ANN ARBOR—Every winter semester, a minor miracle occurs as University of Michigan students crowd into the Natural Science Auditorium to study the Bible. Coming with countless backgrounds and motivations, the students never fail to fill beyond capacity Prof. Ralph Williams’ annual course “The Bible in English.”

The usual enrollment of 350 makes his one of the most popular courses at the University.

Williams, associate professor of English and director of the Program on Studies in Religion, sees the material as a main draw. “Many have known it partially in one context or another,” he says, but to study the text in a university environment is a particularly freeing experience. “Because such study, here, does not presume commitment. It is about what one may think, if one chooses, and not about what one must believe.”

The Biblical texts “do wish commitment,” Williams adds, and the chance for students to accept or refuse believe is an exciting and “wholly mature freedom.”

One reason for its popularity, says Josh Ginsberg of Ambler, Pa., U-M senior majoring in English, may be that all English majors are required to take one course in literature “before 1600,” a category that the Bible certainly fulfills.

Josie Kearns, one of the seven graduate student instructors for the course, says that the controversy around the texts is a more important inspiration for the large enrollment. Students who have grown up with a Christian background “often come just to learn something new that they hadn’t seen before. Others just want to know what is in the text, either to seek spiritual answers, or reject them.”

Fritz Swanson, U-M junior majoring in English from Jackson, Mich., agrees. “Love it or hate it, we are all a part of Western culture. And the Christian Bible is one of the foundations of Western thought.”

Peter Gluck, also a graduate student instructor, says the subject matter draws students. Especially, he adds, “as a university that tends to avoid religious issues, the students’ interests are funneled into the few courses that even touch upon religion.” The Bible course’s popularity is sparked by a lack of many other chances to approach religion from a scholarly perspective.

The University does have a program in religious studies, but Gluck says the enrollment in the Bible course suggests that the program may not be large enough.

Despite Williams’ modest insistence, however, the material is not the only attraction of the course. Officially, Williams has been named U-M’s most popular professor only once, in 1992, when students voted to award him the Golden Apple, an annual honor bestowed upon a professor by student vote. The testimony of his students, however, suggests that his style as a teacher is nearly as important as the subject.

“I wanted to learn about the Bible from such a phenomenal professor,” Erin Galligan, U-M senior from Grand Rapids, Mich., majoring in English.

And “phenomenal” Williams has proven to be, by living up to his standard that a professor must have “absolute commitment to developing the best potential without reserve, at the disposal of the students.”

His ability to learn every student’s name in a class of 350 is just one, small sign of his commitment. His success as a dramatic orator is another, Galligan said. The emotion and effort he puts into each lecture comes across to the students, and they, in turn, become emotionally involved in the subject matter. “Sometimes he would sing spirituals or recite long passages from the Bible to help express how strongly the texts can appeal to the heart.”

or Janet Nellis Mendler

University of Michigan