'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.