Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 32, number 2, July 1939

'Bulletin of
COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

DECATUR, GEORGIA

Vol. XXXII

JULY, 1939

No. 2

RETURN POSTAGE GUARANTEED

Entered as second-class matter, May 9, 1928, at the post office at Decatur, Ga., under the Act of August 24, 1912.

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY AT DECATUR, GEORGIA

REV. MANFORD GEORGE GUTZKE, D.D.

Professor-Elect of English Bible and Religious Education

COLUMBIA SEMINARY RECEIVES A
CONDITIONAL GIFT OF $100,000

REV. MANFORD GEORGE GUTZKE

Announcement has recently been made through the
church and secular press that Rev. Manford George

Gutzke, D.D., of Sher-
man, Texas, has been
elected Professor of
English Bible and Re-
ligious Education in
Columbia Theological
Seminary. This bulletin
of the Seminary will
be devoted largely to
providing the friends of
the institution with a
more adequate intro-
duction to the new
member of its faculty.

Dr. Gutzke was born
July 20, 1896, in On-
tario, Canada, being a descendant of German-speaking,
Lithuanian settlers in that country. He was reared in
Western Canada, where he lived until he moved to Texas
in 1927. During his early manhood, which was de-
voted largely to work as a school teacher, he was an
honest agnostic, doubting the existence of a personal God
and with no confidence in the authority of Scripture
nor the authenticity of the Christian Gospel. He accepted
Christian ethics and morals as the highest known to

man, but considered that man was his own redeemer and
that any salvation which he might achieve would be the
consequence of his own intelligent labor. His revolu-
tionary change of convictions and his experience of con-
version came as a result of personal interviews with an
aged Christian farmer and of his own careful, reflective
reading of the New Testament. The intellectual processes
and the spiritual experience through which he came to
faith in Christ have exerted a profound influence upon all
his later ministry, and have made him very definitely a
man with a message for our day.

For two years during the World War Dr. Gutzke was
a soldier of Canada and served during the latter part of
that time as a member of the Canadian Army Gymnastic
Staff. His vigorous physique made him outstanding in
several athletic sports, and in 1918 he was boxing champion
of the Canadian Army Headquarters Gymnastic School at
Ottawa. At the close of his military service he entered
the University of Manitoba in preparation for his chosen
profession of law, but through a remarkable personal ex-
perience he became convinced of his call to enter the min-
istry and began to prepare himself for that work. After
winning high academic honors during his two years in the
University of Manitoba he completed his undergraduate
work at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where
he graduated with straight "A's" and was elected a mem-
ber of the Alpha Theta Pi, the honorary scholastic fra-
ternity of the University.

Dr. Gutzke received his early theological training as a
student of the Dallas Seminary. He withdrew from that
institution before graduation to complete his preparation
for the ministry under the oversight of the Education
Committee of Dallas Presbytery and the advice of the

faculty of Austin Theological Seminary. He was ordained
as pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dallas
and served that congregation for eight and a half years
before being called to the Chair of English Bible and Re-
ligious Education in Austin College. In recognition of his
outstanding service as a pastor and preacher he was awarded
the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by Austin
College in 1936.

As a University student Dr. Gutzke majored in psy-
chology but also devoted a large part of his attention to
other sciences and to philosophy. He has continued his
studies in psychology and in sociology and on June 6,
1939, he received the Master of Arts Degree from Southern
Methodist University, having written his thesis on "The
Function of Counselling in the Protestant Church." It is
his desire to take further graduate study in Religious Edu-
cation at Yale University as a candidate for the Ph. D.
degree and, in accordance with its policy of encouraging all
full professors to hold an earned doctor's degree, the Semi-
nary will grant him leave of absence for that purpose at
appropriate intervals during the next several years.

As a student and teacher of the Bible, Dr. Gutzke has
already established himself as a man of unusual ability.
His work as a Professor of English Bible and Religious
Education at Austin College has been outstandingly suc-
cessful and the testimony of his students indicates that his
courses have been notable both for their intellectual con-
tent and for their spiritual value. Dr. Gutzke has also
been in constant demand throughout the Synod of Texas
and elsewhere for work in Young People's Conferences
and for evangelistic services in the churches, the number
of his engagements having been limited only by the time
and strength which he had available for them. Among

his other engagements for the present summer is one to
conduct the Bible Hour at the Home Missions Conference
in Montreat during the second week in August.

Dr. Gutzke will be at home on the campus of Columbia
Seminary with Mrs. Gutzke and their four fine children
after September 1st. A description of the courses which
he will offer has been published in the new catalogue of
the Seminary, and he will enter upon his new duties with
the opening of the school year on Thursday, September the
14th.

COLUMBIA SEMINARY RECEIVES A CONDITIONAL
GIFT OF $100,000

One of the outstanding needs of Columbia Seminary
for years has been found in its lack of an adequate endow-
ment. Thanks to the gifts received in its Atlanta Cam-
paign of 1936 the institution is now entirely free of debt,
but its operation without deficit for the past six years has
been made possible only by heavy sacrifices on the part of
its professors and by generous individual gifts to its current
support. Recognizing that for efficient operation the in-
stitution needs a minimum of $200,000 in additional en-
dowment funds, a friend of the Seminary in Atlanta has
recently offered to contribute one half of that amount if
other friends of the institution in the five supporting
Synods will subscribe an equal sum within the next two
years. At its meeting in May the Board of Directors ac-
cepted this offer with deep appreciation and ordered that
plans be made for the securing of the total which is needed.

It is not often in these years that a single gift of such
size is made to a church institution, or that other members

of the Church have an opportunity to see their gifts to a
great church enterprise doubled in value through the
generosity of another. We do not believe that the Presby-
terians of the Southeast will allow the challenge of such
a possibility to go unanswered. All contributions toward
the securing of this amount will be gratefully received and
the President of the Seminary will be glad to correspond or
to confer with any one who may be interested in this op-
portunity to make a lasting investment for the good of the
Church. There are many ways in which such gifts to the
Seminary may also be used to establish a lasting memorial
to some loved one.