…I would rather be remembered as one who earnestly sought to fuse the Christian element of the world into one grand Catholic body—at any rate, as one who has endeavored to remove all barriers, rather than recognize or cherish any exclusivity.
As evident, Matthew Vassar expressed from the inception of the institution, a willingness to allow a fluid practice and existence of various religious faiths at Vassar College, provided they were of the Christian variety. In fact, this understanding of religion was the standard for many decades until the 1960s when efforts were made around the United States to establish religious studies as a discipline distinct from theology, and to engage with what we today call the history of religions, an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to understanding and interpreting the human condition. Specifically in terms of Vassar College, a Department of Religion emerged devoted to the study of historical bodies of knowledge, texts, and practices apart from those under the label of Christianity. It would take the next decade before the idea of a department unaffiliated with Christianity would set in and establish itself as a fundamental participant in the social sciences.
In 1927, the Biblical Literature Department became the Department of Religion when Vassar women could now officially choose to major in the new field. Christian studies and biblical textuality still stood as the principle foci within the department, yet at this time students began to have the option to lean more philosophically or psychologically in terms of their studies of religion. In 1940, the Senior Thesis became a requirement for the Religion Major.
Over the next decade the department actively refined itself to become as effective and as productive as any religion department nation-wide. While faculty over the last century have come and gone, today in 2010 we have the best faculty available who teach a wide range of courses, from Religion, Media, and Popular Culture, to core courses like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Religions of Asia, as well as courses covering religion and the arts, philosophical inquiries, secularism, social oppression, and politics. In all, the department has a catalogue of over fifty courses and offers students the opportunity to explore many religious traditions from across the globe. The major includes taking eleven courses in the department, encouraging students to have a breadth and depth to their studies, and selecting classes covering the ancient world, western modernity, Asian religiosities, social theory, and any number of religiohistorical fields from around the world.
The Department wishes to thank Morgan Mako for his help in writing this document.
1. Matthew Vassar, "Communications to the Board of Trustees of Vassar College," 23 February 1864.
2. An Administrative History of Vassar College 1861-2003, pp. 53-54.
4. Department of Religion Survey, Vassar College, 18 April 1958, 1-2.
6. 13 February 1989, Inter-Department Announcements, 1-2.