Pacific and Asian American Center for Theology and Strategies
1973-2002

Organized in 1972 as the Asian American Center for Theology and Strategies and incorporated in 1974, the name was changed to Pacific and Asian American Center for Theology and Strategies in 1977 to reflect inclusiveness of constituencies. PACTS was an ecumenical center for research, resourcing, recruiting, training, and consciousness-raising which sought to promote the fulfillment of God's mission through the ministries of the churches and the service of community groups.

Center for Women and Religion
1970-2004

The Center was founded in 1970 as the Office of Women's Affairs by women who recognized "that seminary women at the GTU schools needed a channel, an advocate, an office through which to express their needs and concerns." The name was changed in about 1977 to Center for Women and Religion. The Center worked toward the goal of ending sexism and promoting justice in and through religion focusing on research, the status of women in religious structures, and community building for women. Activities included offering GTU courses, sponsorship of conferences, programs, and groups, and the publication of anthologies, bibliographies, a journal, and newsletters.

---

The Sacred Dance Collection has been updated to reflect the range of of lively and significant sacred dance materials in the archives. Along with Margaret Palmer Taylor, the site features images and other materials from the work of Carla DeSola, Doug Adams, Judith Rock, Murshid Samuel L. Lewis, the Sufi Choir and Starhawk.

Alfred Büchler, From Vienna
to Shanghai in World War II
1941-1950

Alfred Büchler was born in Vienna, Austria, January 17, 1927. Finding it impossible to obtain visas for the United States or Chile, the Jewish Büchler family succeeded in escaping to Shanghai on the Trans Siberian Railway, arriving in May 1941. He continued his education there, joining the Scouts and playing various musical instruments. Immigrating to the United States, Büchler received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Harvard University in 1960 and worked in various labs for the next 25 years. He moved to Berkeley in the late 1970s and began the study of common objects in medieval times, including the development of drums and trumpets.

Pacific Coast Theological Society Collection
1939-1998

The Pacific Coast Theological Society (then Group) was established by John C. Bennett (1902-1995) and supported by the Hazen Foundation in 1939. Bennett, then Professor of Christian Theology at Pacific School of Religion, was inspired by a similar organization on the East coast ("the younger theologians"). Since then, the society continues to meet twice a year, in the Spring and Fall for two days (Friday and Saturday) to discuss critical theological and societal issues.

Viktor Frankl Library and Memorabilia
1924-1998

Dr. Viktor E. Frankl (1905-1997), a Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist, survived four concentration camps and founded the third Viennese school of psychotherapy. His emphasis on meaning of life and social responsibility, along with acceptance of a spiritual reality, provided a sympathetic theory for teachers of pastoral counseling. The presence of the Frankl collection is due in large part to the activities of Robert C. Leslie (1917-2006), a Methodist minister and professor of pastoral psychology at Pacific School of Religion from 1954 to 1995.

Edith Stein Collection
1890-2005

The Edith Stein Collection was donated to the Graduate Theological Union by Susanne M. Batzdorff, a niece of the saint and resident of Santa Rosa, during the summer of 2013. Edith Stein (1891-1942), St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was born into a Jewish family in Breslau, Germany. She became a philosopher, phenomenologist, teacher, feminist, and translator. In 1922, she was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. Unable to continue as a teacher as a Jew under Nazi rule, she joined the Discalced Carmelites in 1933. In 1942, she and her sister Rosa were arrested in Echt, Holland, and transported to Auschwitz and killed. Edith Stein was canonized in 1998. She is one of the six patron saints of Europe.

E.T. Earl Lectures
The Fifties

Since 1902, Pacific School of Religion has hosted the Earl Lectures and Leadership Conference, an event that features influential religious speakers and also addresses critical theological, pastoral, and social topics for students, ministers and the community. The lectures were first recorded on reel to reel audio tape in 1950, when they were also broadcast on the radio. Cassette tapes were latter created in the 1960s for sale and distribution, landing in various theological libraries. Previously, printed forms of the lectures were often made available, as with the Theodore Roosevelt lectures in 1911.

Building a Library
1974-2002

The Graduate Theological Union Library was designed to become the central meeting place for the consortium. The building houses the library, which holds over 400,000 books and many journals and microforms, as well as much of the GTU administration. This collection is a work in process and documents the major events in the library's history, from its early history as a bibliographic center, to the selection of Louis Kahn to design the building, to the local architects who took over after Kahn died, to developments to repair and modernize the facility.

