Collections : [Yale University -Divinity School Library]

This collection documents the academic career of Yale professor James E. Dittes. Dittes received his B.D. and Ph.D. from Yale and taught Pastoral Theology and the Psychology of Religion at Yale beginning in 1955.

Letters, writings, and collected material document the life and work of James Fyfe Laughton. Laughton was born of missionary parents in China, returning to Scotland to continue his education. He later studied at Crozer Seminary in Chester , PA, was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1912, and served as pastor of a church in Westport, New York for seven years. In 1920 he was called by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society to direct the work of their mission ship "Fukuin Maru" sailing among the islands of the Inland Sea and coast of Japan. He returned to America in 1926, traveled widely, and was engaged in religious education, lecturing, writing, and pastoral work.

The papers document Alter's lifelong involvement with the Christian church in India, his affiliation with Yale University, his activities in student Christian organizations, and his ongoing interest in issues of peace and social concern. James Payne Alter was born in India in 1919, son of Presbyterian missionaries. He attended Yale College and Yale Divinity School. He was appointed as a Presbyterian missionary to India in 1945. He taught at Ewing Christian College in Allahabad, served as first Director of the ecumenical Christian Retreat and Study Center, Rajpur, and wrote on Christianity in northern India.

These papers are part of the sources gathered by Jan H. Boer for the writing of his eight-volume series Studies in Christian-Muslim Relations. The collection deals almost exclusively with the Nigerian situation, especially the entire history leading up to the sharia declaration and its aftermath. The materials include Nigerian magazines and newspaper clippings as well as scholarly articles and lectures, essays, and conference papers from Christian, Muslim and secular perspectives.

The records primarily document the operations and policies of the Japan International Christian University Foundation (JICUF) and also include documents generated by or descriptive of the International Christian University (ICU) itself. The collection provides valuable evidence about the university as well as the cooperation between Japanese and American Christians that led to its creation and success. Of interest is documentation of JICUF as a church-related non-profit support agency, particularly the role of women in its work. Discussions to establish a Christian college in Japan began in 1945, only months after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1948, the original committee was dissolved into a legal foundation, the Japan Christian University Foundation, Inc., which provided significant early publicity and financial support, distributing academic materials, sponsoring Western faculty members and, later, coordinating alumni activities. In 1949, the constitution of the ICU was adopted and the first freshman class was admitted four years later. In 1957, the first graduate school, the School of Education, was opened. By the 1990s, ICU was a highly distinguished university with more than 2,000 students. Due to declining contributions, an increasingly large operations deficit, and related changes in its relationship with the university, JICUF closed its New York offices in 1991. The organization would have no offices or staff for five years and a minimal board of six members. The Othmer bequests in 1995 and 1998 as well as the university's 50th anniversary fundraising project revitalized JICUF activity and a new office in New York was opened in 1997. Between 1999 and 2001 JICUF was restructured into a program organization (The Japan ICU Foundation, Inc.) and an endowment organization (The JICUF Endowment, Inc.).

The Dunstan Papers document his professional life, primarily as a faculty member at Andover Newton Theological School. The correspondence (1936-1954) is that of Dunstan and Paul S. Minear, and provides detailed accounts of the life and work of both men during that period. Minear was a professor of Biblical Theology at Yale Divinity School.

Letters, reports, and writings document American mission work in South Africa from 1927 to the 1960s. John A. Reuling was director of teachers' training at Adams College, Natal, South Africa, serving under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, from 1927 to 1941. After 1946 he was an administrator for the United Church Board for World Ministries, serving first as regional secretary for Africa and then as general secretary for Mission. Eleanor Swanson Reuling also taught at Adams College and assisted her husband in his work.

This collection documents selected activities of John B. Lindner, including his work with the National Council of Churches US/USSR Church Relations Committee, the "By Faith" project to prepare a video and book on the history of the ecumenical Christian student movement in the US, the Frontier Internship in Mission program, and projects related to Middle East policy and ecumenical formation.

John Curtis Smith and Mary Snell Steele Smith were Congregational missionaries from New England who served in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), which was then part of the India Mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). This collection provides intensive documentation for the lives of missionary families, especially "missionary children" and their extended families in the 1850s through the early 1870s. Of particular value in this collection is the large number of letters written by the Smith children themselves. The six children in the Smith family were all born in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and spent at least half of their childhoods there before being sent or taken to live in the United States, where they resided with relatives and friends in New England.

The papers include writings, biographical documentation, photographs, and a tape recording documenting Hayes' work in China. Hayes was a Presbyterian missionary in China from 1917 to 1952, serving primarily in the Beijing (Peking) area. He was involved in student, educational, and administrative work. Hayes was interned by the Japanese during World War II and imprisoned by the Communists in China from 1951 to 1952.