The School of Religion, a long-time dream of some Friends, was opened on an experimental basis by Earlham College in the autumn of 1960. After a two-year period during which only the M.A. in Religion was offered, the Board of Trustees authorized the expansion of the program to include a three-year Bachelor of Divinity degree. The latter is now called either the Master of Ministry degree, a preferred nomenclature by many Quakers, or the Master of Divinity degree, preferred by some who wish the nomenclature to correspond to that of other seminaries.
The Earlham School of Religion was accredited in 1969 by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) and by the North Central Association through affiliation with Earlham College.