Edwin M. Yamauchi
Ancient History, Miami University (Ohio)
After receiving my Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1964 I began teaching ancient history at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, a venerable school which was established in 1766. The department was relatively small but distinguished with a number of leading Marxist historians.
The most prominent was Eugene Genovese, the foremost authority on slavery in the western hemisphere. Gene had been kicked out of the Communist Party when he was a student at Brooklyn College. During a gubernatorial election in the Vietnam era, Gene outraged public sentiment by saying in a public meeting that he would welcome a victory by the Vietcong.
Denied Tenure
By my papers, publications, and extracurricular activities my evangelical Christian commitment became public knowledge. I was the faculty advisor to Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, and invited Norman Anderson, a well known British evangelical then a visiting professor at Harvard, to speak at the chapel at Rutgers. I also led a weekly Bible study for faculty.
Even though I had a forthcoming monograph with Harvard University Press, I was denied tenure. Though my Christian commitment may have been an unstated factor in my being denied tenure there, I do not think it was the main reason. My successor who was a Marxist was also denied tenure.
I then became an associate professor in 1969 at Miami University, the most selective public state university in Ohio, and in 1973 I was promoted to full professor in a large department, which was second only to that at Ohio State University.
As years passed I received a four-word postcard from Gene,
“Ed, you were right.”
Gene, who had been an atheist, had married a prominent feminist scholar, Elizabeth Fox Genovese. Betsy had become a convert to Catholicism, and Gene had joined her, much to the shock of his colleagues.
One of his friends, a distinguished historian from Cambridge who taught in our department, declared with amazement, “Gene is trying to convert me!”
Gene and Betsy have spoken at Wheaton College, and at conferences sponsored by Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. The evangelical historian, Mark Noll, formerly at Wheaton and now at Notre Dame, has recently dedicated one of his books to Gene.
Gene started a new Historical Society, and Betsy edited its journal. I was invited by Gene to chair a session on “Reconstruction of Jewish Communities” at a conference of his society held in Atlanta, which resulted in an article published in The Journal of the Historical Society 4 (2004), 1-25. Gene also asked me to share with him information on Solomon for the magnum opus, which he and Betsy wrote, The Mind of the Master Class (2005).
During the five years I taught at Rutgers I never did explicitly share my faith with Gene nor any other colleagues, but neither did I hide my light under “a bushel.” But they seemed to take note of my faith conviction.
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© 2008 Edwin M Yamauchi Used by permission of Faculty Commons