Although dating to 1932, in 2016-17 we’re celebrating our 50th anniversary, given how the Department was reinvented in 1966-7 — in keeping with how the study of religion was established then across public universities in the US. No longer confessionally-oriented and staffed by campus ministers, it became a cross-culturally comparative and interdisciplinary field.

So all semester we’ll be posting some weekly fun facts from 1966 — not that long ago for some of us yet ancient history for others.

 In June of 1966 the Vatican announced that the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Banned Books) had been abolished, though it still maintained its moral force. Of the books on this list, Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species was not mentioned.