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Searching the Scriptures SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES A History of the Society of Biblical Literature ERNEST W. SAUNDERS 1880-1980 SCHOLARS PRESS Chico, California SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE CENTENNIAL PUBLICATIONS Editorial Board Paul J. Achtemeier, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia Adela Yarbro Collins, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois Eldon Jay Epp, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio Edwin S. Gaustad, University of California, Riverside, California E. Brooks Holifield, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia Douglas A. Knight, Vanderbilt Divinity School, Nashville, Tennessee George W. MacRae, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts Harry M. Orlinsky, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York Kent Harold Richards, The Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado Gene M. Tucker, Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, Georgia Maurya P. Horgan, Associate Editor, Denver Paul J. Kobelski, Associate Editor, Denver The Society of Biblical Literature gratefully acknowledges a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to underwrite certain editorial and research expenses of the Centennial Publications Series. Published results and interpretations do not necessarily represent the view of the Endowment. © 1982 Society of Biblical Literature Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Saunders, Ernest W. Searching the Scriptures (Biblical scholarship in North America; no. 8) (Centennial publications / Society of Biblical Literature) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Society of Biblical Literature - History. I. Title. II. Series. II. Series: Centennial publications (Society of Biblical Literature) BS411.S622S38 1982 220'.06'07 82-10818 ISBN 0-89130-591-2 Printed in the United States of America To the Society of Biblical Literature, Respectfully and Affectionately Submitted ERNEST W. SAUNDERS is a well-known lecturer and writer in the fields of New Testament literature, its Roman-Hellenistic cultural environment, and textual criticism. He is professor emeritus of New Testament Interpretation and former dean of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. Professor Saunders has been a member of the Society of Biblical Literature for forty-one years. He has served as the Society's Honorary President and as a delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE CHAPTER I. IN THE BEGINNING, 1880-1900 II. THE WISDOM OF THE SCRIBE, 1900-1920 III. A TIME TO BUILD UP, 1920-1940 IV. SHAKING THE FOUNDATIONS, 1940-1967 V. A NEW THING, 1968-1980 VI. THE TRIBES OF THE DISPERSION VII. BROTHERS AND SISTERS VIII. OF THE MAKING OF BOOKS IX. THE VOICE OF MIRTH X. SIGNS AND PORTENTS APPENDIXES I. Manuscript Record of the Preliminary Meeting, 2 January 1880 II. Honorary Members III. Symposiums and Collaborative Research Components of Annual Meeting Programs IV. Regions V. Editors of the Journal of Biblical Literature VI. SBL Presidents VII. Honorary Presidents VIII. SBL Secretaries Illustrations 1. A Group of Charter Members 2. Medallion in Memorial Window, Christ Church, Gardiner, Maine 3. Announcement of the Nineteenth Meeting, 1889 4. Announcement of the First Joint Meeting, 1894 5. Program of the Fiftieth Anniversary, 1930 6. Program Announcement, 1897 PREFACE This is the story of a group of people, dedicated to teaching and research, who have influenced significantly the course of American biblical scholarship for over a century. Some of them are well known beyond the circle of professional colleagues; others are familiar only to immediate associates and students. Their academic discipline of critical study of the Jewish and Christian scriptures is among the oldest in the panoply of the fields of knowledge. Their Society ranks among the oldest of academic associations in the area of humanistic studies in North America. Its members are drawn from faculties of religious studies in undergraduate colleges and universities and graduate schools of religion in the United States and Canada. It declares itself to the larger community in these terms: The object of the Society is to stimulate the critical investigation of the classical biblical literatures, together with other related literature, by the exchange of scholarly research both in published form and in public form. The Society endeavors to support those disciplines and subdisciplines pertinent to the illumination of the literatures and religion of the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean regions, such as the study of ancient languages, textual criticism, history, and archaeology. The completion of the first century of service to biblical research affords occasion to reflect upon and to assess the work of the Society to date