Jewell Goodbyes: Dr. Milton Horne

Madison Carroll Porth — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 13:00:56 +0000

Dr. Milton Horne, professor of religion, is retiring after 32 years of teaching at William Jewell College. Horne came to Jewell in 1986 and has never taught anywhere else.

Horne had originally planned to be a pastor and attended seminary school at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. At seminary, his fascination with religion began.

“I became interested in religion as a phenomenon to study in seminary, mostly from reading Peter Berger’s book, ‘The Sacred Canopy’ (I would go on and rely heavily upon this book, and his ‘The Social Construction of Reality,’ in my doctoral dissertation.) I was fascinated with Berger’s conception of anomy, alienation and false consciousness as it related to another book I read in my undergraduate career at Univ. of Missouri, Columbia (after I left Indiana University): Erving Goffman’s, ‘The Presentation in Everyday Life,'” Horne said.

Seminary caused Horne to have more questions, which led to him completing his doctorate at the University of Oxford.

“I went to seminary to get questions answered. Instead, I read Berger—while also learning that the meaning of the Bible’s story was up for interpretative grabs—and only struggled with more questions. So, I went from there to Oxford to write a dissertation on the book of Job, suffering, false consciousness, and Goffman’s notion of the front stage and back stage of our lives.”

Upon completing his dissertation, Horne’s mentor recommended he apply for a teaching position at Jewell. Even though Horne submitted his application late, he got the job.

When asked if there was a significant memory or favorite story he would carry with him from Jewell, Horne recalled a particular story that stood out to him.

“Of course, I’ll never forget the student who took me out for a coffee upon graduation to inform me that he was making something of his life by starting a marijuana farm, in Missouri, no less—this was the cutting edge in entrepreneurship, I guess. Hell, he may have been right,” said Horne.

Over the course of the following academic year, courses in the department of religion at Jewell will be discontinued. While Horne is saddened by this decision, he understands the logic of it.

“I’m sad that the Religion department will discontinue (my colleague Dr. Benz will continue to teach religion in the History department). Religion is not going away, in fact it is more likely coming back (e.g., ‘The Revenge of God’). But, for Jewell it is mere cost-benefit and there’s no escaping that at this time in the college’s life. I understand that,” said Horne.

After he retires, Horne plans to build his piano tuning and technology business and will be an adjunct professor for Jewell when needed.

“Plans after retirement? Well, to make a living, I will do what I have done at various stages of my life: build up my piano tuning and technology business. I am a registered piano technician in the Piano Technician’s Guild and have experience that goes back to my apprenticeship in a rebuilder’s shop between the ages of 13-17. I plan to stay in Liberty and see what challenges are around the corner,” Horne said.

When asked if he was excited about his retirement, Horne says part of the excitement is in the unknown of retirement.

“It’s the kind of excitement a runner feels when she is at the starting line, she doesn’t really know how it’s going to turn out, she hopes she doesn’t stumble over the starting block…she knows it’s a new race. So, it’s that kind of excitement.”

Horne says that the thing he will miss the most about Jewell is the community of learning.

“What I’ll miss about Jewell is the community of learning. This is hard to explain to people who don’t work where learning is taught. I’m the one who has probably shown the most progress in learning, simply from being around colleagues who are so thoughtful and smart, in so many disciplines, with so many different life experiences that motivated them to learn. I’ll miss that the most. There will always be good individual students and smart people; but community of learning is rare,” said Horne.

Horne hopes to be remembered as a member of this community of learning.

“When you talk about a legacy you realize that legacies themselves usually last half a generation if at all. So, I’m really not looking for that kind of legacy, I’m far more interested in, if students ever remember that they had a course with me, what I would like for them to remember is that I loved to learn and that really is it…if anything, I would like to be remembered as someone who really, really tried to induct students into a community of learning,” Horne said.

Photos by Mykala Crews.

