Transformation at the Syrian Protestant College :the role of liberal Protestant theology and epistemology in the shifting vision of a missionary college -

Abstract

This thesis explores the gradual transformation of AUB away from its original evangelical missionary foundation. It argues that this evolution resulted from an ideological mission creep, a process involving “the gradual broadening of the original objectives of a mission or organization.” In AUB’s case, ideological shifts, as represented by the onset of liberal Protestant theology and epistemology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, are advanced as the basis for the changes that occurred in roughly the first fifty years of its history (1866-1920). Thus, mission creep for AUB occurred when key figures embraced a liberal Protestant mindset, which allowed and even called for a broadening and sometimes a blatant departure from the original vision of its founders. The epistemological and theological shifts of influential American institutions (denominations, colleges and seminaries as well as mission boards) in that era appear to have influenced some of the key figures of AUB’s early history. Thus, this thesis seeks to contextualize AUB’s development within the American Protestant milieu of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is done through an analysis of the religious and intellectual lives of its first two presidents, Daniel and Howard Bliss. By situating AUB’s history squarely within the framework of debates and battles over modernity and liberal Protestantism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America and amongst the various mission boards, this thesis provides a comparative analysis that, thus far, has been lacking in previous scholarship. By adducing the example of Iowa College (now Grinnell College) this thesis makes it possible to understand, in comparative terms, the “home” and “foreign” missions by bringing them together for the purpose of analysis.