History of Religion Commons^™

0886: Ken Reffeitt Collection, 1852-2023, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Ken Reffeitt was employed by Marshall University Special Collections for many years and was a member of a number of fraternal organizations. His extensive collection of materials on this subject was donated in 2024.

The Ken Reffeitt Collection consists of annual reports and other documents of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) of West Virginia, the Rebekah Assembly, I.O.O.F., the Improved Order of Red Men, the Department Council Patriarchs Militant, I.O.O.F., the M. W. Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of the State of West Virginia, and other organizations. The collection also includes a number of books …

Honors Seminar: "Religion And The Sermon In Appalachia", Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

This presentation is kind of a sequel/follow-up to one I gave seven years ago in Baltimore, entitled “Four Case Studies in Teaching Sermons at a Public University.” I discussed

a gen-ed ENG class, a gen-ed class cross-listed with ENG & RST, a graduate seminar, and a class in the Honors College. The first three were one-offs, but the Honors class has lived on. I taught it again, in much the same form, the semester after that presentation, and again this past semester. The title was now “Religion and the Sermon in Appalachia” (for purposes of the online schedule, it had …

Gods Of The Two Peoples: How The Sacred Beliefs In Southwest Roman Britannia Demonstrate A Uniquely Blended Religion And Culture, Jed Michael Basler

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Romans practiced many religions in their quest to obtain Pax Deorum throughout the centuries. The Britons came into contact with the Romans and were exposed to many new ideas and concepts. Both groups found a way to coexist, which can be seen most obviously in the religion of the Southwest region of Britain. Gods from both cultures fused together or took on another new form to emerge in this new hybridized Romano-British culture. Sulis Minerva and Mercury often appear as they were quite popular with the denizens of the region. Physical evidence and practices show just how the Southwestern …

Recycling A Colonial Puritan Sermon: A Case Study, David M. Powers

Sermon Studies

Notes which the teenager John Pynchon took in the 1640s as he listened to the Rev. George Moxon’s sermons in frontier Springfield, MA, have become the inspiration and the ingredients for sermon performances in 21st century New England. The project began with a word-for-word transcription of a symbol-for-symbol manuscript based on a code invented by Pynchon. Then a very few words which the notetaker skipped, in his rush to record just what he heard, were added to provide essential clarification. So, too, was introductory material to frame the experience by encouraging the listening congregation to “stretch” a bit to appreciate …

“Wild Mobs, To Mad Sedition Prone”: Preaching The American Revolution, Barry Levis

Sermon Studies

The Church of England in the American Colonies was really not a single institution. Because no local bishop governed the church in America, falling as it did under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, the clergy tended to have differing loyalties. Especially in the southern colonies, local vestries ruled the clergy because they controlled their stipends; therefore the clergy followed the lead of the local squirearchy and suppressed their personal views regarding independence. The New England Anglican clergy were equally in a difficult position. Midst the hostility of Puritanism and the Sons of Liberty, they seemed like an alien …

Preaching In Britain’S “Parish Church”: Sermons At London’S St. Paul’S Cathedral, In The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries, Frances Knight

Sermon Studies

This paper will address the conference themes of ‘space, place and context’ with an examination of the development of preaching at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, over the course of two hundred years. Completely rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666, on a scale which was intended to rival St Peter’s in Rome, the new St Paul’s was explicitly designed as a Protestant cathedral. Preaching, therefore, was highly valued. Yet, despite the adoption of Wren’s ‘preaching box’ plan, speaking in the colossal space, potentially to a congregation of many hundreds, presented considerable challenges. As one would expect over a two-hundred-year …

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 …

0850: Oley Elementary Corner-Stone Time Capsule Of 1888 Papers, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection includes materials found in the Cornerstone Time Capsule from 1888 that was buried at Oley Elementary School. Included in this collection are the personal business cards of prominent people in the Huntington, West Virginia community who were members of secret society groups such as the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Additionally, this collection contains business cards from local Huntington shops from the 1880s, some of which contain artwork or are featured in color. Further, this collection contains books and manuals, where the majority emphasize the Huntington, WV community either in education, city statistics, religion, and masonry. This collection …

“A Prey To Their Teeth”: Puritan Sermons And Ministerial Writings On Indians During King Philip’S War, Gregory Michna

Sermon Studies

King Philip’s War encouraged the construction of barbaric Native American typologies by puritan ministers through sermons and wartime histories. While select Algonquians in New England invested in a hybridized identity as a “Praying Indian” during the decades before the war, martial circumstances encouraged ministers to emphasize indigenous savagery, which outweighed earlier efforts to demonstrate the Christian piety of native converts. English texts outlining God’s providential wrath linked the contemporaneous war to Old Testament punishments meted out to the Hebrews. This typological reading of current events also superimposed the characteristics of heathen barbarians on Native Americans irrespective of their allegiance, offering …

In The Company Of Angels: Expressions Of Personal Autonomy, Authority, And Agency In Early Anglo-Saxon Monasticism, William Tanner Smoot

