Truth for Christ and the Church: The Christian Origins of Harvard
Always pointing to the truth that the cross works.
This is the story of Rev. John Harvard and the explicitly Christian origins and purpose of Harvard College, America's oldest institution of higher learning. It explains that the university's primary mission was not secular education as we know it today, but the training of ministers to ensure a biblically literate leadership for future generations.
Who Was Rev. John Harvard?
The text provides a concise biography of a man whose life, though short, had a monumental impact.
-
†
Early Life
John Harvard was born in London in 1607, the son of a butcher. He lived through a devastating plague that killed most of his family, but he survived and inherited a sizable estate.
-
†
Education and Ministry
He attended Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge, a known center for Puritan thought. He was ordained as a minister and, seeking religious freedom, sailed with his wife to Massachusetts in 1637.
-
†
Death and Bequest
He served as a pastor in Charlestown but tragically died just a year later from tuberculosis on September 14, 1638, at the age of 31. On his deathbed, he bequeathed half of his monetary estate (around £780, a fortune at the time) and his entire library of about 400 books to a new college that had been founded two years earlier in nearby Cambridge.
In recognition of his foundational gift, the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted to rename the school Harvard College in his honor.
Harvard's Original Mission 🙏
The most striking part of this historical account is its focus on Harvard's founding purpose. The founders, leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, expressed a fear of "dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches." Their goal was to establish a pipeline of educated, godly pastors to lead the colony after they were gone.
This mission was codified in Harvard's "Rules and Precepts" of 1642, which stated the primary goal for every student:
"...to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life."
(John 17:3)
This was not a minor part of the curriculum; it was the "main end" of life and study at Harvard. The text correctly notes that the vast majority of early American colleges, including Yale and Princeton, were founded with a similar Christian purpose.
Harvard's original motto, Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae ("Truth for Christ and the Church"), was often displayed on a shield featuring three books, underscoring this mission. While the modern motto is simply Veritas ("Truth"), its origins were deeply rooted in Christian theology.
By: Evangelist Dustin Oliver