Title: Kemper Fullerton Papers, 1850-1946

ID: RG 30/038

Extent: 6.25 Linear Feet

Predominant Dates: 1902-1940

Abstract

Creators

Administrative/Biographical History

Kemper Fullerton, beloved teacher and eminent authority on the Hebrew prophets, occupied the Finney Professorship of Old Testament Language and Literature at Oberlin's Graduate School of Theology from 1904 to 1934. He was born in Cincinnati on 29 November 1865 to Lina Hall Kemper and the Rev. Thomas Fullerton, a Presbyterian minister. He spent his boyhood in Erie, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1884 from the College Preparatory Department of Erie Academy. He went on to Princeton University where he received his B.A. in 1888, returning in 1894 for his M.A.

After three years of post-graduate work at Union Theological Seminary (1888-91), Fullerton won a Union fellowship for two years of theological study at the University of Berlin. There, he studied with the great Protestant thinker, Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930), absorbing the hermeneutics of German liberal theology. Fullerton regarded this experience as the greatest intellectual stimulus of his life. He wrestled for many years with the conflict Berlin engendered in him. On the one hand was the faith of his fathers; on the other, the data of biblical higher criticism to which he contributed with his own linguistic studies of the Hebrew texts.

Upon returning to this country in 1893, Fullerton became Instructor in Hebrew at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. After eleven years at Lane, he came in 1904 to Oberlin Theological Seminary (as the Graduate School of Theology was then called) to head the department of Old Testament Language and Literature. In 1905, he married Kate Spencer of Erie, Pennsylvania (1866-?). They adopted two children, Spencer and Katherine.

As a teacher, Kemper Fullerton had no peer. He was universally adored by his students, who found any subject he treated, including Hebrew grammar, to be enriched by his wit, intelligence, and elegance of expression. He brought the biblical lands to life in his lectures on the history of Israel by showing lantern slides, photographs, and maps gathered during his travels and by discussing the finds of archaeologists which were transforming biblical studies. His liberal outlook won him the epithet, "genial iconoclast."

Fullerton's scholarship centered on Old Testament prophecy. He was a gifted exegete and translator of Job, Jonah, Isaiah, and the Psalms. His first book, Notes on Hebrew Grammar, appeared in 1898. In 1919, he completed his most widely known study, Prophecy and Authority, in which he argued for a liberal understanding of prophecy as the fulfillment of prophetic ideals rather than the fulfillment of prophetic predictions. His other books include Luther's Doctrine and Criticism of Scripture [1906], Studies in the Psalter 1911, and The Truth About the Bible [1923], which he co-authored with Edward I. Bosworth and others. His numerous technical studies appeared in such periodicals as the Harvard Theological Review, The Journal of Religion, The Journal of Biblical Literature, and Semitic Languages and Literature. In 1938, Yale brought out an anthology of his informal chapel talks, Essays and Sketches: Oberlin 1904-34. Many consider this volume quintessential Fullerton: poetic, vivid with memory and imagination, graciously didactic.

In 1927, the honorary degree of Doctor of Theology was conferred on Fullerton by the University of Tubingen on the occasion of its 450th anniversary. He received honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from Princeton in 1932 and from Oberlin in 1936. In 1931, Fullerton became the only faculty member in Oberlin's history to be chosen as Commencement speaker. Having taught for several years beyond his sixty-fifth year, Fullerton retired in 1934. He died in Oberlin at age 75 on 23 March 1941.

Author: Valerie S. Komor

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Languages of Materials

Administrative Information

Scope and Contents:

The collection has been divided into six series alphabetically arranged: Series I. Correspondence; Series II. Diaries and Notebooks; Series III. Genealogical Files of the Fullerton Family; Series IV. Sermons and Talks; Series V. Teaching Materials; and, Series VI. Writings. Fullerton's teaching materials ([1897]-1931) are extensive and include lecture notes for courses on the Old Testament prophets, the history of Israel, and the development of the Hebrew Canon. One notebook contains notes on Romans and Galatians made at Lane Seminary. His scholarly writings are represented by manuscript (typescript) and printed articles, monographs, preliminary studies for and chapter-length excerpts of longer published and unpublished works, and clipping service reviews of his 1918 publication, Prophecy and Authority. Fullerton's immensely popular chapel talks (1924, 1930-34), some of which were published in Essays and Sketches (Yale, 1938), are housed in Series IV. Sermons and Talks.

Fullerton's incoming (1911-13, 1921-40) and outgoing correspondence (1891-1939) reflects his unflagging dedication to biblical scholarship. Important correspondents include Orientalist and editor (1908-14, 1921-31) of the Harvard Theological Review, George Foot Moore (1851-1931), President of Cornell University, Livingston Farrand (1867-1939), and editor of the Nation, Oswald Garrison Villard (1872-1949). Fullerton and Moore debated the finer points of Hebrew prophecy taken up in Fullerton's submissions to the Harvard Theological Review. Letters to and from Oberlin Professor of Homiletics William James Hutchins (1871-1958) reveal a close friendship between the Fullertons and Hutchins.

The genealogical files include a notebook (1889) kept by Fullerton's father, Thomas Fullerton, which records what he knew of his family's ancestry. The correspondence of family members seeks to establish the family genealogy.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series I. Correspondence, 1891-1940, 1.0 l.f.

The correspondence of Kemper and Kate Fullerton is separated in two subseries. Incoming and outgoing correspondence is chronologically arranged.

Series II. Diaries and Notebooks, 1905-38, 0.5 l.f.

The diaries and notebooks are separated and chronologically arranged.

Series III. Genealogical Files of Fullerton Family, 1850-1941, 0.25 l.f.

These files are alphabetically arranged and include correspondence, miscellaneous genealogical papers, and various personal items belonging to Kemper Fullerton.

Series IV. Sermons and Talks, 1890, 1924-34, n.d., 0.5 l.f.

Sermons and talks are separated in two subseries; thereunder they are chronologically arranged.

Series V. Teaching Materials, [1897]-1931, n.d., 2.0 l.f.

Teaching materials consist mainly of lecture notes. They are arranged alphabetically by course name.

Series VI. Writings, 1891-1930, n.d., 2.0 l.f.

The writings have been divided into Articles, Books, and Monographs. Within each division, arrangement is alphabetical by title or chronological by chapter.

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