In the fall of 1906, Muste went east to the Theological Seminary of the Dutch Reformed Church, now the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, located in New Brunswick, New Jersey. There, Muste took courses in philosophy at New York University and Columbia University, attended lectures by William James, and met John Dewey, who became a personal friend. While he remained in training to become a minister of the Reformed Church, Muste seems to have begun to question the church's fundamental principles at that time.