History Manuscripts

Among the manuscripts that survive, there are several that together provide an interesting picture of the history of religion from the time of Christ through the Reformation in England and Europe and the evolution of religion in New England from the Pilgrims and the Puritans to William Ellery Channing and the emergence of Unitarianism and liberal religion.

There are four separate collections of manuscripts:
(1) Origins and History of the Bible
(2) Origins of Modern Religion, Modern Charity and Modern Labor Problems
(3) The Rise and Development of the Congregational Polity and Spirit in New England
(4) A Series of Biographical sketches of important 17th and 18th century Congregational preachers in New England.

Davis’ lecture series, which I have titled, “The Origins and History of the Bible,” is by far the most extensive and detailed of the collections, well over 200 manuscript pages, it covers the origins of the texts which now make up the Old and New Testaments. The lectures were almost certainly written in 1916 and used for religious education–adult religious education. Davis concludes from the scholarship that the Bible is a “natural book,” “naturally produced and naturally transmitted.” Nonetheless, it remains “one of the greatest books in the world.”

The other sets of manuscripts are all hand written, and so can be dated prior to 1907 when Earl Davis started to type his manuscripts. Two of the collections, the “Rise and Development of the Congregational Polity and Spirit” collection and the collection that focuses on “Origins of Modern Religion, Modern Charity and Modern Labor Problems” can be pretty definitively dated to Earl Davis’ time in Pittsfield. Both include language about weekly Sunday meetings with their audience. The first lecture in the “Religion, Charity, Labor” series includes language that dates the manuscript to 1905.

The third collection, a series of brief biographical sketches of important 17th and 18th century Congregational preachers in New England, is harder to date. These sketches could have been written while Earl Davis was a student at Harvard, or they could also contribute to his lessons on the history of the development of liberal religion in New England.

The four series do together provide a good view of Earl Davis’ interest in history, including his admiration for–and knowledge of–the origins and history of the Bible, but also the history leading up to the rise of Unitarianism and liberal religion in the early 19th century.