852 as the first president who did not rise from the University’s clergy and is widely regarded as the University's first "official" president, though he himself was an ordained Presbyterian minister, according to a study of the University’s first 50 years carried out by McGinn. Part of Tappan’s mission as president was to expand the University’s goals and prestige at home and abroad, and in doing so the University began to move away from the Christian model.

He began to establish the University as an institution devoted more toward research and teaching than it was to shaping the individual. He abolished the University’s non-sectarian stance on the basis that the University should not espouse any religious preference, McGinn explained.

This change marked the end of religious leadership in administrative and academic positions, and as the University grew, certain religious practices were forgotten. Chapel services became optional and were eventually phased out once the student body exceeded University Hall chapel’s 500-person capacity.