Christianity Commons^™

Series I. Personal Materials. Folder 1. Articles About Reverend M. Homer Cummings, 1923-1978, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains approximately 40 newspaper articles about Cummings. The few that include identifying information were published in the Charleston Gazette, the Huntington Herald-Advertiser, and the Coalwood-Caretta News, with dates of publication ranging from 1935 to 1963.

The articles cover such topics as Cummings’ moves from Fayetteville to Williamstown and from Glasgow to Huntington, his 25^th and 50th anniversaries in the ministry, and his work as a composer of hundreds of hymns. The newspapers also published the complete texts of several of his sermons.

0856: Bible Of Mrs. Isabella W. Hite, 1857, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of a single bible. Published by E. Stevenson & F. A. Owen, Agents, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1856, the title page states it is the English Version of the Polyglott Bible. The book itself contains fold-out maps and illustrations. On the first page is written “Mrs. Isabella W. Hite Cabel Co. Va. Feb 24th 1857” and then in a different ink/pencil, “Isa. H. Moore.” Throughout the book, passages are marked and near them, a name and date are written in the margins. Many of the days (not all were checked) appear to have fallen …

Turning “Bad Jews Into Worse Christians”: Hermann Adler And The London Society For Promoting Christianity Amongst The Jews, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

This paper explores how sermons contributed to Jewish-Christian relations in Victorian England. I begin with a rhetorical analysis of sermons preached on behalf of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, the largest and best known missionary organization of its kind. I then examine a collection of sermons in which Hermann Adler, then rabbi of London’s Bayswater Synagogue and later Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, pushes back against their efforts, offering the “true explanations” of passages which, in his view, had been improperly employed by Christian preachers. Finally, I trace a kind of “feedback loop” in which …

The Sunday After The Tuesday: The 2016 Presidential Election In The Pulpit, Matthew Boedy

Sermon Studies

The 2016 presidential election divided Christians along racial, economic, and theological lines. The central question of my study was how did ministers frame the election, if at all? Through analysis of transcripts of 47 sermons from across the country (14 states plus Washington D.C.), from multiple denominations and various sized congregations given on November 13 or thereabouts, I claim that the paradox of the dual citizenship of Christians was the predominant theme in these sermons. Second, only one minister directly endorsed a candidate and only a handful indirectly endorsed. Many preached a form of unity.

Four Case Studies In Teaching Sermons At A Public University, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

In this paper, delivered at the March 2017 meeting of the Northeast Modern Language Association, I discuss my experience with teaching sermons at Marshall University, a public institution in Huntington, WV. I have done this in four classes over the past several years: “Good Essays” (a 200-level general-education course in the English Department); “God Talk” (another gen-ed course, team-taught with a faculty member in religious studies); “Sermon: Text and Performance” (a 400-level class in the Honors College); and “The Victorian Spoken Word” (a graduate seminar in English).

The audiences were very different, as were the texts we used (Newman, Spurgeon, …

Guide To The Cummings Papers, Marshall University Special Collections

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This "Register of the M. Homer Cummings Papers" was prepared by Marshall's Special Collections Department. It contains a brief biographical note, a list of the materials in the Papers, and other information that will help orient users to the collection.

Indexes to the Papers and other finding aids will be added as they become available.

0836: M. Homer Cummings Papers, 1909-1968, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The 31 boxes in this collection contain the following materials by Cummings: college examination papers; sermons and radio addresses; newspaper columns; letters; poems (single copies, booklets, and a spiral-bound book); and songs (single copies, booklets, song books, printing plates, and recordings). There are also letters written to him; newspaper articles about him and his family; materials from the Literary and Bible Training School and McCrum Slavonic Training School (Rev. and Mrs. Cummings’ alma maters); song books and vinyl records from his collection; and various miscellaneous items.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the …

Some Reflections On The Field Of Sermon Studies, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

Multidisciplinary endeavours with the word ‘studies’ in their names have brought like-minded scholars together for over sixty years. Those specializing in certain parts of the world, for example, can join the North American Conference on British Studies (founded in 1950), the British Association for American Studies (1955), the African Studies Association (1957), or a host of other groups. Similarly, organisations for scholars interested in specific time periods include the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies (1983), the Society for Renaissance Studies (1967) and the European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies. Finally, students of politics, gender and other aspects …

0819: Memphis Tennessee Garrison Papers, 1898-1981, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection contains the personal, religious, educational, and political possessions of Memphis Tennessee Garrison. The collection includes correspondence, photographs, newspaper articles, programs, books, financial documents, publications, newsletters, plaques, certificates, a diary, and a jewelry box. The materials document Garrison’s various roles on the local and national levels of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as well as her participation in other civil rights activities.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Memphis Tennessee Garrison Papers, 1898-1981 here.

