Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

In 1536, the arrival of the Bernese forced the Vaud region to adopt a confessional system, and in the years that followed this led to the creation of an academy dedicated to training pastors. Indeed, the latter proposed above all the teaching of classical readings from Antiquity and knowledge of Latin of the Ciceronian type.^[1] The Academy of Lausanne thus becomes the first French-language Protestant School of Theology.^[2]

The first chair of philosophy was created in 1537 and entrusted to Pierre Viret (1511-1571). The sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw a succession of different professors, including Jean Boeuf (1586-1591), Jean-Benoît Destallens (1603-1610) and Marc de Saussure (1610-1661). In 1644, the Academy created a second chair of theory with Professor Jaques Crespe (1644-1653). The 18th century saw the end of Bernese domination, and the law of 28 May 1806 established five new chairs at the Academy. Theology was then divided into practice, theory and history, and interpretation of the holy books.

The most significant period of the nineteenth century was from 1839 to 1845. It is known as the heyday of intellectuals at the Academy, with renowned professors such as Charles Monnard (1790-1865), Alexandre Vinet (1797-1847), Charles Secrétan (1784-1858) and Juste Olivier (1807-1876) in the fields of philosophy, history, theory, French literature and law. During the Restoration period, the Vaud region became a haven for French intellectuals such as Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869), Poles such as Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855) and Italians such as Luigi-Amedeo Melegari (1807-1888). During the 1830s, the Academy was very much a part of public life in Vaud, and its professors enjoyed great popularity and success. Sainte-Beuve's lectures on the literary life of Port-Royal attracted not only students, but also liberals and a good part of Lausanne society. This is the era of debates on the philosophy of freedom, the role of church and state, and the new economic theories. The latter were the subject of the first free courses given by the Italian outlaw, Melegari ^[3], from December 1840. His teachings attracted listeners and he quickly gained a reputation among Lausanne's intellectual circles. The presence of these prominent men at the Academy was above all an intellectual and social event.

At that time the Liberals were in power in the canton of Vaud, prompting their opponents, the Radicals, to speak of the Academy as a "professors regim" who would train only a certain élite of the country. In fact, the Liberals, influenced by the Enlightenment, wished to rid the canton of Bern conservatism by opting for a modern state and wishing to provide a high level of education for the Vaud elite. Monnard decided to set up a federal university with faculties. It was the Liberals who were behind the law of 21 December 1837 on public education, which aimed to give the Academy "[the] purpose of training men for careers requiring higher education, and of maintaining a scientific and literary culture in the country"^[4]. They would like to focus studies primarily on quality and not on the number of students attending the Academy.

The law of 1837 proposed a major transformation of the Academy: the switch from Latin to French, which contributed to the regularisation of the institution and the creation of three faculties and 17 chairs: Arts, Sciences, Law and Theology. The latter was divided between four departments: History, with Jean-Jacques Herzog-Socin (1805-1882), Systematics, with Samuel Chappuis (1809-1870), and Practical theory. In 1845, the conflicts between the liberals and the radicals became increasingly violent, and after the government was dismissed on 14-15 February, we witnessed the radical revolution, led by Henri Druey, the great defender of democracy. The State Council suspended forty pastors who refused to sign their letter of submission to the government and, in a show of solidarity, a majority of the clergy resigned. This is how schism came about with the creation of the Free Church, independent of the State, as opposed to the National Church.

This separation was due in particular to a new movement that appeared around 1820, the "Réveil". The "mômiers" or methodists, as their followers were known, campaigned for separation between the State and the Church and emphasised the personal value of faith. In response to the success of this movement, a law was passed in 1824 to prohibit all religious associations outside the national church.

Not long after the Liberals came to power in 1831, the new law was abolished in favour of the principle of freedom of worship. However, the majority of the population was opposed to this new freedom. This conflict had a definite impact on the development of the Academy and its chair of Theology, and later its Faculty. In 1845 the liberal government was forced to resign and the radicals took power. The Liberals were not very close to the people and their policies could appear to be euphemistic. The Radicals were closer to the people and advocated the submission of the Church to the State. After the revolution of February 1845, the Radicals dictated the law of 12 November 1846 on higher public education and abolished the freedom of study and teaching, contrary to their principles, and the number of professorships was reduced from 17 to 13.

