But now, he says the school has seen an influx of students of the evangelical tradition, diversifying this liberal Christian bent.

“Other Christians have filled in,” he says. “HDS is no longer what it once was. It’s more diverse in its Christianity.”

Moreover, until recently, HDS has placed other faiths “on the fringe,” says Gordon D. Kaufman, a professor emeritus who taught theology from 1963 to 1995.

But while Christianity remains the subject of choice for an overwhelming proportion of the faculty, it is no longer the sole focus of the School, says Professor Janet Gyatso, who teaches Buddhism at HDS.

“I think the mission has been changed, and that it still has a focus,” she says. “The Divinity School is about religion. It’s not necessarily about Christianity.”

She says that non-Western faiths have found a larger place at the school, encouraging a more general study of religion.

“We started to have a critical mass in non-Western religion, as a result of which in the last 10 years, we have changed our curricular structure,” Gyatso says.

“We’re now integrating non-Western religion, and it’s not just because of a greater number of non-Western courses. The whole understanding of religion and how we study it has shifted.”

And in addition to training some students to be Christian ministers—a program that was one of Harvard’s original goals—Gyatso says that the Divinity School is developing a Buddhist ministry curriculum to complement its Christian counterpart.

‘NO CONSENSUS ON HOW TO ORGANIZE RELIGION’

While there does not seem to be an organized place at the College for religion, Memorial Church Minister Peter J. Gomes says it is by no means obsolete.

“Students are more curious now. A girl who sings in Radcliffe chorus who doesn’t know what [a religious song she is singing] means will inquire about it,” Gomes says. “She might take a course, talk to people and pursue it in one way or another.”

But Gomes recognizes that Harvard has evolved religiously from where it started.

“Harvard is a much more diverse place now,” Gomes says. “There is no consensus on how to organize religion.”

And students say that while religion may play a role in students’ lives, it doesn’t tend to govern the day-to-day.