Liberal Education at Yale: The Yale College Course of Study 1945–1978 by Daniel Catlin, Jr., Washington, D.C

In 1827, two years after its incorporation as a college and six years removed from its founding as a “collegiate institution,” Amherst College revamped its curriculum into what it called a “parallel course of study.” In this new scheme, students were allowed to follow one of two tracks during their college years. Courses in mathematics, geography, logic, rhetoric, the natural sciences, philosophy, and theology were still required of all students, but they were permitted to substitute a variety of new offerings in place of instruction in ancient languages and literature—choices ranging from French or Spanish to drawing or civil engineering. The faculty of the college were clear in their rationale for such a change: echoing the sentiments of the nation's President John Quincy Adams, they argued that theirs was “emphatically an Age of Improvement,” one which necessitated altering the structure of the college course. They warned that if the college did not reform its course offerings it would witness the rise of new institutions better equipped to provide for the needs of young men, threatening the existence of Amherst and other colleges committed to liberal education. “Let our Colleges promptly lead on in the mighty march of improvement,” they stated, “and all will be well; but let them hesitate and linger a little longer, and many of their most efficient friends will go on without them.”

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The Place of Church History in the College Course of Study

Papers of the American Society of Church History ◽

10.1017/s1079902800000358 ◽

1891 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 217-239

Author(s):

Henry Mitchell MacCracken

Keyword(s):

Church History ◽

College Course ◽

The World ◽

In Christ ◽

Course Of Study

Church history is the story of the important events in the existence of a visible, organized body of persons professing faith in Christ as the divine Saviour. Which body, some would add, possesses a direct succession from the apostles under and through a continuous episcopate, or, as others would add, under and through the Roman Pontiffs.It is the story of how Christians have believed within themselves, which is theology, of how they have behaved before one another and the world, which is morality, how they have worshipped God, which constitutes religious rites and observances, how they have governed their brethren, which is ecclesiastical discipline, how they have multiplied their friends, which is missions, and how they have received benefit or injury as a body from the world outside, which constitutes the Church's secular relationship.

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