Category Archives: This Just In

This Just In: A New Translation of the Gospels

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Last week I was delighted to find in my mailbox a package from John G. Cunyus of First Christian Church, Henderson, Texas.  John sent us a copy of a translation he recently completed on the gospels.  The translation is based on the Westcott-Hort text.

The Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Translated by John G. Cunyus. Searchlight Press, Henderson, Texas, 2017.

Now in the cataloging queue, it will join our holdings of translations, versions, and biblical studies monographs.

If you have written or published a book in biblical or theological studies, church history, or any area of Restoration thought or history, we would like very much to have a copy in the Center for Restoration Studies collection.  We actively seek to build our collection from authors with affiliation or roots in the Stone-Campbell movement.  Contact me directly at mac.ice@acu.edu if you have questions or mail items to my attention at Center for Restoration Studies, ACU Box 29208, Abilene, TX, 79699-9208.

This Just In: Christadelphian titles added

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Over the summer one of our projects was to complete cataloging for a small collection of Christadelphian titles we recently acquired.  Tracing origins to John Thomas, the Christadelphians began in the United States but emerged with vigor in England in the later 19th century.  The movement shares restorationist strategies for Biblical interpretation, and eschews traditional theological formulations of the nature of Jesus Christ, Unitarianism and the Trinity.  Thomas’ earliest controversy centered on the practice of rebaptism.   With his closest family and circle of influence, he chided Alexander Campbell for his stance toward the unimmersed. The Campbell-Thomas exchange gained notoriety through a series of letters between Alexander Campbell and “a sister from Lunenburg [Virginia].”

The theological rationale for Thomas’ positions found expression in print: monographs, periodical literature, tracts, and pamphlets.  The materials we acquired include primary sources such as Thomas’ seminal work Elpis Israel, substantial runs of periodicals such as The Christadelphian and Herald of the Kingdom and The Age to Come, and an assortment of materials by and about Thomas’ chief protege Robert Roberts.  Pictured here are the books and periodicals, fresh from cataloging, and ready for the shelf.  Still in progress are dozens of tracts and pamphlets and loose periodical issues.

The addition of these materials to our collection affords our researchers opportunity to more broadly and deeply explore the issues at play in the Stone-Campbell and related movements.  It is another step forward in building our collections to better serve our users…they are on the shelf and ready for use.

 

 

Here is a list of some of these items, just in, and ready for research:

The Apocalypse and history : the book of Revelation in its historical setting / by W.H. Boulton and W.H. Barker. Rewritten by W.H. Boulton.

Believing the Bible / by A.D. Norris.

The Christadelphian.

Christadelphian Answers on all kinds of difficulties, objections, arguments and questions … By well-known Christadelphians. Compiled …by F.G. Jannaway.

Christendom astray from the Bible.

Conviction and Conduct. The faith that works.

The Devil : a Biblical exposition of the truth concerning “that old serpent, the devil and Satan,” : and a Refutation of the beliefs obtaining in the world regarding sin and its source / [Epps?].

England’s ruin : John Smith’s answer to Mr. Blatchford’s plea for socialism as contained in the widely circulated book, Merrie England : the subject considered from a Bible point of view.

Four lectures on Armageddon / by Charles P. Wauchope.

God’s way : a restatement of the full Christian gospel / by John Carter.

The Gospel of John. An analytical study.

The gospel of Mark : a systematic comm. with contributions from the other gospels.

Prophets after the exile / by John Carter.

The protesters / Alan Eyre.

A Souvenir of a Memorable Fraternal Gathering in the Town Hall at Birmingham, Whitsuntide, 1928. [With plates.].

“Thine is the kingdom” : the message of original christianity / Peter J. Southgate.

Understanding the Bible / A.D. Norris.

The visible hand of God, or, The miracles, signs and wonders which have occurred in the past dealings of God with the nation of Israel : the nature and design of such operations and their necessity to the accomplishment of the work of God in the earth / by Robert Roberts.

The ways of providence as authentically illustrated in Bible history: with three chapters on the overthrow of the Jewish commonwealth by the Romans, and the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus / by Robert Roberts.

Without the camp : being the story of why and how the Christadelphians were exempted from military service / by Frank G. Jannaway.

Wrested scriptures : a Christadelphian handbook of suggested explanations to difficult passages.

Yahweh- Elohim : a devotional study of the memorial name / by E.J. Lasius.

Dearest Little Friends: a 1919 letter from a faculty member comes back to Abilene

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I never know what the mail will bring.  Last week we received a kind donation from an eagle-eyed antiquer who spotted this letter from 1919.  Written by S. Vernon McCasland, faculty member in the Science Department, it reveals a charming friendship with two of his former pupils.

We do not have a file for McCasland.  From a quick internet search I see his stint at ACC was brief.  He taught science and served as the school’s first football coach.  After leaving ACC to pursue graduate study, McCasland went on to a distinguished career in biblical and theological studies, teaching many years at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville.

Letter, S. Vernon McCasland to Claude and Laude Tyson, May 25, 1919, p. 1

Letter, S. Vernon McCasland to Claude and Maude Tyson, May 25, 1919, p. 1

May 25, 1919

Mr. Claude + Miss Maude Tyson;
Goldsboro, Texas.
Dearest Little Friends;-
You don’t know how much pleasure it was to receive a letter from two of the finest little people that ever have come to school to me.  Your letters were so nicely written, too.  I remember so well how small and young you were when you first came to school to me.  And also how good you were and how much you learned.

I can never forget the people of Midway and the Winter [page 2] that I stayed there.  I would like very much to have your pictures.  You are doubtless much larger now than you were then, and will soon be really grown up.

I still remember putting Claude up on the table before the school.  It wasn’t very funny, was it Claude?  But that was just a sign that you were a real boy.  I am teaching in college now, where I have lots of big boys to manage.  Sometimes I go to town at night and bring one home when he has slipped off.  Wouldn’t you like to be one my boys here?  I would be very glad to have “my little twins,” in college here sometime.

Would be glad to hear from you again whenever you want to write.

Give my best regards to your parents and Mamie and [illegible] also to all of my friends there.

With love,

S. Vernon McCasland

Letter, S. Vernon McCasland to Claude and Laude Tyson, May 25, 1919, p. 2

Letter, S. Vernon McCasland to Claude and Maude Tyson, May 25, 1919, p. 2

 

Letter, S. Vernon McCasland to Claude and Laude Tyson, May 25, 1919, envelope

Letter, S. Vernon McCasland to Claude and Maude Tyson, May 25, 1919, envelope

PS: The letter was sent to us from New Mexico. How a letter from a beloved teacher was preserved all these years, and how it trekked from Abilene, to Goldsboro Texas to New Mexico and back again, must surely be a fascinating story.