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In this thesis I examine the opportunities for individual agency and social and spiritual autonomy in the seventh-and-eighth-century Anglo-Saxon kingdoms occasioned by the introduction and development of Christian monasticism. The term “autonomy” concerns the degree to which individuals managed to determine the social order and nature, as well as spiritual character, of their ensuing lives through an adherence to monastic practice. Early Anglo-Saxon Christianity assumed a monastic character, and from the outset coenobitic communities acquired and maintained certain rights regarding their internal governance and social development from their ecclesiastic and secular superiors, which conceptually separated religious households from those of …

Rest, Sweet Nymphs: Pastoral Origins Of The English Madrigal, Danielle Van Oort

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of the impact pastoral themes in art, literature, and music had on the stylistic and thematic development of the late-Renaissance English madrigal (ca. 1590–1620), specifically works by Elizabethan composers. Madrigals were profoundly influenced by poetry and visual art as the basis for text and subject matter. Consequently, many English madrigals, both light and serious forms, cultivated Arcadian themes presented in Italian idyllic art and literature of the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. Works discussed throughout each chapter include Jacopo Sannazaro’s poetic collection, Arcadia (ca. 1489), Edmund Spenser’s seasonal eclogues, The Shepheardes Calender (1579), Oliver Isaac’s …

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 …

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.

Pusey's Sermons At St. Saviour's, Leeds, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

"E . B. Pusey as a Preacher." It would not be surprising to find such a phrase as the title of a nineteenth-century work. Authors in both Britain and America used it in books and articles about numerous ministers, literary figures, the Apostle Paul, and even Jesus himself.¹ Edward Bouverie Pusey, in fact, was the subject of one such piece: a review of Sermons for the Church's Seasons from Advent to Trinity, published in the Spectator on 11 August 1883.

Such a scope would, however, be too broad for a scholarly study in the twenty-first century. Pusey's canon …

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.

"Temple Pro Tempore": The Salt Lake City Endowment House, Lisle G. Brown

Librarian Research

The Salt Lake City Endowment House, built of adobe, was located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. It served as a temporary temple during the construction of the Salt Lake Temple. It was completed in 1855 and razed in 1889. Using original floor plans, photographs, maps, and descriptions by persons who participated in its sacretodal activities, the author recreates its exterior and interior appearance. Floor plans and elevations of the building, prepared especially for the paper, are also included. The events leading to is destruction are chronicled. Finally, the author discusses the building’s influence on subsequent Mormon temple …

0757: First Presbyterian Church [Huntington, Wv] Records, 1839-1990, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The First Presbyterian Church of Huntington Archives contain material dating back to the early nineteenth century, with the bulk of the items dating from between the 1880s and the 1990s. The collection consists primarily of 'Minutes of Session,' which relate to official church business; 'Bulletins,' which give information about church sermons, calendars, and events; and 'Church Groups,' which provide information on the social structure and individuals within the Church. There are extensive financial records pertaining to the church, as well as membership rosters for many Church groups, and some marriage/baptism registers. Also included are a few "histories" written by Church …

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 …

0731: Claudia Peyton Papers, 1921-1984, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists primarily of correspondence sent from Claudie to family and church members in the United States between 1921 and 1979. Some early letters from the 1920s contain photographs of her time in Africa. Other materials include printed material such as her publication “Twenty Years in Africa”, a Mount Union Sentinal Newsletter, a poster and letter about her book “Forty-Six Years in Africa”, letters from her adopted children in Africa about her estate, negatives of her last visit to Huntington in 1963, unrelated birth announcements sent to family members, and envelopes.

'A Perfect Estopel' : Selling The Nauvoo Temple, Lisle G. Brown

Librarian Research

As the Saints prepared to leave Nauvoo, Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve attempted to lease the Nauvoo Temple and sell other Church properties in order to finance the trip west. They hoped to sell the temple and the majority of the buildings to the Catholic Church, but the two groups could not come to an agreement. When Brigham Young left the city, Almon Babbitt, Joseph Heywood, and John Fullmer were left behind to act as trustees. Their difficult task was to settle debts, find purchasers for private properties, sell public buildings and other properties owned by the …

Nauvoo's Temple Square, Lisle G. Brown

Librarian Research

In 1846 the Mormons abandoned Nauvoo, Illinois, and made their west to Utah. Among the many buildings left behind was the Nauvoo Temple. The temple, which was considered sacred space, was destroyed by arson and tornado, so that nothing of the original survived. This paper examines the history of the fifteen decades of the property after the Mormons left. During this time the lot served as profane space--a site for private residences; various business ventures, including a service station, saloons and a theater; a number of religious buildings; as well as a lighted baseball diamond. Beginning in the 1930s the …

Los "Popol Wuj" Y Sus Epistemologías: Las Diferencias, El Conocimiento Y Los Ciclos Del Infinito, Carlos M. López

Modern Languages Faculty Research

In this book the author studies one of the documents contained in the Ayer MS 1515, commonly known as the Popol Wuj (or Vuh). This text constitutes a fragmentary but not necessarily coherent corpus of writings, however, it still is a very important piece of the cultural and epistemological discourse of some of the pre-colonial Mesoamerican civilizations. Another important characteristic of this text is the superposition of multiple re-phonetizations and translations to which the text has been subjected. This transforms it into a text written under conditions of coloniality that encompasses several layers of meanings intersected by Western concepts. …

0607: George Colin Mcintosh Typescript, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of a manuscript by George C. McIntosh where he reflects on his life and religious beliefs, which are fluid.

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.

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.