0816: First Presbyterian Church Of Huntington Records, 1890-2008, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection contains the records of the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington from the 1890s to the early 2000s. Most of the collection falls between 1930 and 2002. Within the collection are administrative records such as minutes, registers, and accounting records; photographs of members, non-members, former members, church functions; scrapbooks of sanctuary renovations, church functions, and miscellaneous ephemera; newspaper clippings; an international collection; histories of the First Presbyterian Church; a large collection of lantern slides; and other various items.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington, 1890-2008 here.

What Did Anglican Preaching Look Like 200 Years Ago?, Robert H. Ellison

English Faculty Research

This was a talk given during the morning worship service at Trinity Episcopal Church in Huntington, West Virginia on June 9, 2013. It was meant to offer the congregation a window into Anglican preaching of another time and place. Topics include the typical length of sermons; whether they should be read or delivered extemporaneously; and the Bible verses and topics the Victorians turned to most often in their preaching.

A Descriptive Study Of 21st Century Instructional Practices In The Association Of Christian Schools International In Kentucky, Ohio And West Virginia, Melanie E. White

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Association of Christian Schools International serves the evangelical Christian community and includes preschools, elementary and secondary schools as well as postsecondary institutions. Offering a viable and authoritative voice in education and contributing to the public good, ACSI enables Christian school students worldwide to acquire wisdom, knowledge, and a biblical worldview as evidenced by a lifestyle of character, leadership, service, stewardship and worship. Core beliefs include spiritual and academic excellence while their statement of faith shows their commitment to providing assistance to the needs of Christian educators and schools (Association of Christian Schools International, 2009). The rationale of this research project …

Ecocriticism And Christian Literary Scholarship, Timothy J. Burbery

English Faculty Research

This essay presents a case for ecocriticism as a viable critical method for Christian scholars. It begins with an historical overview of the method, then examines common ground shared by ecocriticism and Christianity, including what amounts to a kind of critical realism, and the belief in the inherent goodness of creation. Two potential obstacles are then addressed by way of Lynn White, Jr.'s famous essay, "The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis." These include the relationship of the Bible and the environment, and the charge of anthropocentrism. I believe White is partly right, but contend that neither objection is fatal …

0796: Shirley Foster Streeby Mathews Collection, 1939-2003, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The bulk of the collection contains newspaper clippings that Mrs. Mathews collected over the years about her former students. There are also a few dozen photographs, along with wedding invitations, school pageants and programs, commencements, handwritten and typed correspondence, reunion correspondence, Greenline newsletters (a publication for Marshall University alumni), church programs, funeral/death announcements and holiday cards. Most of the photos are identified on the back.

0771: Stump Photograph Collection, 1900-1904, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of 27 cyanotype and black and white photos mounted on board. Based on the identification of photographs by F.C. Stump, the photographs primarily depict river, dam, and boating scenes on the Levis Fork of the Big Sandy River in Floyd and Pike Counties of Kentucky. Also depicted are a baptismal service and Pike, Floyd, and Johnson County, Kentucky residents. The container list includes the full identification of photographs by Stump.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Stump Photograph Collection, 1900-1904 here.

0760: Camp Creek Church Of Christ Register And Record, 1920-1950, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

A church record book for the Camp Creek Church of Christ located in the vicinity of East Lynn, West Virginia. The record book contains membership rosters, birth, death, and marriage information as well as financial information related to the congregation. Additional loose (un-numbered) register pages and correspondence are also included.

Mr. Tabor has created two digital copies of the Register book that are included. He also wrote a brief history (annotated) of the Camp Creek Church of Christ and compiled an index of the Christian and surnames of the congregation members. The history is boxed with the register, and the …

0712: Creed Neff Papers, 1908-1915, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of five photographs and one manuscript. The photographs depict school children and members of the Guyandotte Methodist Episcopal Church around 1908-1915 while the manuscript consists of a copy of a handwritten manuscript, author unknown, about life in Guyandotte.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Creed Neff papers, 1908-1915 here.

