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| Record Creator: | Parsons, Robert Thomas |
| Title: | Robert Thomas Parsons Collection |
| Date Span: | 1940 |
| Abstract: | Robert Thomas Parsons (1904-?) was a Church of the United Brethren in Christ (and later Evangelical United Brethren Church) missionary, pastor and academic. Parsons was born in 1904 in Dayton, Ohio. After completing degrees at Indiana Central College and Bonebrake Theological Seminary, Parsons was ordained in 1929 by the United Brethren in Christ and served as a missionary to the Kono tribe in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Parsons enrolled as a Ph.D. candidate at the Kennedy School of Missions at Hartford Theological Seminary in 1933, and completed his dissertation in 1940. Parsons would join the faculty at Hartford in 1947, and make several more trips back to Africa for research. This collection contains copies of Parsons 1940 dissertation, "The Function of Religion in an African Society", as well as biographical date obtained from the Hartford Theological Seminary archives. |
| Extent: | 0.18 cubic feet |
| Identification: | gcah.ms.gcah4223 |
Robert Thomas Parsons (1904-?) was a Church of the United Brethren in Christ missionary, pastor, and academic. Parsons was born on September 27, 1094 to J.B. Parsons, D.D. and Ada Parsons in Dayton, Ohio.
Parsons received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana Central College in 1926, and a Bachelor of Divinity from Bonebrake Theological Seminary in 1929. He was ordained, and in 1929 went to serve as a missionary under the Foreign Missions Board of the United Brethren in Christ to the Kono tribe in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
Parsons would return to the United States on his first furlough in 1933 to enroll as a Ph.D. candidate in the Kennedy School of Missions at Hartford Theological Seminary. During his second furlough in 1937, alongside his Ph.D. work, he received a Master of Arts from Cornell University. Parsons then returned to Sierra Leone for two years and taught at Union College in Bunumbu.
Parsons completed his dissertation in 1940, and went on to serve Fifth Ave Church in Columbus, Ohio. Parsons would join the faculty at Hartford in 1947 as a Professor of African Studies, and would later become Dean of the Kennedy School of Missions. Parsons would make a handful of other trips back to Africa for research. He also went on to serve on committees of the Division of Foreign Missions of the National Council of Churches. His dissertation was published in book form as "Religion in an African society: A Study of the Religion of the Kono People of Sierra Leone in its Social Environment With Special Reference to the Function of Religion in that Society" by Brill in 1964.
The Robert Thomas Parsons Collection contains both a complete copy and a partial copy of Parsons' Ph.D. dissertation from the Kennedy School of Missions of the Hartford Seminary Foundation. The first folder contains biographical data and a photograph of Parsons from a collection of his papers at Hartford Theological Seminary. A complete manuscript of the thesis, titled "The Function of Religion in an African Society", is collected in two volumes. A partial collection of the thesis containing sections III, IV, V, VI, and VII is collected in two volumes and marked with a logo from the Department of World Missions of the Evangelical United Brethren Church.
Materials have been arranged in the following manner.
Documents arranged by record type.
When citing material from this collection please use the following format: Direct reference to the item or its file folder, Robert Thomas Parsons Collection, United Methodist Church Archives - GCAH, Madison, New Jersey. Do not make use of the item's call number as that is not a stable descriptor.
There are no restrictions regarding this collection.
Detailed use restrictions relating to our collections can be requested from the office of the archivist at the General Commission on Archives and History. Photocopying is handled by the staff and may be limited in certain instances. Before using any material for publication from this collection a formal request for permission to publish is expected and required.
Scarritt-Bennett Center Records
Hartford Theological Seminary Archives
| Call Number | Folder Title | Date(s) |
| 1586-3-3: 1 | Biographical Data and Photograph from Hartford Theological Seminary | Undated |
| 1586-3-3: 2 | The Function of Religion in an African Society, Volume I by Robert Thomas Parsons | 1940 |
| 1586-3-3: 3 | The Function of Religion in an African Society, Volume II, Robert Thomas Parsons | 1940 |
| 1586-3-3: 4 | The Function of Religion in the African Society, Section III - The Life of the Village | 1940 |
| 1586-3-3: 5 | The Function of Religion in the African Society, Sections IV, V, VI, VII | 1940 |