and to determine future direction. That past, however, has all too often been minimized in relationship to the older and allegedly richer contribution of European scholarship in this field. In consequence there has been only minor interest in that history and its impact on American culture as well as on international scholarship. In truth, as Roy A. Harrisville has written in his critical study of one of the pioneers in American biblical interpretation, "A man ought to know who we was before he dies. Those years of scholarly activity in this country, extending roughly from 1890 to 1940, give identity to many of us responsible for biblical studies here. And in many ways, those years were our better part - they marked an eminently fruitful period in American scholarship, and in the opinion of some, the most fruitful to date." * Those years, enclosing Frank Chamberlain Porter's lifetime, prepared for the latest forty-year period, in which American biblical studies * Frank Chamberlain Porter, Pioneer in American Biblical Interpretation (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1976) v, vi. xi have come of age. In the opinion of others, though, we who are alive to tell may think more highly of ourselves than we ought. In any event, this is a biographical study of an organization, and as such it is subject to pride and prejudice, but, I hope, also to probity. The account is gleaned from many disparate sources. Prior to 1960 records are woefully sparse, especially for the first forty years. Beyond the proceedings and papers published in the Journal, information about the period up to 1960 is scattered about in the CSR Bulletin, Scholia, programs of annual meetings, mimeographed committee reports, minutes, budgets, secretaries' notes, and business files. The whole represents a cross between the Congressional Record and the New York City Telephone Directory. More revealing are the incidents lodged in living memories and personal correspondence. One friend and member wrote at the outset of this project, "Unless the anecdotal history of the SBL can be recovered, you could produce the dullest book since the Book of Chronicles." Another in a more cynical vein cautioned, "I fear that the proposed history will turn out to be the sort of white-washed sepulchre commonly used for such occasions." There are plenty of dry bones here, no doubt. One can only hope that for some, at least, they may yet live. Those who have contributed records and recollections to the writing of this story are numbered beyond naming. I am especially indebted to certain persons who supplied material aid, comfort, criticism, and guidance to the study. Their assistance I gratefully acknowledge: R. Lansing Hicks, John T. Fitzgerald, Jr., Thomas H. Olbricht, Charles Karsten, Elizabeth Wiggins, Amos N. Wilder, Edward R. Hardy, David Hopkins and Ann E. Millin of Vanderbilt Divinity School Library, Seth Kasten of Union Theological Seminary Library in New York, Maria Grossmann of Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Pierson Parker of the Center for Biblical Research and Archives at Claremont, Robert W. Funk, and Robert Kraft (son of a former executive secretary), to whom we are all indebted for the discovery of two priceless manuscript volumes of secretarial records. Every reader is benefited by the thirty-five senior scholars who responded generously to an invitation to share reminiscences and anecdotes out of their extended association with the Society. Pictures of the charter members were contributed by Thomas H. Olbricht. The manuscript was read critically by Paul J. Achtemeier, Dorothy C. Bass, Philip J. King, Harry M. Orlinsky and was strengthened by their suggestions. I tender special thanks to Executive Secretary Kent Harold Richards for his cheerful assistance in sending files and other papers to me in the Maine woods and for his willingness to supervise the passage of the manuscript from desk to press. His substantive contributions as the editor of this volume along with the tireless work of Maurya P. Horgan were most appreciated. Though resolute effort has been made for accuracy in retrieval and report, I must accept responsibility for what remains imperfect. xii I IN THE BEGINNING, 1880-1900 Setting The educational system in the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century was marked by rapid growth, feverish activity, and sharp collision between secular and ecclesiastical forces in contest for control. In the northeastern section of the country this was especially evident where the swelling tide of European immigrants severely taxed the limited resources of the newly established public school systems. Conservative church leaders in the revivalist tradition deplored the secularization of the curricula and struggled to develop a parallel parochial program, a response that is repeating itself today.
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