The Sedes Sapientiae: Orthodox Sculptural Images Of The Virgin Mary Derived From The Ancient Mother-Goddess Tradition, Carol King

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Virgin Mary is rarely mentioned in the Bible yet legends about her abound throughout the centuries. Worship of the Virgin is recorded as early as the 3rd century, and soon thereafter visual representations emerged to serve as devotional objects for her patrons. Mary’s popularity among the people left the Church with a fundamental problem: they must either sanction her worship and bring the pagans into their fold; or they must diminish her role in salvation, totally rid Christianity of the female divine, and risk losing converts to older-world traditions. This dilemma was settled at the Council of Ephesus in …

Genesis 2:26, Michael G. M. Cornelius

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

On the eighth day, God sighed.

The noise rumbled through heaven and earth. The cherubim were silenced; the seraphim held their breath. Even the archangels ceased their endless activity to crane their necks and look about.

The earth trembled. Volcanos erupted, the great continental plates divided. The pools of celestial ooze stopped bubbling and crackling.

All angels, all creatures, all rocks and trees - even the land itself waited in breathless, awful anticipation.

Nothing happened.

A rock relaxed, falling off a mountain. The volcanos grew dormant. The cherubim laughed, softly, nervously, then began to sing again, a lullaby. The seraphim …

0598: Marcia Myers Collection, 1895-1993, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection primarily documents Marcia Myers’ research into female Presbyterian missionaries in Appalachia, particularly West Virginia. Significant in the collection is the correspondence of Helen Desbrow, stationed in Raleigh Co., West Virginia, to her family in New Jersey, regarding her work in the Home Mission between 1922 and 1935, central to Myers’ thesis on female Presbyterian missionaries in Appalachia submitted for her M.Div at Princeton University. Correspondence by Hugh J. May and Frances H. Pindar are directly in response to Myers’ request for information on the same topic, and the Helen Disbrow correspondence was gifted possibly from Disbrow herself. Other …

0567: Low Gap United Baptist Church Records, 1898-1944, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists predominantly of copies of minute books for the Low Gap United Baptist Church from 1898-1944. Also included in this collection is a copy of “A Brief History of the Low Gap United Brethren Church” written by Brandon Kirk in 1993 and two photocopied photographs of the church and some church members. Because most of these materials are copies, legibility can be limited.

0548: Carl G. Wolfe Manuscript, 1987, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of a manuscript by Carl G. Wolfe for a Marshall University graduate course in history on the history of the Ceredo United Methodist Church from 1866 to 1987. Also included in the manuscript is a list of pastors and footnotes.

0513: Byron T. Morris Papers, 1967-1989, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Copies of Mr. Morris's newspaper column, "Out of the Past," written for the Wayne County News; subjects include histories of communities in Wayne County, West Virginia, genealogy of Wayne County families, registers of marriages in neighboring counties of Wayne County persons, and school and church histories.

0494: Huntington W.Va. First Congregational Church, 1872-1932, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Minutes, membership lists, deeds, and other documents related to the running of the Huntington, West Virginia First Congregational Church from 1872-1932.

0491: Carrie Eldridge Combined Collection, 1678-2014, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Carrie Eldridge is a genealogical researcher in Chesapeake, Ohio. This collection contains photocopies of many county record books of the Appalachian areas of West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, ranging from the American Revolution until the early twentieth century. It also contains her personal research files on topics related to slavery and the Underground Railroad in Ohio and West Virginia as well as local history topics such as church and family histories.

0441: Rev. Garrett Marriage Records, 1879-1912, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Marriage records of Rev. James Dolliver Garrett, Wayne Co., W.Va. from 1879 to 1912, transcribed and indexed.

0446: Mary Mckernon Papers, 1977-1983, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Material relates to Cabell County, West Virginia, history acquired during Mrs. McKernon's research on the Mud River Baptist Church. Includes minutes of the church, community histories, and other related materials.

0376: United Brethren In Christ. Huntington W.Va. Circuit Collection, 1871-1917, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Primarily membership rolls of church of rural Cabell County. Churches in circuit include Milton, Mercer's Bottom, Green Bottom, Nine Mile, Z. Warner Chapel and Cabell School House.

0257: Martha Elizabeth Carpenter Miller Collection, 1898-1962, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The majority of this collection consists of the handwritten and typed poetry of Martha Carpenter Miller. Many of the poems underwent multiple edits and rewrites, and her notes and corrections to her poems are included in this collection. The collection spans the years 1898-1962, with the bulk of the material from the 1930s-1950s. Miller wrote extensively, and the collection includes poems and partial poems, ideas, and short verses written on scrap paper, envelopes, paper towels, carboard, postcards, and various other types of paper. At the time of processing, original order was largely unknown. In organizing the materials, there were occasionally …

0126: Clarksburg, W. Va. Stealey Heights Methodist Church Manuscript, 1928, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

History of the founding, dedication and list of pastors until 1928.