Fred Berthold has generously offered to write a little background history of his experience as professor in the department of religion at the College.
“After the end of the WW II Dartmouth and many other colleges decided to add a new department to the curriculum. There were already a few courses in religion being taught, a course on the Bible by Roy Chamberlain, the College chaplain, and by professor Patrick Scott Craig on the philosophy of religion. I was chosen to initiate that new department. I joined the faculty in 1949. At first I taught only one course in religion, the history of Judaism and Christianity. I was asked also to join in with those teaching the introductory course in philosophy. The burst of interest in religion among the administrators of the College was also evident, I think, in the American population generally. Enrollments in the initial course grew so large that it was taught one year in the old Webster Hall auditorium. A second faculty member was added to the department of religion. Many of the students in those earliest years had seen military service. Those students were almost without exception the most serious and dedicated ones I ever had in all of my teaching years.
“I think it was in my third year on the Dartmouth faculty that it occurred to me that I was stupidly developing a curriculum modeled upon the one I had known in a Christian theological seminary. So we decided to pay attention to other major world religions. Hans Penner was hired to teach Hinduism and other Asian religions, especially Buddhism. Year by year the interest of students grew and the department grew. A specialist in biblical scholarship was added, then a scholar of the Jewish religion and one in Islamic studies and one in Native American religions.
“The department of religion has enjoyed the support of a very wise group of college administrators. And they have responded to student interest and have assisted the department of religion to grow. Today the department of religion has 11 faculty members.”
—Rosalie Cutter, 14 Sterling Springs Drive, White River Junction, VT 05001;cutterrosalie@aol.com
