The Inner Restoration: Protestants Fighting for the Unity of Truth, 1930–1960
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The Inner Restoration: Protestants Fighting for the Unity of Truth, 1930–1960 The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation McAllister-Grande, Bryan. 2017. The Inner Restoration: Protestants Fighting for the Unity of Truth, 1930–1960. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:37705564 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA ! The Inner Restoration: Protestants Fighting for the Unity of Truth, 1930–1960 Bryan McAllister-Grande Julie A. Reuben Judith Block McLaughlin Andrew Jewett A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Education of Harvard University for Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Education 2017 ! © 2017 Bryan McAllister-Grande All Rights Reserved i! Acknowledgments This dissertation is the culmination of a long journey—a liberal education in itself. I am thankful to numerous teachers and friends who helped me to complete that education. First, I thank my advisor, Julie A. Reuben. Julie’s thoughtful guidance is evident on every page of this study. Her efforts to ask me questions, rather than to provide answers, helped frame the exploratory nature of this project. I also thank Judith Block McLaughlin, whose writing acumen, knowledge of higher education, and enthusiasm were a constant source of help and support. My third committee member, Andrew Jewett, corrected many errors and stabs in the dark (although undoubtedly some errors and stabs in the dark still remain). His work, like Julie’s, also inspires me to cross the boundaries that separate intellectual, social, and religious history. Thank you, Andy. Along the way, I benefited from the friendship and intellectual curiosity of Eduardo Contreras, Jacob Fay, Rachel Gable, Bonnie Mackintosh, Rebecca B. Miller, and many others who read drafts of earlier work, responded to presentations, or generally made graduate school enjoyable. Special thanks go to Helen Haste and the New Civics Early Career Scholars Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for supporting the project financially and intellectually. Richard Weissbourd and Emmerich Davies also supported this work by offering thoughtful comments and encouragement at various stages. I especially thank Rachel Gable and Kevin Zayed for reading through and commenting on numerous drafts; their help and encyclopedic knowledge made this dissertation—and the process of writing it—infinitely better. Plus, they are great friends. During the final stages, I received guidance and support from Suzanne E. Smith and an old friend, Laura Skorczeski. ii! Before I began the doctoral program, Brandeis University historians David C. Engerman and Daniel S. Terris helped develop my curiosity in the intertwined topics of curricular, social, and intellectual change. Much of this dissertation has its roots in David Engerman’s intellectual history seminar at Brandeis. In addition, many busy scholars took time to read drafts, share galleys of their work, impart wisdom and knowledge, or respond to conference papers. Thank you to Jamie Cohen-Cole, Roger Geiger, Christopher Hamlin, Andrew Hartman, Gerald Holton, Philo Hutchinson, Joel Isaac, Gregory Jones-Katz, Jerome Karabel, James T. Kloppenberg, Tim Lacy, Matthew Linton, David Meshoulam, Paul V. Murphy, Adam R. Nelson, Joy Rohde, Dorothy Ross, Ethan Schrum, Nicholas Strohl, and Wayne Urban. I am also indebted to the wonderful staff members at the archives and libraries of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Daniel J. Linke, Tim Driscoll, Ed Copenhagen, Michael Frost, and many other archival and library staff at the three universities were incredibly helpful throughout my research process. I also thank the Friends of the Princeton Library for awarding me a research grant, and the Dean's Office at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for awarding me summer research and travel support. The greatest thanks of all are to my family. This study is for my wife, Jaime, who stood beside me as I undertook a mid-career dream to earn a doctorate. Her love and spirit—and her tolerance of endless piles of dusty library books—are beyond words. To my parents, William and Donna McAllister, I am indebted for many things, but most of all for their teaching of the qualities of creativity and curiosity. Thank you to Jeff, Kari, Geoff, George, JoAnne, and my extended family for their love and support through the (many) years. Of course, some special love is saved for Noelle, Cleo, and baby Eve. They iii! shared this liberal education with me; I look forward to many more adventures in learning with them. iv! Table of Contents ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................1 The Radical Transformation of American Higher Education and Intellectual Life ........8 The Rise of Socialism ....................................................................................................12 The Three Fundamentals of Protestant Idealism ...........................................................14 Chapter Summaries........................................................................................................15 CHAPTER ONE: PLATONISTS AND ARISTOTELIANS .......................................18 “One Small Chapel in the Big Church” .........................................................................28 The Special Program in the Humanities ........................................................................36 The Religious Program and the Achievement of Grace ................................................57 Fighting Protestant Culturalists and Skeptics ................................................................64 “The Western Tradition: Man and His Freedom”..........................................................79 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................86 CHAPTER TWO: “WE MUST TAKE THE OFFENSIVE IN THE WAR OF IDEAS”: FIGHTING FOR WORLD UNITY, GOD, AND MAN AT YALE............88 The Tensions and Trials of Yale’s Idealism ..................................................................92 The Search for Truth......................................................................................................94 A Three-Way Battle.....................................................................................................102 Battling Over Foundations...........................................................................................116 Using Theodore M. Greene’s Humanism as a Mediator .............................................122 The Rise of the New Aesthetes....................................................................................127 From the Unity to the Disunity of Knowledge ............................................................135 American Conservatism...............................................................................................145 From Philosophy to Literature.....................................................................................149 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................156 CHAPTER THREE: “THE TASK WE ARE ATTEMPTING IS IMPOSSIBLE”: THE HIDDEN THEOLOGY OF HARVARD’S REDBOOK...................................160 The Committee Members and Their Positions ............................................................165 Beyond Social Science: The Lost Anthropology of Education ...................................178 A “Leap into the Higher Dialectic” .............................................................................184 The Religion of Plato...................................................................................................189 Objections and Resignations........................................................................................191 “The Best Ideals of the Race”: Drafting the Redbook.................................................195 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................200 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................202 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH........................................................204 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................207 v! Abstract This study demonstrates that a Protestant system of thought that I term Protestant Idealism shaped three historic universities deep into the twentieth century. Educators at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale infused core curricula, humanities courses, honors programs, admissions, and selectivity with a Protestant Idealist philosophy. Further, decisions about what knowledge counts as good were made with Protestant Idealism— and an elite Protestant leadership class—in mind. Based on thirty separate archival collections, the study tracks classicists, English literary critics, art historians, and religiously