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the Gospel By the 1960s, professors Jim Wroten, T. W. Lewis, and Lee Reiff were the anchors of a respected Religion department at Millsaps, teaching with committed enthusiasm and objectivity the courses of the day. Students were required to take a two-semester Religion course on the Old and New Testaments, and department majors were most likely headed into ministry. Professor Lewis, himself a 1953 Millsaps alumnus, had originally been hired on a temporary basis in 1959. The College was fortunate that it made the position permanent. Among his many contributions, Lewis, along with Reiff, developed one of the earliest models of team-teaching on campus (now utilized so successfully as part of the College’s Heritage program) to teach the year-long course on Hebrew Teachings and the New Testament. With his passion for teaching and devotion to his students, Lewis would prove to be an invaluable faculty member as the College and the department of Religion prepared for another test. Wholesale changes were being made on campuses across the country as long-standing beliefs were being questioned. In the next decade, Lewis and other professors of religion witnessed significant changes in the academic landscape. “When I first arrived on campus, the department at Millsaps, and at most other schools, was biblically oriented,” Lewis recounts. “Courses on the prophets, the teachings of Jesus, and church history were the foundation of the curriculum. In the mid to late ’60s, schools began to recognize that while an educated person should be familiar with biblical literature, an awareness of other traditions was necessary for the well-rounded student.” Religious studies began to be recognized as an academic discipline, evidenced by new curricula in religion departments as well as the establishment of religion departments at public colleges and universities. Because of its ideals of openness, Millsaps was poised to enhance the Religion department’s already ecumenical stance. The result was a broadening focus for the department. For the first time, students were given the choice of what course to take to fulfill their Religion requirement. The department developed different courses to accommodate this choice. Course titles like “Ways of Being Religious,” “Religion and Literature,” and “Religion and Science” appeared on the department schedule. “We were being responsive to the times,” Lewis points out. Also responsive to Major Millsaps’s spirit and the College’s mission. The New Covenant By 1985, when Professor Steven Smith arrived on campus, the department had been transformed into a more diverse unit. Students with plans for ministerial work were occasionally choosing Religion as a major, but many chose different paths through the liberal arts environment. The curriculum still offered classes on the Bible, but now also encompassed many divergent views and fields of study. In 1992, the department’s name changed to reflect the academic nature of the field. “Religion” became “Religious Studies.” Smith credits one of his undergraduate professors at Florida State University with kindling his interest in religion and philosophy. He received a master’s degree in Religious Ethics and Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and a doctorate in Religion from Duke University. As a professor in both the Philosophy and Religion departments, Smith draws on his own broad education daily: “Millsaps as a whole, and we in the Religious Studies department, try to show students that it is necessary and useful to think critically, with a broad information base. I hope to help them stretch past, or step out of, certain preconceptions they may have about the world of religion.” Smith certainly stretches past most people’s preconceptions about religion professors. He wrote the original score, handled musical direction, and produced the soundtrack for the Millsaps Players’ 1998 production of Sophocles’ Electra. As a musician and songwriter, he plays in a band called The Assemblers and has written a musical titled Real Life, The Idea, which has been produced as a CD. And while he may march to the beat of a different drummer in class or on stage, he keeps things in step as Chair of the Religious Studies department. Rasa Lemmond, a 1999 graduate and former Ford Fellow, didn’t even know the Religious Studies department existed when she first arrived on campus. Research for another class led her as a freshman to the doors of the department. Three years later, having reassessed her goal of receiving a business degree, Lemmond had a B.A. degree in Religious Studies. She says she was profoundly moved by her experience in the department. “The RS department really gave me a bigger understanding of the world,” she says enthusiastically. “I was exposed to new avenues of thought and ideas that I never knew existed.” Exhibiting the practicality of a liberal arts education, Lemmond now works in the dot-com industry in San Francisco. She has no doubt that her experience in Religious Studies regularly helps her. “The major gave me the tools I need to address moral and ethical problems I face professionally, as well as to better understand my coworkers. I’m much more aware of my behavior and attitudes and how they affect my dealings with others.” PREVIOUS ARTICLE | PAGE 2 OF 3 | NEXT PAGE |