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PCA Historical Center | |
| 12330 Conway Road | ||
| St. Louis, MO 63141 |
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What's New? - Recent Acquisitions & Events:
Aiken Taylor Award for 1998:
Each year the Presbyterian Church in America's Historical Center presents an annual award to recognize outstanding scholarship in the field of American Presbyterian Church History. This year's first prize winner is Mr. Stephen P. Lewis, a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary (Escondido, CA) who is currently serving his pastoral internship at Evergreen Presbyterian Church (PCA), Beaverton, OR.
A study in early twentieth century church planting efforts, Mr. Lewis' paper is titled "Evangelize the West Before She Paganizes the East: Issues in Presbyterian Church Planting, 1900 to 1925." The thesis of the paper is caught in the employment of a quotation from Samuel Leslie Morris, Secretary of the Home Missions Committee of the PCUS in 1904:
| "The battle ground of this country is the West. Whoever organizes the West---Christ or Satan---will largely control the United States. The East must evangelize the West, or else the West will paganize the East. It will cost the church less to evanglize the West now than in the future, and she must do it for Christ's sake and for her own sake" |
Mr. Lewis contends that Morris spoke with great wisdom and foresight
and that many of the problems that confronted the Church in the first part of twentieth
century remain as problems confronting the Church at the end of the century. Failure to
acknowledge this is a deficit widely shared by most contemporary church growth models, he
adds. Thus, an understanding of historical context is key to any church planting effort.
Copies of Mr. Lewis' paper will be available from the PCA Historical Center at this year's
PCA General Assembly in Louisville, KY, or thereafter by mail. Cost per copy is $5.00 and
orders may be sent to the PCA Historical Center, 12330 Conway Road, St. Louis, MO 63141.
Papers from previous years are also available. These include:
· 1995: "Sons of God: An Examination of the Doctrine of Adoption in the Thought of
John Lafayette Girardeau", by Stephen R. Berry, Reformed Theological Seminary,
Jackson, MS.
· 1996: "The Southern Presbyterian Diaconate: A Thornwellian Principle Elaborated by
John Lafayette Girardeau," by Stephen R. Berry, Reformed Theological Seminary,
Jackson, MS.
· 1997: "Legal Fiction or Real Union?: John Williamson Nevin's controversy with
Charles Hodge over the Imputation of Adam's Sin," by Mark Horne, Covenant Theological
Seminary, St. Louis, MO.
Acquisitions:
Some of the acquisitions in the last year have included:
1. Records of the PCA Stated Clerk - 100 cu. ft.
2. Records of Mission to North America - 15 cu. ft.
3. Covenant Theological Seminary, Self Study Reports for 1997 and 1987. The 1997 recent
report has been adopted as a model for other such reports among accredited theological
seminaries.
4. Records of Midwestern Presbytery, RPCES, 1967 - 1974.
5. Records of Southeast Presbytery, RPCES, 1977 - 1980.
5. Henry G. Welbon Papers, added Correspondence files for 1930-1936. These files include
correspondence from J. Gresham Machen, Edward Rian, Samuel Craig, Paul Wooley and many
others from the early years of Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia).
6. Numerous smaller items, with some notable materials in the subject area of Princeton
Theological Seminary.
In addition, over 200 PCA churches have submitted annual church history reports or other
materials.
| Collection Index | ||||