The Iowa Plan

In the folklore of modern secular education, it is widely held that college religion courses, to be admissible, must have all the faith squeezed out of them. In consequence, many U.S. colleges load their religion curricula with "safe" and secular subjects, e.g., the Bible as literature and contemporary religious ideals. The School of Religion at the State University of Iowa has long disagreed. There, along with conventional, basic religion courses, a harmoniously working faculty of Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish clergymen give honest representations of their respective religious teachings in separate courses and for college credits.

Last week in Iowa City the university celebrated the 25th anniversary of its experiment in "cooperation without compromise." A mixed group of religious leaders came to praise the school's work. Among them: Davenport's Roman Catholic Bishop Ralph L. Hayes, Des Moines' Methodist Bishop Charles W. Brashares, Des Moines' Rabbi Eugene Mannheimer. They just missed a chance to watch a typical example of cooperation in action. Fortnight before, a young Southern Baptist minister, the Rev. Kenneth P. Berg, had passed his oral examination for his Ph. D. in religion. His examiners, who learnedly discussed his thesis on Calvinism : Dr. M. Willard Lampe (Presbyterian), the School of Religion's director, Dr. Marcus Bach (Evangelical and Reformed), Father Robert Welch (Catholic), the Rev. Cyrus Pangborn (Congregationalist). Rabbi Frederick Bargebuhr, plus two members of the university's history department.

University officials spent six years persuading various denominations to support the experiment (e.g., Catholic participation required formal permission of the local bishop). Moreover, since S.U.I, is state-supported, it was felt that only the director's salary and administrative expenses could be included in the university budget. The denominations agreed to pay the faculty salaries, however, and John D. Rockefeller Jr. gave $35,000 to get the project going.

Today the School of Religion has a seven-man staff: four Protestants, two Jews, one Roman Catholic. All of them take a hand at teaching such basic "informational" courses as Religion in Human Culture. Besides this, however, each instructor gives several courses in his own religion's teachings, e.g., Contemporary Protestant Thought, The Catholic Faith. Readings in the Hagiographa.

In the spring semester they have taught a total of 690 students, roughly one-tenth of the student body. Commented an S.U.I. undergraduate : "Around here we think it's a helluva good idea."

Since the Iowa Plan was founded, other state-supported universities have patterned their departments of religion after it. And in 25 years, the plan has made religion an integral part of S.U.I.'s college life. Says Director Lampe: "The basic idea . . . is this: religion, theoretically and practically, is inseparable from education; hence it should be taught, even in a tax-supported institution like the State University of Iowa, not indirectly or surreptitiously, but unapologetically, comprehensively and in line with the best educational practice."

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