Professor of Religion

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT additions to the Dartmouth faculty in recent years was made in early January when President Hopkins announced the election of Dr. Earl Cranston '16 of Redlands, Calif., as Phillips Professor of Religion. Dr. Cranston, who at present is Professor and Chairman of the Department of History and Political Science, as well as Director of Social Studies, at the University of Redlands, will assume his new faculty post here on Ju!y 1.

Following his graduation from Dartmouth, Dr. Cranston took a B.D. degree at Drew Theological Seminary in 1920 and was ordained in the Methodist ministry in the same year. He engaged in missionary and educational work in China for the next four years, and again from 1926 to 1928. Between these two periods he did graduate work at Union Theological Seminary and obtained an M.A. from Columbia in 1925. A few years later, in 1931, he received his Ph.D. in History and Government at Harvard University. He has taught at Boston University, West China University, Harvard, State Teachers College in Buffalo, Colgate, and Redlands. The Phillips Professorship which he will hold at Dartmouth was established in 1789.

Dr. Cranston's return to Dartmouth to direct studies in the broad field of religion has been hailed by Dean Bill as "an important and highly significant faculty addition, in keeping with the college's original role in the religious life of New England. The end of the war, now visible, will be an opportune time to reassert to undergraduates the validity of our faith and the fact that religion has been the greatest motive force in history."

In addition to having distinction as a preacher and as a lecturer on social and international problems, Professor Cranston has led an active life outside the classroom. He was a private in the U. S. Ambulance Service during World War I and was decorated by the Italian government. He has participated in many international conferences and commissions, including the National Christian Conference, Shanghai, 1922; Conference on American Relations with China, John Hopkins University, 1925; Seventh International Congress of Historical Sciences, Warsaw, 1933; exchange preacher in Great Britain, 1933; American seminar traveling in Europe, 1937> and lecturer in Church History, Pacific School of Religion, 1940. Last March Dr. Cranston was chairman of the seminar on "The Spiritual Basis of Democracy" which met at Delaware, Ohio, under the sponsorship of various religious organizations.