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Wayne A. Meeks Papers

 Collection
Call Number: RG 269

Scope and Contents

This collection documents the academic career of prominent Yale University faculty member and New Testament scholar Wayne Meeks. Meeks is best known for his publications on the writings of the apostle Paul and on the Fourth Gospel, for his investigation of the social history of earliest Christianity, and for work on the formation of early Christian morality.

Correspondence with colleagues and students contained in both Series I, Correspondence, and Series II, Documentation of Professional Activities, provides insight into issues of interest for the community of scholarship in the field of New Testament studies. Colleagues with whom Meeks corresponded include Elaine Pagels, Jacob Neusner, Ernest Frerichs, Victor Paul Furnish, Helmut Koester, David L. Balch, Troels Engberg-Pedersen,and many others.

Writings, talks, and lectures by Meeks are interspersed throughout Series II, many of them unpublished typescripts. When the title of a paper or lecture is listed, a text is generally available; in other cases the files may contain primarily information about a lecture or event. Meeks' Curriculum Vitae in Series VI provides a full listing of published articles, essays, and books.

Series III focuses on Meeks' work as General Editor of the HarperCollins Study Bible, a reference work that combines the text of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible with notes by sixty leading Biblical scholars.

Series IV, Courses Taught, and Series V, Dissertations Advised, provide thorough documentation of Meeks' teaching and advisory activities, primarily at Yale.

Series VI, Personal Items and Memorabilia, contains primarily biographical information.

Dates

  • 1959 - 2014

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Wayne A. Meeks, 2015.

Arrangement

  1. I. Correspondence
  2. II. Documentation of Professional Activities
  3. III. HarperCollins Study Bible Project
  4. IV. Courses Taught
  5. V. Dissertations Advised
  6. VI. Personal Items and Memorabilia

Extent

8.5 Linear Feet (21 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/divinity.269

Abstract

Writings, correspondence, and course-related materials document the academic career of prominent New Testament scholar Wayne A. Meeks, who taught in the Religious Studies Department at Yale University from 1969 until his retirement in 1999.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical Information

Chronology

1932 January 8
Born in Aliceville, Alabama
1953
Received B.S. degree from University of Alabama
1956
Received B.D. degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
1956-1957
Study at University of Tübingen as Fulbright scholar
1964, 1965
Received M.A., Ph.D. degrees from Yale University (Religious Studies: New Testament)
1964-1965
Instructor in Religion at Dartmouth College
1966-1969
Assistant / Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University
1969-1973
Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University
1973-
Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University
1984-
Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University
1999-
Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Yale University
2004 Fall
McDonald Visiting Distinguished Professor in the Study of the Person and Teachings of Jesus at Emory University
2005 Spring
Croghan Bicentennial Visiting Professor in Biblical and Early Christian Studies at Williams College

Prof. Meeks served as Chairman of Department of Religious Studies at Yale from 1972 to 1975 and Acting Chairman 1978-1979 and 1982-1983. He was Director, Division of the Humanities, 1988-1991.

He was General Editor of the HarperCollins Study Bible (Society of Biblical Literature)from 1989-1993 and General Editor of the Library of Early Christianity, Westminster Press, 1982-1987. For additional professional activities see Meeks' Curriculum Vitae in Series VI.

Title
Guide to the Wayne A. Meeks Papers
Author
Martha Lund Smalley and Margaret Mary Stapleton Smith
Date
2016
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Yale Divinity Library Repository

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