[Editors’ Amendment: Phrasing within this article was susceptible to misinterpretation. Hence, the following phrase was removed and amended from this article: “This year, Jewell announced that religion courses would be discontinued.”]

Dr. Brad Chance

Chance is the head of the religion department. He received his bachelor of arts from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, his master of divinity fromSoutheastern Baptist Theological Seminary and his doctor of philosophy in religious studies from Duke University. Chance’s area of expertise is in Christian origins, primarily in the books of Luke and Acts. He is also very interested in how religion and culture work together.

“I’m very interested in how religion works socially and particularly the kind of social cultural environment that religion can create to then influence and shape people within that environment,” said Chance.

Chance said that he loves that Jewell is “an interdisciplinary exploration of our ideas.” He also thinks that the caliber of students at Jewell gives him the opportunity to present them with some challenging curriculum and some challenging texts. He likes his colleagues and enjoys Jewell’s environment.

Chance’s favorite class to teach is CTI 238/REL 270 Religion in the Modern Age, because it has the “deepest roots.” The course was once called Religion and Meaning and has been through many changes. He sees this class as important because he believes that one cannot discuss most major issues in today’s world without talking about religion.

“Religion is everywhere whether people like it or not,” said Chance.

Dr. Milton P. Horne

Horne received his bachelor of arts from the University of Missouri, Columbia, his master of divinity from Midwestern Theological Seminary and his doctor of philosophy in theology from Oxford University. His area of expertise is the Hebrew Bible, more specifically the wisdom texts, including the apocryphal books of Ecclesiastics and Wisdom of Solomon.

While Horne is still very interested in the wisdom texts, he finds that he has also become interested in economics’ influence on religion.

“I think economics and religion, for instance, dovetail a lot more than people are aware of,” said Horne.

Like Chance, Horne enjoys the interdisciplinary environment that Jewell creates as well as its students. He also likes the size, because it is a close community.

“They like that kind of close conversation, they like to work with professors, they like interesting research ideas, they like co-curricular activities where you’re talking about the applications of what you might be talking about in the classroom,” said Horne.

He doesn’t have a favorite class, but the three he enjoys the most are CTI 239/REL 272 Judaism, Christianity and Islam, CTI 236/REL 275 Science, Magic and Religion; and CTI 407 The Economics of Well-Being. He likes these three classes for different reasons, but he sees students engage in these classes in a way that he doesn’t see in others.

Dr. Brendon C. Benz

Benz has his bachelor of arts from Taylor University, his master of divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and his doctor of philosophy in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East from the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. His area of expertise is the Hebrew Bible and context, specifically the history of the Ancient Southern Levant and the history of the Ancient Near East as a whole.

Benz said that he’s still working with the topic of his dissertation. In fact, the first book that will come from his dissertation is in the final stages of publication. However, he has become more interested in what he refers to as “a hermetic of relationship,” which means reading the Bible in a way that influences the way an individual forms relationships with others.

Similar to Chance and Horne, Benz likes Jewell because the students’ ability to engage in study in a close and critical way. He also likes that, while Jewell doesn’t reject its history of religious affiliation, it is not defined by that history.

“You can teach the Bible in a critical way and there’s no party line that has to be held and so in that way as opposed to many institutions that I have been affiliated with or know about it is an institution of higher learning,” said Benz.

Benz says his favorite class to teach is REL 110 Introduction to the Bible, because the students are able to suspend their own judgments and embrace new ideas in a way that “really blows their world open.”

“I also like Christianity and Tyranny because at the core of that class is promoting healthy relationship and it’s something that goes beyond knowledge,” said Benz.

Critical Thought and Inquiry (CTI) classes allow students to learn subjects outside of their major and get to know professors in other departments. However, you take only one class in each of the CTI categories, so there are some faculty you may not know. This is the second part of a series of articles highlighting different departments on campus so one can become familiar with the faculty at William Jewell College.

dr. horne – The Hilltop Monitor

Jewell Goodbyes: Dr. Milton Horne

Meet the Department: Religion and Culture