Early years and education Bernard Iddings Bell was born in
Dayton, Ohio, the second of four children to Charles Wright Bell, a paper manufacturer, and Valentia Bell,
née Iddings. His siblings were Florence, Myrta, and Alfred. They were of Portuguese descent. Several early experiences helped to shape Bell's "maverick" ideas and character.
Russell Kirk, author of
The Conservative Mind and friend of Bell, related the following anecdote
in memoria:In educating his only son (who died at the threshold of manhood), in extensive travel, and in devotion to his ordained duties as a priest, he spent his money as it came: and that on principle. For when Bell was a little boy, he learned something from his grandmother. His grandparents, straitened in their means, had been frugal, saving all their lives to build and furnish a house to their liking. In old age they achieved their end, and their house was built and well furnished; and just then Bell's grandmother discovered that she was suffering from an incurable malignant cancer. Put to bed, she had her grandson called in, and said this to him: "Bernard, your grandfather tells me that they are going to put me under drugs soon, and then I will not be able to talk to you. So I want to tell you now what I have learnt from life. I have had a long life and a rather hard one, and I have learnt this:
Never save any money."Charles and Valentia raised their children in the
Episcopal Church, which at the time was considered evangelical but by the 1930s "would probably be given the name Fundamentalist." Bell recalled that as a child, his mother once told him that God was in Heaven and that Heaven was "up there," so he imagined God to be a silvering gentleman who lived on the roof and looked like "a somewhat glorified copy of my paternal grandfather." Struck by this vision of human salvation, he became profoundly disillusioned with the church and ceased praying, except intermittently and perfunctorily. The following year, he entered
Western Theological Seminary to study
sacred theology, but found himself "more than a little oppressed by the stifling smell of controversies long dead." of St. Christopher's Church in
Oak Park, Illinois from 1910 to 1913.
St. Paul's Cathedral In the summer of 1912, the
venerated Bishop Charles Chapman Grafton died, leaving behind a legacy as well as high expectations for his replacement at
St. Paul's Cathedral, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Bell was instituted as vicar and first-ever dean of St. Paul's in 1913 and remained there until 1918. He married Elizabeth Woods Lee, who gave birth to their only child Bernard Lee Bell in 1913. The next year, he wrote an article titled "The Dynamite of the Sacraments" describing some of the practical theology which formed the basis of his decision to join the U.S. Navy during
World War I.
First World War Bell served as a
chaplain in the
United States Navy for twenty months from February 1917 to November 1918 in the
Great Lakes Naval Training Station located near North Chicago in Lake County, Illinois. At first, he was denied enlistment due to a medical issue; however, as new
conscripts flooded in at an increasing rate, "tent cities sprouted up" on the 165-acre compound (by the end of the War 45,000 recruits were living in a space designed for 1,500). This created a shortage of commissioned land chaplains, prompting Rear Admiral
William A. Moffat to make an exception. During his time there, Bell oversaw roughly 87,000 of the total 125,000 recruits, preaching on Sundays to congregations ranging from 3,000-7,000, teaching a total of 267 courses on morals and religion, and holding daily office hours "to which men came with problems ranging from how to believe in God to how to get a dance invitation." In March 1918, the first case of
Spanish influenza cropped up in Fort Riley, Kansas, and soon the pandemic was sweeping America, ultimately claiming the lives of 700,000 Americans and 50 million worldwide. In this state of emergency, Bell found himself frequently providing
Communion in barracks and visiting hospitals to perform last rites. Meanwhile, his first book
Right and Wrong After the War was published prior to the war's end, thus establishing the "prophetic" voice and style for which he is known.
Challenge to Christianity's Decline Throughout his time in the Navy, Bell enjoyed informal meetings with both individuals and "small groups who were willing to sit around and talk about religion." However, this proved not to be the case: The discovery I made, which came to me at once as a challenge and as an encouragement, was that most of the non-interest was due, not to deliberate disbelief or even to indifference, but rather to plain ignorance. They had, for the most part, scarcely any idea what the Christian religion was all about...It does not seem quite reasonable that four out of five of our young people should never have learned what Christianity, in its essence, really is. We seem to have been astonishingly inefficient in passing on the Faith. He published
Beyond Agnosticism in 1929, which addressed common college-age doubts, with a dedication to his son, Bernard Lee, who was preparing for higher education.
