This has been a fun and enlightening discussion, but I have a new idea to propose: let's publish Joe's dissertation, with permission of his heirs.
I can't imagine why it couldn't be done.
Unless somebody can make a great argument that Joe wanted it buried forever in its unpublished state.
Even so, in the context of making Joe's archives accessible and furtherance of academic research, I would make an even more persuasive case that Joe's early academic work needs to be available to the world as an essential context for understanding his contribution to history.
His published dissertation would be, in effect, Joe's final gift to the world, despite its lack of Yale's doctoral imprimatur.
Marshall
On Friday, May 13, 2016 11:27 AM, George Holcombe <geowanda1@me.com> wrote:
Here are some additional comments on JWM’s doctoral dissertation:
- JWM was recruited to Perkins by Merrimon Cuninggim then Dean. He was also a military chaplain in WWII like Joe. Dean Cuninggim who had the confidence of the Perkins Family (wealthy Texas oil family), had taken them to Yale to get their commitment to build similar buildings at SMU. He succeeded. He also convinced them to help fund the hiring of top flight and promising theologians from across the U.S. with the idea of creating a Yale Theological school of the South. Albert Outler, Ph.D., the leading Wesley scholar at the time and several others were brought to Perkins along with Joe. Before then there was a joke that the theology school at SMU’s main purpose was to train pastors how to run the mimeograph. Cuninggim transformed the school into a highly respected one.
- During Joe’s time at Perkins he teamed with Slicker, Wilfred Bailey, Ed Hobbs and others, held retreats and other sessions about life issues tied to their theological studies. They were concerned to go beyond the academics.
- When I arrived at Perkins, JWM and Slicker had gone to Faith and Life the semester before, but the stories about Joe’s teaching and style were all about. Some of the professors were even accused of imitating his dramatic style of presentation.
- In the 80’s when we returned to Dallas, I had several conversations with Dr. Outler, who was going into retirement. He had a number of stories about Joe, for whom he had great affection. One was the times he had encouraged Joe to finish his dissertation because he was convinced he would make a great professor, and how disappointed he was when Joe left. Outler liked to point out that theologians spent their time together sharpening their arguments (not his words), which didn’t appeal to everyone. He thought well of Joe’s dissertation.
- Later in the 80’s when we started work on the archives with Betty Pesek in the basement, we ran across a folder that contained the receipts of Joe and Lyn’s first refrigerator among other things. They seemed to have kept everything. In another box there were 2 stacks of papers neatly tied. The first was letters from soldiers to their parents or loved ones that were given to chaplains before going into battle in case they didn’t make it. Those obviously did. The second stack were letters from parents thanking Joe for having forwarded the last letter to them. They were not easy to read and to realize that chaplains during WWII were on the battlefield.
Thanks to Beret and everyone in the community that has worked so hard on getting the archives in shape for future use.
George Holcombe
"Whatever the problem, community is the answer. There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about." Margaret Wheatley
Aren't these strings fun?!
As John Epps said several days, Joe did his Ph.D. work at Yale under H. R. Niebuhr. Then, he taught at Colgate for a fairly short time before going to Perkins. I believe Marge's story about Joe's thesis is correct. I also believe that he dropped the thesis, because he decided that academia was not the route for a religious revolution. The rest of the story we know (though we certainly might not agree on various pieces of it).
Doris Hahn
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