A History of the School of Church Music of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1944-1959

Abstract

The purpose of the dissertation was to construct a history of the School of Church Music of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from its beginnings through the 1958-1959 school year. Chapter 2 examined the events antecedent to the enrollment of the first class of students in September of 1944. Chapter 3 examined the initial curriculum leading to the Bachelor of Sacred Music degree, as well as the more significant persons and events of the first three years of the school's life. Chapter 4 treated the next phase of the school's development, the implementation of a curriculum for the Master of Sacred Music degree. Together these chapters constitute the first era of the school's life, that under the leadership of Seminary president Ellis Adams Fuller.

Chapter 5 examined the transitional period in the school's life from the death of Fuller in 1950 to the election of Forrest Henry Heeren, the school's first dean, in 1952. The changes in the school brought about by this change in leadership were studied. Chapter 6 dealt with the curriculum, issues, and events of the first few years of Heeren's tenure as dean, up to and including the elimination of the Bachelor of Sacred Music degree curriculum from the school's catalogue. Chapter 7 examined the implementation of a curriculum leading to the Doctor of Sacred Music degree, and the events attending the observance of the Seminary's hundredth anniversary in 1959. These two chapters formed a study of the early years of Heeren's deanship.

Chapter 8 examined the similarities and differences between the first two administrations of the School of Church Music. The greatest similarity was in the common recognition of the need for trained leadership in church music of churches of the Southern Baptist Convention. The differences revolved around the personalities of the leadership, their assessments of the kind of needs the churches had and how they best could be met, and the status of the school within the organization of the Seminary.