Dr. Ray L. Hart's credentials in the fields of theology and philosophy of religion are unparalleled.
Over the course of his 60-year academic career he received countless honours and awards, led the founding of over a dozen religious studies departments across the United States, and served as president and Journal editor at the American Academy of Religion.
So when he accepted an invitation from McGill’s School of Religious Studies to serve as a distinguished visiting scholar, he was confident that he knew what to expect.
Yet his one-month visit to McGill “was a remarkable and transformative experience for me,” says Hart. He led a graduate student seminar in philosophy of religion, and “it was the best seminar I’d ever been a part of in my life.”
As a direct result of that one-month visit, Hart is making an extraordinary gift to McGill's School of Religious Studies. His generous contribution, included as a bequest in his will, is expected to be the largest gift made to the School since its founding in 1948, as well as one of the largest bequests to McGill in recent history.
“Although the precise dollar amount of the bequest cannot presently be known, there is no doubt that it will be transformational for the School,” says Professor Garth Green, Director of the School of Religious Studies. “Dr. Hart’s exceptional gift will allow McGill to compete with the world’s leading programs, and will significantly strengthen our capacity in the philosophy of religion.”
It was Green who originally invited Hart to serve as a visiting scholar in the Fall 2018 term. Hart joined several seminars – including a discussion of his most recent book, God Being Nothing – where the students made a deep impression on him. “It was the first time it ever occurred to me to make McGill the institutional caretaker of my legacy.”
“Our students impressed Ray beyond his expectations,” says Green, “with their linguistic competence, theoretical acumen, and historical comprehension – both philosophical and theological. He came to believe that our graduate students in philosophy of religion were the best he’d seen, and that if we lacked anything, it was only the resources necessary to increase the international impact of our model and efforts.”
An American life
Hart was born in western Texas, amid the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The third of eight children, “we were as poor as mice, but we didn’t know it,” he recalls. “We grew almost everything we ate, and somehow we managed.”
He was close to his paternal grandfather, who never attended school but read constantly. After coming across an article on Yale, the first American university to award a PhD, the elder Hart decided his grandson should attend.
Despite the odds, Hart would fulfill his grandfather’s wish. After enrolling at McMurry College in Abilene, Texas, he earned an Arts degree from the University of Texas and a Divinity degree from Southern Methodist University, followed by a Ph.D. from Yale in 1959.
At the time, America’s higher education landscape was expanding rapidly. He taught at Drew University, then Vanderbilt, and foresaw a fundamental academic shift.
“For generations, leadership in religious studies came from theology or divinity schools,” says Hart. “But with the changes in higher education, even state schools were establishing departments of religious studies, and I wanted to have a hand in their formation.” Thus began his long consulting career serving universities across North America.
“Ray is one of the most influential figures of his generation in the field of religious studies and the subfield of philosophy of religion,” says Green. “Although we take the existence and character of religious studies programs for granted today, they exist as such because of his work. It was Ray who brought the American Academy of Religion into the American Council of Learned Societies. Before the 1950s and ’60s, the academic field of religious studies literally didn’t exist.”
Now 92 and retired, Hart’s most recent academic appointment was at Boston University’s School of Theology. He spent over 20 years there in various roles, including Professor, Dean, Chairman of the Department of Religion, and Director of the Graduate Division of Religious and Theological Studies. He and his wife Fern now reside in Montana, on the North Fork of the Flathead River, where they recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.
A living legacy
Hart has a long history with McGill’s School of Religious Studies; he’d served as a program consultant at various points, and had recommended it to several of his advanced doctoral students. His strongest connection to the School is through its director, Garth Green. The two know each other from Boston University, where Hart supervised Green’s Ph.D. and served as his mentor.
“Ray Hart’s generous legacy gift recognizes the quality of our academics, the excellence of our students, and our distinct approach to religious and theological studies,” says Green. “It will give us the resources required to make this approach more widely known.”
McGill is now commencing a fundraising initiative in response to Hart’s extraordinary philanthropy with the goal of establishing a new endowed Chair in the field of Religion and Literature. Fundraising for a chair in Philosophy of Religion is also expected upon receipt of the Hart estate.
“Prof. Hart's very generous bequest is a clear indication of the value and importance of religious studies at McGill,” says Jonathan Birks, chair of the School’s advisory board and a long-standing collaborator. “He was no doubt influenced by the high quality of the School's team, curriculum, and reputation.”
The School already boasts many strengths: an international network of prestigious academic partners, vital relations with its founding external partners in the Montreal School of Theology, and its recent expansion in the areas of Interfaith Studies and Buddhist Studies. Green is the School’s John W. McConnell Chair in Philosophy of Religion, and the fifth successive chair holder to approach the field in a similar way.
All of these qualities have resonated with Hart. “What impressed me about McGill is that it keeps its back bench strong,” he says. “When philosophers retire, they are replaced; there is a perpetual replacement of the values that McGill stands for, and that’s very impressive to me. What I as an individual cannot continue doing, McGill can, and shall.”
What will your legacy be?
McGill is celebrating its 200th anniversary with the goal of securing 200 legacy gifts. For more information, please contact us.
