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Joseph Mckeen and the Soul of Bowdoin College

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Joseph Mckeen and the Soul of Bowdoin College Joseph McKeen and the Soul of Bowdoin College: An Analysis of the Chapel Sermons of Rev. Joseph McKeen, First President of Bowdoin College, as they relate to his call to serve the Common Good. By Stephen John Tracey Edinburgh Theological Seminary A thesis submitted to Edinburgh Theological Seminary and the University of Glasgow for the degree of Master of Theology June 2016 © Stephen John Tracey 2016 CONTENTS Introduction 1 I. Introduction to McKeen, Bowdoin and Congregationalism 11 A. Biography 11 1. Londonderry, NH 12 2. Education and Early Life 14 3. Private Student at Harvard – Prof. Samuel Williams 16 4. Preparation for Ministry – Rev. Simon Williams 18 5. First Congregational Church, Beverly, MA 24 6. Bowdoin College (founded 1794) 25 B. Religion and Bowdoin College 27 1. Classical Learning 28 2. Clerics as Educators 32 3. Daily Christian Liturgy 34 4. Scripture and Nature 38 5. Moral Philosophy 39 C. Congregationalism in New England 41 1. Beginnings to the Great Awakening 41 a. Robert Browne 41 b. Charlestown-Boston Church Covenant 1630 42 c. Cambridge Synod and Platform 1646-48 44 d. Halfway Covenant 45 2. The Great Awakening. 47 3. Plan of Union 1801 49 II. Scottish Common Sense Realism and Common Good 50 A. Scottish Common Sense in America 51 1. Scottish Common Sense comes to America 51 2. Contribution to American Theology 54 i 3. Edwards and Scottish Common Sense 54 4. Helseth’s Unorthodox Proposal 57 5. Scottish Common Sense and Bowdoin College 60 B. Joseph McKeen and Scottish Common Sense 63 1. Reason and Reasonableness 63 2. General Revelation 67 3. Special Revelation 71 4. Noetic Effects of Sin 74 5. Holy Spirit 75 III. Common Good and True Virtue 79 A. Common Good and the New Republic 80 B. Common Good and the New England Theology 82 1. New Divinity (New England Theology) 84 2. Edwards on True Virtue 88 a. Edwards’ Principia of morality 90 b. Disinterested benevolence 92 3. Moses Hemmenway, D.D. 93 C. McKeen on Common Good and True Virtue 95 1. Secondary Beauty 101 2. Self-love 102 3. Conscience 105 4. Instinctual Affections 108 IV. Common Good and Unitarianism 111 A. Rev. Samuel Deane, DD. 112 1. First Parish, Portland, Maine 113 2. Edward Payson 114 3. Freeman and Cary Correspondence 115 B. Rev. Samuel Willard 120 ii 1. Willard Family 120 2. Tutor in Bowdoin 120 3. Schism in Deerfield, Massachusetts 121 C. Rev. Joseph McKeen 127 1. Reference to ‘Trinity’ 127 2. Statements on Jesus Christ 128 3. Christ as Lord and Master 132 4. The Name above every Name 134 V. Science and Mathematics for the Common Good 139 A. Mathematics 141 1. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences 141 2. “Synopsis of Several Bills of Mortality” 142 3. “Deductions from Select Bills of Mortality” 143 4. Understanding “Bills of Mortality” 145 5. Statistics and the State 147 B. McKeen’s View of Science 150 1. Science, Reason, and Creation 151 2. Knowledge Derived from God 154 3. Insufficiency of Reason 156 Conclusion 160 Appendix Joseph McKeen's Inaugural Address 163 Bibliography 168 iii INTRODUCTION Rev. Joseph McKeen was the first president of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME. He is not the best known figure from Bowdoin’s illustrious history. More famous by far are Joshua Chamberlain (the famous General of Gettysburg and Little Round Top), Harriet Beecher Stowe (authored Uncle Tom’s Cabin while her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe, taught religion at Bowdoin), the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Alfred Kinsey (research on human sexuality). Nevertheless, McKeen left his mark, most notably in his inaugural address, in which he calls students to serve the common good. “It ought always to be remembered,” he said, “that literary institutions are founded and endowed for the common good, and not for the private advantage of those who resort to them for education.”1 The concept of common good addresses the idea of human flourishing. The phrase can be used in a broad sense or a narrow sense. Broadly it can refer to the good that is common to all human flourishing: the good that is pursued for itself. Narrowly, it can be used to refer to human flourishing in community: the good that is pursued for the benefit of all. At one end of the spectrum it is 1 The Inaugural Address Delivered in Brunswick, September 2, 1802, By The Rev. Joseph M’Keen, A.M. & A.A.S., At His Entrance On The Duties Of President Of Bowdoin College, With An Eulogy Pronounced At His Funeral, By The Reverend William Jenks (Portland: Thomas A. Wait & Co, 1807), 7. 