A few months later, on 2 December 1846, the "academic coup d'état" took place. Eight teachers, including Alexandre Vinet and Charles Secrétan, received a letter from the Council of State informing them that they had not been re-elected. They are dismissed because they attend religious assemblies outside the national church. Moreover, a liberal like Vinet tended to want to break the subordination of the Church to political power and its variations. The radicals saw the academy as a breeding ground for masters with a fervent following. Their relations with the aristocrats, whom they readily equated with the mômiers, were strained. This coup d’état was a turning point in the history of the Academy and its transformation into a university. With this in mind, the radicals would like to restructure the Academy and make it an institution for all and no longer for the elite.

The academic year 1845/1846 was to prove disastrous for the Faculty of Theology, which found itself at the centre of the pastoral dispute. Three professors remained after Vinet's dismissal. Shortly afterwards, however, Herzog-Socin and Chappuis resigned in solidarity with the pastors. All that remained was César Dufournet (1790-1870) as professor at the Faculty of Theology. This crisis led to the creation of a second faculty outside the Academy: the free Faculty of Theology.

It was not until around ten years later that the intellectual vigour of pre-1845 was restored, along with the number of ordinary professors and students. Many of the best students enrolled in the new Faculty^[5]. This loss would nonetheless be offset by the exponential growth of the sciences within the academy. This crisis, both political and ecclesiastical, shook the Academy violently.

From the institution of the University in 1890, professors of Theology were aware of the need for a scientific approach to religion. Theologians were concerned to conduct theory in the present, i.e. in constant contact with the problems and questions of our time^[6]. In this first half of the twentieth century, the teaching of theory remained centred on four disciplines: exegesis of the Old and New Testaments, the history of religions and the history of Christianity, systematic theory (dogmatics and morals) and practical preparation for pastoral ministry. In addition, we can add the appearance of the history of modern theology, from 1895, with Professor Paul Chappuis as well as the option of free courses such as sacred music, missions, hygiene issues or the historical geography of Palestine.

At the end of the nineteenth century, in parallel with the development of cultural anthropology, the science of religion^[7] began to make its appearance, like the psychology of religion (or religious philosophy), but as secondary disciplines. These two disciplines remain on the fringes due to the absence of a specific professor or because they are taught by professors from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (SSP).

In 1945, the sociology of religion was introduced and a few years later, ethics became the new flagship discipline.

In March 1966, the Faculty of Theology of the University and that of the Free Church merged, increasing the number of staff. The result was a united church that was open to all and respected the spiritual autonomy of each individual. The professors of the Free Church are automatically professors at the University, even if some of them do not hold a doctorate. The number of professors increased from 8 to 12 and the number of students from 32 to 52.

In 1968, the French Swiss Institute of Biblical Sciences (IRSB) was created as a new research instrument for the Faculty. In 1988, the French-Speaking Pastoral Institute was created to promote research in practical theory, ecclesiology and the humanities. With this in mind, the Faculty strengthened its research role and opened up new horizons with the creation of the Interfaculty Department of History and Religious Studies (DIHSR) in 1989. The creation of this department reflects a desire to broaden the scope of theology beyond the subjects required to train the pastors of the Vaud church. It is now possible to study religions scientifically from a non-confessional angle. As part of its commitment to openness, the Faculty now welcomes teachers who are no longer necessarily Protestant and who can have children without being married. The Faculty of Theology is gradually moving towards a deeper understanding of the Christian tradition and debates on the religious dimension in parallel with the anthropological and social dimension.

The Faculty of Theology moved to the Dorigny site in 1987. Its proximity to other faculties opened up dialogue between disciplines such as cultural anthropology, philosophy, history and oriental languages and civilisations. In addition, ethics, which is traditionally studied in theology, integrates law, medicine and political science. This led to the creation of an Interfaculty Department of Theology in 1993.

