In an oral history conducted in 2017, Robert C. Gregg, Teresa Hihn Moore Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, discusses his early life, education, pre-Stanford career, and the lifelong commitments to social justice and research on early Christianity and comparative religions that brought him to Stanford in 1987 as both a professor and the dean of Memorial Church. Recalling his Houston, Texas, childhood, Gregg describes the formative influence of his father, an Episcopalian who encouraged his children to be “in but not of Texas” in terms of racial attitudes. Gregg identifies the beginning of his intellectual life as occurring at age 18, when he left home to study literature at the University of the South (Sewanee). At Sewanee, he also recalls stepping forward politically to protest the university’s censure of faculty members who had participated in bi-racial discussions at the Highlander Folk School and to invite jazz musician Louis Armstrong to campus. Gregg describes how Sewanee faculty persuaded him to attend the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a path that led him to become an Episcopal priest and a historian of religions. Gregg discusses the momentous events of the next few years: his marriage to Mary Layne Shine; his first teaching job at St. George’s School in Newport, Rhode Island; his participation in the voter registration effort in Mississippi; and study for his PhD in early Christianity at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania. As assistant professor at the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, he describes the intellectual exploration of the writings of Arius he began with Dennis Groh, resulting in the important book, Early Arianism: A View of Salvation, published in 1981. Moving to Duke University in 1974, Gregg observes that he was teaching both students seeking ordination as clergy people and graduate students in religious studies. He explains how these teaching demands led him to expand his research interests to the social history of religions. Continuing his earlier commitments, he describes his involvement in the ordination of women to the Episcopal priesthood and briefly discusses racial issues at the university and in the community and tensions between the Divinity School and gay and lesbian students. Gregg had reached a comfortable place in midlife, he recalls, when Stanford University offered a new challenge as both dean of Memorial Church and professor in the Religious Studies and Classics departments. Soon after he arrived in 1987, he explains, his experiences moved him to change his title to the broader Dean for Religious Life and then to hire a staff representing the diverse community he had found at Stanford. He points out the challenges of counseling a community that included staff as well as students and faculty, and he provides accounts of key events such as the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, the first vows of commitment exchanged by a gay couple at Stanford Memorial Church in 1993, and the Dalai Lama’s visit in 1994. Leaving behind the dean’s role to return to research in 1999, he describes the origins of his book, Shared Stories, Rival Tellings and his efforts to create the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies. He concludes by discussing his approach to teaching.
In an oral history conducted in 2017, Robert C. Gregg, Teresa Hihn Moore Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, discusses his early life, education, pre-Stanford career, and the lifelong commitments to social justice and research on early Christianity and comparative religions that brought him to Stanford in 1987 as both a professor and the dean of Memorial Church. Recalling his Houston, Texas, childhood, Gregg describes the formative influence of his father, an Episcopalian who encouraged his children to be “in but not of Texas” in terms of racial attitudes. Gregg identifies the beginning of his intellectual life as occurring at age 18, when he left home to study literature at the University of the South (Sewanee). At Sewanee, he also recalls stepping forward politically to protest the university’s censure of faculty members who had participated in bi-racial discussions at the Highlander Folk School and to invite jazz musician Louis Armstrong to campus. Gregg describes how Sewanee faculty persuaded him to attend the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a path that led him to become an Episcopal priest and a historian of religions. Gregg discusses the momentous events of the next few years: his marriage to Mary Layne Shine; his first teaching job at St. George’s School in Newport, Rhode Island; his participation in the voter registration effort in Mississippi; and study for his PhD in early Christianity at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania. As assistant professor at the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, he describes the intellectual exploration of the writings of Arius he began with Dennis Groh, resulting in the important book, Early Arianism: A View of Salvation, published in 1981. Moving to Duke University in 1974, Gregg observes that he was teaching both students seeking ordination as clergy people and graduate students in religious studies. He explains how these teaching demands led him to expand his research interests to the social history of religions. Continuing his earlier commitments, he describes his involvement in the ordination of women to the Episcopal priesthood and briefly discusses racial issues at the university and in the community and tensions between the Divinity School and gay and lesbian students. Gregg had reached a comfortable place in midlife, he recalls, when Stanford University offered a new challenge as both dean of Memorial Church and professor in the Religious Studies and Classics departments. Soon after he arrived in 1987, he explains, his experiences moved him to change his title to the broader Dean for Religious Life and then to hire a staff representing the diverse community he had found at Stanford. He points out the challenges of counseling a community that included staff as well as students and faculty, and he provides accounts of key events such as the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, the first vows of commitment exchanged by a gay couple at Stanford Memorial Church in 1993, and the Dalai Lama’s visit in 1994. Leaving behind the dean’s role to return to research in 1999, he describes the origins of his book, Shared Stories, Rival Tellings and his efforts to create the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies. He concludes by discussing his approach to teaching.