The new dean of Boston University’s Marsh Chapel said he plans to fuse religion with intellectualism when he takes office next weekend.
Robert Cummings Neville, the former School of Theology dean, was chosen to serve as the university chaplain by BU’s Board of Trustees in early June. As Marsh Chapel dean, he will act as chaplain, delivering sermons at Sunday morning services, and will be responsible for bringing together a school population made up of a myriad of religious ideas.
Neville will take over for Rev. Hope Luckie who resigned last April after spending just over a year as the dean of Marsh Chapel. Luckie told The Daily Free Press in April that she needed to ‘take a Sabbath.’
At that time, university administrators told the Free Press the search for a new dean would take place in conjunction with the searches for a STH dean and a position in the School of Music. BU announced the appointment of STH Dean Ray Hart at the same time they released news of Neville’s selection.
‘Usually this is a time when people meet a lot of people from different religions,’ Neville said, explaining why the chapel plays an important role in the BU community. ‘For undergraduates, going to college is the time where you begin to question your religion.’
One of Neville’s primary goals is to encourage religious questioning of intellectual ideas, and vice versa. Beginning Sunday, Neville said he plans to hold Sunday morning theology classes that will explore the sermon from the previous week. In order to involve a larger group of students and faculty, Neville will post his sermons online early in the week so they can be read by all.
Neville, who came to BU in 1987 as chair of the religion department and will continue to serve as a philosophy, religion and theology professor, said questions of politics, science and medicine must be addressed within a religious context.
Chancellor John Silber agreed intellectualism has an important place in the church. In praising Neville as a preacher, professor and author, Silber said he has read some of Neville’s books and has heard his sermons on two or three occasions. Silber said he looked forward to the return of an academic approach in the chapel.
‘These are thoughtful, intellectually stimulating sermons, as well as spiritually illuminating,’ Silber said in a phone interview early this week. ‘I think he is a very fine preacher, and I think that is what we need in Marsh Chapel. I have been somewhat distressed in recent years by what appeared to me to be an emphasis just on some kind of communality in the service without any real strength in the sermons.’
Silber added it is important for the community’s ‘spiritual leader’ to develop a congregation that looks forward both to attending services and being challenged by them.
Neville said he knew from an early age that he wanted to be a theologian and study the nature of God and religion. Born and raised in Missouri, he went on to study at Yale University, where he received his master’s and doctorate degrees. In 1963, he was ordained as a Methodist minister.
As a professor accustomed to teaching students how to run their own parishes, Neville said he is eager to run his own.
In a letter sent to BU faculty and staff in late August, Neville extended an invitation to the entire BU community to ‘participate in the religious life of Boston University.’
‘I pledge myself to be a theological preacher, erring on the side of aiming too high rather than too low,’ the letter said. ‘I will not patronize the undergraduates but will address them as young members of a community of adults.’
Preaching will be the most rewarding part of his new job, Neville speculated. But he acknowledged uniting students from ‘competing religions’ will be challenging, saying his responsibilities include providing members of all religions Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Confucianism, among others with access to the ‘things that would help their religious lives.’