The God and Divinity Roots of America’s Most Famous College: Harvard

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Harvard became a global symbol of academic achievement, it began as a school to train Puritan ministers. The Bible was at the center of its curriculum, guiding the values and vision of its founders. As part of our ongoing series, Robert Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America, shares the story of how Harvard’s divinity roots influenced generations of leaders — and why that heritage still matters in understanding the college’s place in American history.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Our
founding fathers, both Christian and non Christian, were heavily influenced
by the Bible. You to share. Another story is Robert Morgan,

(00:30):
who's the author of one hundred Bible Verses that made America.
Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
After the Pilgrims landed on Cape Cod in sixteen twenty,
large numbers of Puritans and Separatists began arriving in New
England seeking freedom for religion. The Puritans arrived in Massachusetts
Bay by the boatloads during the Great Migration, the Puritan
Migration of the sixteen thirties, and many of them were

(01:05):
very well educated. They were graduates of England's leading universities,
especially a Manual College in Cambridge. Many were theologians, pastors,
and Bible scholars. One thing was paramount on the minds
of those who settled into the New World. They wanted
to establish a school in the colonies, especially for the

(01:27):
training of ministerial students. As someone explained in the sixteen
forty three booklet called New England's first fruits. After God
had carried us safe to New England, and we had
built our houses, provided necessities for our livelihood, reared convenient
places for God's worship, and settled the civil government. One

(01:48):
of the next things we longed for and looked after
was to advance learning and perpetuate it to our posterity,
dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the church, which
is when our present ministers lie in the dust. So
on September the eighth of sixteen thirty six, the legislature

(02:09):
of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay voted to create the
first college in America. The record say the Court agrees
to give four hundred pounds towards a school or college,
whereof two hundred pounds shall be paid next year, and
two hundred pounds when the work is finished. The very
next year, sixteen thirty seven, the General Court appointed twelve

(02:33):
eminent men as trustees of that college. That very same year,
a young clergyman from England arrived on American shores. His
name was John Harvord, and he was described as a
godly man and a lover of learning. Harvard was born
in sixteen oh seven. The son of a butcher and

(02:55):
a tavern owner in a village near London. In sixteen
twenty five, the Boobonic plague wiped out most of his family.
His mother survived and she was able to send him
to Cambridge. John was ordained as a dissenting minister, which
meant that he joined the Puritans, who resisted the oversight
of the Anglican Church. He married a girl named Anne

(03:17):
Saddler in sixteen thirty seven, and the next year they
emigrated to New England, where John became an assistant preacher
in Boston. But he was battling tuberculosis and he died
the next year at the age of thirty. He bequeathed
half of his property and all of his library of

(03:38):
four hundred volumes to this new college. In appreciation for
his generosity. The new school was named for him, Harvard.
The doors opened and a student handbook was published. It
was called Laws and Statutes for Students of Harvard University.
Among other things, it said, everyone shall consider the main

(03:59):
end of life and studies is to know God and
to know Jesus Christ, which is eternal life. John seventeen,
verse three. And it said, seeing that the Lord gives wisdom.
Everyone shall seriously, by prayer in secret seek wisdom from
Him Proverbs two, verses two and three. And it also

(04:23):
says everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the scriptures
twice a day, that they be ready to give an
account of their proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of
language and logic, and in practical and spiritual truths, as
their tutor shall require, according to their several abilities, respectively,

(04:45):
seeing that the entrance of the word gives light Psalm
one hundred and nineteen, verse one thirty. Some time later,
Harvard adopted the matto veritus christo ech Ecclesia Latin for
Truth for Christ and the Church. The motto was followed
by an explanatory reference to John eight thirty two, which

(05:09):
provides the only sure foundation for a sound education. And
you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set
you free. Today's educators are prone to forget the contributions
to education made by those who came to this new
world with a love for the Bible and the desire
for boys and girls to learn to read so that

(05:31):
they might read the Bible, and with the desire that
men and women be trained for godly living and for
Christian service. Just consider the contribution that Americans made to
American literacy and education even before the United States became
an established nation. Yale was started by the Congregationalists, William

(05:53):
and Mary was established by the Episcopalians, Colombia was founded
by the Episcopalians, Northwestern was started by the Methodists, Princeton
by the Presbyterians, Brown University by the Baptist and even
the University of Tennessee in my own neck of the
Woods was started by a Presbyterian minister named Samuel Carrick

(06:15):
to provide students with a Christian, non denominational educational experience.
Doctor Alvin Smidt, in his book on the Influence of Christianity, wrote,
every collegiate institution founded in the Colonies prior to the
Revolutionary War, except for the University of Pennsylvania, was established

(06:37):
by some branch of the Christian Church. Ninety two percent
of all of the colleges and universities founded prior to
the Civil War were founded by Christian denominations. Doctor Schmitt
said cathedral schools, episcopal schools, monasteries, medieval university, schools for
the blind and deaf, Sunday schools, modern grade schools, secondary schools,

(06:59):
modern cos ologies, universities, and universal education. All of these
have one thing in common. They are the products of Christianity.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to
Robert Morgan, who is the author of one hundred Bible
verses that made America, defining moments that shaped our enduring
foundation of faith, the story of the founding of Harvard University.
Here on Our American Stories. Leehabibe here the host of

(07:33):
our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing
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(07:56):
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