Walter Marshall Horton Papers

Collection

Identifier: RG 30-004

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection has been arranged into six series: Series 1. Writings, 1917-66; Series 2. Correspondence, 1922-66; Series 3. Subject Files, 1910-67; Series 4. Student and Teaching Materials, 1914-62; Series 5. Diaries, 1917, 1932-59; and Series 6. Photograph and Postcard Albums, 1903-38. While Series 4 through 6 contain materials of a personal nature, such as Horton’s undergraduate essays (1914-17) and Lidie Horton’s travel diaries (1932-59), the first three series effectively document Horton’s professional development over a forty-year period. Series 1. Writings contains reviews of ten of his many books as well as Horton’s articles, sermons, radio broadcasts, and research notes on such topics as American historical theology, christology, ecumenism, missions, social credit, world peace, ethics, poetry, and travel. Although the correspondence series is thin (4”) and consists almost exclusively of incoming letters, it provides evidence of Horton’s continuous dialogue with theologians around the world. Correspondents include the Episcopal clergyman W. Norman Pittenger (1905-), philosopher Eugene William Lyman (1872-1948), and British writer Charles Earle Raven (1885-1964).

The Subject Files, 1910-66, provide significant documentation of the growth of the Protestant ecumenical movement after 1910 and of Horton’s activities on the movement’s behalf. Topical arrangement includes World Council of Churches publications, conference proceedings, and committee reports, as well as the publications of those national and international ecumenical institutes with which Horton was affiliated. Of special interest to students of Oberlin’s role in the ecumenical movement will be materials relating to the 1957 meeting in Oberlin of the World Conference on Faith and Order. Horton’s annual reports to Presidents Henry Churchill King (1879-1934) and Ernest Hatch Wilkins (1880-1966) provide useful synopses of his professional activities from 1925 to 1952.

Dates

Creation: 1903-1967
Other: Date acquired: 05/10/1967

Creator

Horton, Walter Marshall (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Unrestricted.

Biographical or Historical Information

Rev. Dr. Walter Marshall Horton, theologian and leader in the modern Ecumenical Movement, taught at Oberlin College and Graduate School of Theology from 1925 until his retirement in 1962. Horton was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, to Walter Emery (1865-1939) and Clara Powers Marshall Horton (1871-1944) on April 7, 1895. He had four siblings: Leonard Stearns (1896-1898), Marian Louise (1898-), Harold M (1902-1972), and Charlotte (1908-1993). He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1917 and began graduate studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York in the same year. On May 13, 1919, Horton was ordained a minister at the First Baptist Church in Arlington, Massachusetts. one week later, he married Lidie Loring Chick (1883-1961), a vocalist and music student at Boston University.

After receiving his B.D. degree from Union and M.A. in philosophy from Columbia in 1920, Horton won the Union Philadelphia Traveling Fellowship, which enabled him to pursue his theological studies at the Sorbonne and the Universities of Strasbourg and Marburg. While abroad, he studied French and German and laid the foundations for a life-long interchange with continental theologians. Following his return to Union in 1922, he was appointed Instructor of Philosophy of Religion and Systematic Theology. He received his S.T.M. from Union in 1923 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia in 1926.

In 1925, Horton came to Oberlin College as Associate Professor of Systematic Theology in the Graduate School of Theology with a joint appointment in the Department of Religion. The following year, the thirty-one-year-old Horton replaced retiring Henry Churchill King (1879-1934) as Fairchild Professor of Systematic Theology. Thus began a lengthy career of service both to Oberlin and to the Protestant ecumenical movement worldwide. Publishers considered Horton the most versatile and popular religious writer of the day. His many books on theological topics were selected repeatedly by the Religious Book Club as "Book of the Month," thus gaining him a wide readership. Among his most popular works were Can Christianity Save Civilization? (1940), Christian Theology: An Ecumenical Approach (1955), and A Psychological Approach to Theology (1931). His articles appeared in periodicals like The Journal of Religion, Christian Century, Advance, Theology Today, and The Ecumenical Review. Through his sermons, radio broadcasts, lectures, and frequent world travels, Horton helped to develop an ecumenical Christian theology to foster dialogue between theological liberals and conservatives, and to promote an active role for unitive Protestantism in the post-war world. He served as consultant at ecumenical conferences in four countries from 1937 to 1959, worked with the planning groups of the World Council of Churches from their inception in 1946, and lectured in the universities of Europe and East Asia. From February to July 1952, he studied and taught at the University of Strasbourg under a Fulbright Grant and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by that institution in 1953.

After the death of his wife, Lidie, in September of 1961, Horton retired from teaching. In July 1962, he married Marie Rankin (1896-1991), Professor Emerita of Education at Oberlin. The couple spent 1962-63 in Bangalore, South India, teaching English and Theology at the United Theological College. The following year, Horton served as visiting professor at Chicago Theological Seminary. He died in Oberlin on April 22, 1966 at the age of seventy-one.

Note written by Valerie S. Komor.

Extent

6.50 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The papers of Walter Marshall Horton primarily consist of Horton's writing and information related to the modern Ecumenical Movement.

Source of Acquisition

Received from Marie Rankin Horton.

Method of Acquisition

The papers of Walter Marshall Horton were transferred to the College Archives in three accessions. Marie Rankin Horton donated the bulk of materials in 1967; Lidie Chick Horton’s travel diaries were received from Richard Lothrop in 1969; and, a sound recording (reel and cassette tapes) of a séance with Horton, Arthur Ford, and Norman Rody, 11 February 1962, was received in 1999.

Accruals and Additions

Accesions: 8, 1999/45.

Related Materials

Horton’s faculty file contains photocopies of newspaper clippings and additional biographical materials, including several obituaries. A New York Times obituary appeared on 24 April 1966.