In September 2004, as part of the Triangle Azur^[8] partnership, an agreement was signed by the political authorities of Vaud, Geneva and Neuchâtel and the respective rectorates of the three universities with the aim of distributing the various centres of excellence in theology and religious studies. For example, the University of Lausanne has made biblical and religious studies its main focus. The same year, the Faculty of Theology founded the first chair in French-speaking Switzerland devoted to the study of Judaism.

For several years the number of students in the Faculty has been fairly stable, but the master in Theology has been losing students to the Religious Sciences Master. In all, there are just under 100 students, plus another hundred from other faculties who are completing their university studies with courses in theory and religious studies.

From the start of the 2006/2007 academic year, the Faculty of Theology became the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies (FTSR), while also comprising three research institutes: the Institut romand des sciences bibliques, the Institute Religions, Cultures, Modernity (IRCM) and the Institute of Social Sciences of Contemporary Religions (ISSRC). The ISSRC is a non-confessional, multidisciplinary research centre whose aim is to analyse religious phenomena from a psychological, sociological and anthropological perspective. Since 1999, it has also included the Observatory of Religions in Switzerland (ORS), founded by Roland Campiche, Professor of Sociology of Religions, and headed since 2002 by Prof. Jörg Stolz.

The Observatory of Religions in Switzerland (ORS), founded by Roland Campiche, Professor of Sociology of Religions, and headed since 2002 by Prof. Jörg Stolz.

In recent years (2008), some professors in the Religious Studies section would have liked to see Protestant theory no longer taught at the University of Lausanne. It was envisaged that a French-Speaking Theology School would be set up outside a French-speaking Swiss university. This would mean that future pastors would no longer have a university education. The rector of UNIL, Dominique Arlettaz^[9], fervently condemns the lack of continuity in the teaching of philosophy at the university. It notes the different approaches taken by the sciences of religion and theology to the same subject of study, while at the same time allowing for fruitful collaboration and the possibility of opening up new debates. The Faculty of Theology has also opened up to new fields, such as the science of religion, in line with society's expectations. The fundamental aspect remains the independence of the university from political power and the national church, in order to maintain objectivity and autonomy in research and teaching.

Emilie Arbellay - UNIRIS 2014

^[1] It also offers teaching in the three ancient languages (Greek, Hebrew and Latin), in the liberal arts, and in natural and moral philosophy; cf. Karine Crousaz, La naissance progressive de l'Académie de Lausanne, September 2010, available at: https://www2.unil.ch/dorigny40/la-naissance-progressive-de-lacademie-de-lausanne/index.html (accessed 9 July 2014).

^[2] Ditto.

^[3] Alias Thomas EMERY.

^[4]Nathalie Gardiol, Le coup d'Etat académique du 2 décembre 1846, Lausanne: Université de Lausanne, 1987, p. 14.

^[5] Which was officially created at the synod of 9 June 1847 and which would have its premises in private houses such as that of the Cèdres or the Brasserie; cf. Centenary of the Faculté de théologie. De l’Eglise évangélique libre du canton de Vaud (1847-1947), Lausanne: Etudes théologiques et documents, 1947, p. 8.

^[6] Bernard Reymond, «L’esprit de plus de quatre siècles», UniLausanne, Lausanne: Université de Lausanne, n°67, 1997, p. 15.

^[7] Understood as the study of religious traditions in their diversity, as an understanding of the religious phenomenon and religions; positing itself as objective or empirical, it claims its indeacute;independence, both from theory and from philosophy (philosophies of religion or philosophies of religion), and it intends to ensure its own scientific independence, in Pierre Gisel, La théologie face aux sciences religieuses: différences et interactions, Genève: Labor et Fides, 1999, p. 20.

^[8] Which is a cooperative network between the universities of Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchâtel; cf. www.triangle-azur.ch (consulted on 9 July 2014). There is a partnership in Protestant Theology and Religious Studies between these three universities.

^[9] «Lausanne sans théologie, une rumeur infondée», interview with Dominique ARLETTAZ on 27 June 2008 for www.bonnenouvelle.ch, monthly website of the Eglise réformée vaudoise.