This paper will examine William Rainey Harper's (1856-1906) understanding of the German type of research prior to the University of Chicago. Higher education was the midst of the greatest transformation in the nineteenth century in the United States. Many higher education institutions transformed colleges to universities along with the new concept of research brought by German universities. Although the academic field, such as natural science increasingly accepted the German way of research, the realm of biblical studies remained unchanged. Indeed, America had college professors who made a study in the biblical field; however, their work was not worthy of the name of research. Harper argued that many of the biblical studies in the United States were "second-hand." In other words, many American scholars studied what someone else had already studied, and their work was anything but original. The condition led Harper to regard them as scholars rather than researchers.
The purpose of study in German was, in contrast, to discover the truth and to pursue the original. Harper believed that originality was of the highest importance in the conduct of research, and he wanted American biblical scholars to develop such an idea for their work. Harper attempted to convey the idea of true research in the means of publications such as Hebraica and The Hebrew Student in which he served as an editor. Afterwards, his idea on research ended up crystallizing into a definite plan with the University of Chicago. Harper made various plans in order to create an environment in which both students and faculty could make research in their institution.

特集 : 教育学の射程
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