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The exact provenance of this collection is unknown.
Daniel Day Williams was born on September 12, 1910, in Denver, Colorado. In 1931 he graduated from the University of Denver, and in 1933 he earned his Master's degree from the University of Chicago. The following year he earned his BD from the University of Chicago's Theological Seminary, where he had taken classes with William Pauck and had been influenced by the work of Henry Nelson Wieman, Charles Hartshorne and Alfred North Whitehead. In 1934 he also began his studies in History of Philosophy at Columbia University, where he wrote his dissertation on the development of liberalism at Andover Theological Seminary during the nineteenth century. He was ordained in 1936 and received his doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University in 1940. From 1939-1954 he was professor of Christian Theology at Chicago Theological Seminary, where he was associated with the exponent of process philosophy, Charles Hartshorne. In 1954 he joined Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he served as Professor of Theology and was involved in the Program in Psychiatry and Religion. Among his colleagues at Union were Paul Tillich, John Knox, Frederick Grant, and John Macquarrie. As of 1971 he served as representative to the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches in The United Church of Christ. He was the author of numerous books, including a study of his Union Seminary colleague Reinhold Niebuhr's thinking, God's Grace and Man's Hope (1949), The Family Learns about Jesus (1960), The Minister and the Care of Souls (1961), The Spirit and the Forms of Love (1968), and The Andover Liberals: A Study in American Theology (1970). He died in New York City on December 3, 1973, at the age of 63 years. Following his death, Union Seminary established the Daniel Day Williams Award, which is given to a doctoral student "doing outstanding work in theology in ways exemplified by the late Professor Daniel Day Williams."
The Daniel Day Williams papers were among a large group of unprocessed materials that were organized in 2018 with the support of the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
Union Theological Seminary Archives: UTS 1, papers of faculty and students
Item description, UTS 1: Daniel Day Williams papers, 1935-1970, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Notebook was cataloged by Matthew S. Lucas on 1988-07-15. Metal clips and staples were removed from materials and folded items were flattened. Materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. Files wrapped in brown paper were transferred to folders and one of the folders was separated into several smaller ones. The finding aid was created by Daniella Cádiz Bedini and Rebecca Nieto in 2018 with the support of the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2022.
This collection contains documents related to Daniel Day Williams's research, teaching, and publishing, including material related to conferences, lectures, and presentations on science and theology, and material specifically related to the Theology-Science Discussion Group to which he belonged. Also included is correspondence from and work by some of the group's members, including the nuclear physicist and Episcopal priest William G. Pollard ("The Mystery of Matter" and "Nature and Supernature"); Harold K. Schilling, professor of Physics and Dean of the Graduate School at Pennsylvania State University ("Cosmic Mystery", as well as prints and reprints of his "On the Significance of Science for Religious Thought", "A Human Enterprise", and "Concerning the Nature of Science and = Religion"); Harmon R. Holcomb from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky; and Frederick Ferré from the University of Georgia. Other= materials include "Understanding Science" by John J. Compton, as well as Williams's personal notebook from 1935.
Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.
This collection is arranged chronologically.