Initial Fame and Progress When Bell arrived to St. Stephen's College, the school was racked with massive debt, 29 students were enrolled, the buildings were in disrepair, and there were nine faculty members running all its programs. His wife Betty, after witnessing the overgrown campus and derelict presidential house, confessed to wondering if her husband was insane to take on the job. Bell himself admitted to accepting the position, among other reasons, in order to put an educational theory of his "on the ground". The administration hoped that Bell's recent fame and youthful energy would revive St. Stephen's, especially since
Right and Wrong After the War (1918) and
Work of the Church for Men at War (1919) were then some of the most discussed books in America. When Bell published
Postmodernism and Other Essays in 1926, he reimagined and popularized the term to denote the
historical era following modernity. However, the subject did not enter the academic sphere until
Arnold J. Toynbee's 1939 article, "Our own Post-Modern Age has been inaugurated by the general war of 1914–1918." The central argument of
Postmodernism and Other Essays is that all aspects of Modernity––politics, religion, science, philosophy, technology, history, education––had failed and would give rise to widespread resentment and
agnosticism, not only concerning God but every human authority. This would serve as the catalyst for change. The successful postmodernist would subject everything Modernity had accepted as "truth" or "reality" to rigorous questioning and thereby return to the path of Truth. The unsuccessful would remain spiritually malnourished, and vainly pursue various ends in the hopes of fulfillment. Should the latter prevail, truth would once again become subjective, and people would become historically ignorant, rudderless:Who will pioneer if there can be found no sure approach to Truth? Who cares to blaze new trails if all trails lead alike to nowhere? If we can never know what we are or why we are, how is leadership possible? Who dares lead anybody anywhere if no one may first be sure?One outgrowth of widespread subjective truth is the necessity of tolerance. Without it, peace is impossible among so many personal convictions. Bell believed that tolerance marked "the decay of old standards rather than formation of new ones" in civilization; the succeeding intolerance was a constructive force, though often accompanied by intellectual strife and violence. He points to the tolerance which led to "violent contentions" in ancient Rome and 18th century France as examples. Under these conditions, a person's truths might conform to the pressure of crowd sentiments––the danger being that "tolerance might destroy within us the capacity for constructive thought and determined action" and cause us to act on personal feelings and crowd-think alone.
1926 Student Strike In March 1926, three-quarters of the student body ceased attending classes or Chapel, stating that they would do so until president Bell resigned. The strike lasted ten days until spring recess began. For some time, student resentment had been building towards the president's high standards, his over-involvement in campus minutia, and his perceived arrogance about his achievements. In the dining commons, Bell publicly chastised several students for their conduct in Chapel. Kline speculates that he may have been more irritable and dealt more harshly that day, having recently returned from a serious operation on his
thyroid. However it may be, certain students gathered signatures and submitted a
petition that administration release disciplinary power to a joint committee of students and faculty. Bell ignored the petition and left for his Sunday speaking engagement at Union College, only to return to the strike. Over the next ten days, there were faculty meetings and student gatherings, formal and informal, as well as "gossip, publicity, and newspaper articles." Over the years, incidents like this continued, much to the stress of Bell and the Board. On May 26, 1933, Dr. Donald Tewksbury from Columbia University was quietly appointed Acting Dean of St. Stephen's College. Four days later Bell was notified. The two sat down to discuss arrangements, coming to a terse agreement that "it was of the utmost importance... to maintain a satisfactory student body." Undaunted, he continued teaching and traveling about the United States, even sailing to England to fulfil a two-month lecture engagement that year. Upon returning, his doctors insisted that he "take it easy and rest, at least until the early Autumn." He died in Chicago two years later. He is buried alongside his son in the Bard College Cemetery in the same grave as his wife, who died in 1985 at the age of 98. == Personality ==