1 concerned with the good of an individual, at the other end, the good of a community. Where common good refers simply to individual human flourishing it addresses higher questions of being and existence. Where common good refers to human flourishing in community it often addresses property rights and the pursuit of wealth. The Old English, common weal, (or common wele), means public well-being. Defining the goods people have in common is a key part of social and political theory. Life in a commonwealth addresses flourishing in community. The concept is discussed in Greek ethical or political writings. For example, Augustine addresses the subject in The City of God, and Aristotle in Nichomachaen Ethics and Politics. It is also present in more modern writings on politics such as John Locke, Two Treatises of Civil Government. The relationship between the individual and the community may lead to tension. The Christian tradition has addressed the tension between the one and the many, or the relations of transcendence to immanence, as Oliver O’Donovan notes, The Christian tradition has achieved this by speaking of an original act of communication, one which overcomes the dichotomy of the "good in itself" and the "good for us." It has dared to speak of God himself as the supremely self-communicating. Is that meant to suggest that God is exhaustively accounted for by our communications? No; it is simply that our communications find their origin in God's self-communication, 2 and are therefore open to a radically greater communication than they achieve.2 As a Congregational minister in the early republic, McKeen was surrounded by discussion of politics; of republicanism and the flourishing community. He brings to the discussion the principles of theology: a Biblical understanding of God and humanity. The moral authority of the common good, as understood in the Christian tradition, is rooted in theology. McKeen’s call to serve the common good is rooted in God’s self-communication. By encouraging students to serve the common good, he was not exalting the good life in itself. Nor was he exalting the republic. He was applying his theology to the public realm.3 The commitment to the concept of ‘common good’ now dominates Bowdoin’s educational ethos. The words of the first president have become synonymous with Bowdoin’s existence. It was not always so, but they have been somewhat revived in recent years, in the sense of a call to public service. The religious 2 Oliver O’Donovan, “What is 'the Common Good’? Community, Communication, and Personal Communion.” Opinion, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Religion and Ethics, Posted 20 February, 2015, updated 23 February, 2015. http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2015/02/20/4183986.html. (accessed 28 July, 2015). 3 For more on the concept of the common good cf. Mary M. Keys, Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). David Hollenbach, The Common Good and Christian Ethics. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Miroslav Volf, A Public Faith, How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good. (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2011). Steven Garber, Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVaristy Press, 2014). 3 and theological import of McKeen’s phrase is not emphasized. The concluding words of his inaugural address make clear, however, that he had a theological agenda. He asks prayer for the new college, “that it may eminently contribute to the advancement of useful knowledge, the religion of Jesus Christ, the best interests of man, and the glory of God.”4 I began to encounter McKeen when I had regular opportunity to speak in Bowdoin College Chapel. That building has recently been beautifully restored and is now called the McKeen Center for Common Good. It lies at the heart of the campus, and the heart of Bowdoin’s commitment to service, which is viewed as a ‘defining tradition.’ The college website states: The Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good highlights this defining tradition by actively engaging the College in the community and helping students connect their learning and aspirations to pressing issues through public engagement. Bowdoin students collectively provide some 40,000 hours of public service each year through co- curricular volunteer activities, community-based academic courses, and fellowship opportunities. Student leaders coordinate nearly all programs.5 I therefore began to research the life and work of this man to try to understand his original vision. I found that McKeen has not been the subject of extensive study. The library contains numerous original documents relating to McKeen’s 4 The Inaugural Address, 13. 5 http://www.bowdoin.edu/about/campus/tour/chapel-mckeen-center/index.shtml. (accessed March 20, 2014). 4 appointment as President and his brief administration (1802-1807). They yield very little information about McKeen himself. Early minutes of Trustee meetings and Faculty meetings give some insight in the early history of the college, but reveal little about McKeen or his views.
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