Temple of Religion and Tower of Peace
1938-1040

Religious leaders in the Bay Area raised $100,00 to construct a Temple of Religion and Tower of Peace for the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition on Treasure Island. The San Francisco Temple represented all faiths, unlike the Temple of Religion at the 1938 World's Fair in New York City that only represented Protestants, Catholics and Jews. As involvement in the Second World War seemed increasingly inevitable, the organization sponsored a series of events and lectures to promote peace and keep America out of the conflict on the last eight Sundays of the exposition in 1939.

Elsie Thomas Culver:
A Journey Through
Post-World War II Europe
September 25-October 20, 1945

Elsie Thomas Culver, a publicist for church relief services in New York City, packed her camera, hopped on a troop ship to England and then traveled through Europe on a fact finding mission in late 1945. She writes: "I went avowedly to meet and talk with the common people, to hear their stories, and to let them know, so far as one person could, that the Christian people of America do care what has been happening to them, and want to share their burdens as far as possible by gifts of money and material goods."

Imaging Religion: An Exhibition
in Honor of the 50th Anniversary
of the Graduate Theological Union
July 2012-June 2013

This online site features works that are on display and includes other works that are not for the "Imaging Religion: An Exhibition in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Graduate Theological Union." Also included are remarks given at the blessing of the library and its collection that was held on October 8, along with a brief history and timeline of the GTU.

Oral Histories
Graduate Theological Union
1962-2012

This extensive oral history includes interviews from 79 scholars who discuss the founding of the Graduate Theological Union and issues in theological education before, after and during the 1960s. Ray Kibler, who conducted the interviews, writes: "It is well said that few American religious institutions went through such tumultuous changes during "the 1960's" as did the seminaries and that few people experienced such tumult over these changes as did their faculties. Certainly, an American seminary in most times or places has served to conserve the tradition of its constituency but as well to reinterpret that tradition in order to make it relevant as the "cutting edge" of its ministry to society."

Art Exhibits: Cards and Flyers
1981-2012

The Graduate Theological Union library was envisioned as a facility that would be more than just a library/office building: it would be open to the public for lectures, events and for the display of art, sculpture, rare books and historical materials. The exhibits were selected to show how art reflected the spiritual in humanity.

Doug Adams
His Life and Work
1945-2007

Douglas Glenn Adams (1945 - 2007) was professor of Christianity and the Arts at Pacific School of Religion for 31 years and member of the core Graduate Theological Union faculty. He was an international scholar in religion and the arts, worship, dance and humor.

Robert McAfee Brown:
Glimpses of What Life is
Meant To Be
1920-2001

Robert McAfee Brown, 1920 – 2001, Christian theologian, teacher, author, and preacher, was an advocate for justice in social, economic, and gender issues, believing “we are here to share bread with one another, so that everyone has enough, and no one has too much.”

Oral History of the
Sanctuary Movement
1971-2007

An oral history of the sanctuary movement based on interviews with religious and lay leaders in the Bay Area conducted by Eileen Purcell during 1997-1998. The interviews cover the beginning of the sanctuary movement during the Vietnam Conflict (1971-1972) and the much more extensive movement assisting Central American refugees in the United States (1982-1987). This is one of six GTU collections on the Sanctuary Movement.

Thomas Starr King
1824-1864

Thomas Starr King (1824 - 1864) was a Unitarian and Universalist minister and popular lecturer. After serving churches in the Boston area, he accepted a call to San Francisco in 1860. With the start of the Civil War, he lectured and campaigned successfully throughout the state to keep California in the Union. He was an early environmentalist and great nature writer. One of two statues from the State of California in the Capital Building, Washington, D.C., King's was replaced by Ronald Reagan in June 2009. King's statute is now in the Civil War Grove in Capitol Park, Sacramento.

Berkeley Free Church
1967-1973

The Berkeley Free Church (South Campus Community Ministry), 1967-1972, Richard York, Pastor, operated a service ministry to the Berkeley, CA, Telegraph Ave. area transients, runaways and hippies. Services included a referral switchboard, counseling, health care, crash pads, and free food. The Church and its clergy were involved in all the radical and social justice issues of the late 60's including local Berkeley issues, campus riots, and People's Park; peace and draft resistance issues of the Vietnam War; and radical church renewal (Submarine church) in the mainline Protestant denominations.