On Wednesday, February 10, Abhishek Raman, an MDiv candidate at Harvard Divinity School presented on the history of Harvard University's first endowed professorship, the Hollis Professor of Divinity.
At the time of his death, Thomas Hollis was the greatest benefactor that Harvard College had ever known. His gifts amounted to nearly 5,000 sterling pounds, an extraordinary sum and nearly a quarter of the value of the entire Harvard endowment. He established the Hollis Professor of Divinity in 1721, which became the first endowed professorship at an institution of higher education in the Americas.
In his presentation titled, "The Three-legged Chair: College, Church, and Capital," Abhishek began by exploring the evolution of Thomas Hollis' relationship with Harvard and the major theological constraints that were raised by Harvard's Board of Overseers in opposing his gift to the University. One of the main arguments raised by the Harvard administration was Hollis' Baptist faith and how it stood in contrast with Harvard's conservative Congregationalist administration. In colonial Massachusetts, Baptists along with Quakers were looked down upon as radicals, an attitude that was also true of the Congregationalists who governed Harvard at the time. Laws of Massachusetts Bay Colony were designed to keep Baptists and other minority sects considered to be heretical from forming their churches in the colony.
Thereafter Abhishek explored the impact of Hollis' philanthropy at Harvard by introducing the following questions: (1) Was the endowed professorship a tool to generate and accumulate capital for institutions of higher education? (2) Was it an instrument of the elite to maintain their status in the society, and (3) In what ways did Hollis' gift cause other colonial colleges to accelerate their quest to replicate such philanthropy, thereby changing the landscape of philanthropy in higher education.
Abhishek concluded his presentation by providing an overview of how Hollis viewed his relationship to money and introduced the concept of the Christian concept of stewardship. For Hollis it was an act of religious duty to be scrupulous in business, prudent in financial affairs, and generous to those less well off than himself.