General correspondence (Series I), circa 1918-1976

Contains correspondence relating to Buttrick's life and career. The bulk of the material falls between 1950 and 1970, and includes letters both to and from Buttrick. The correspondence covers a wide range of topics, including Buttrick's career as minister in Rutland, Vermont; Buffalo, New York; at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City; and at Harvard. The letters also refer to his teaching appointments at Union Theological Seminary in New York and Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois; preaching and lecturing engagements at churches and colleges throughout the country; the internal affairs of the Presbyterian Church; letters of recommendation and evaluation for ministers seeking congregations; references to Buttrick's prayers, sermons, and publications; the Buttricks' tour of the Far East (the Joseph Cook Lectureship) in 1951-1952, sponsored by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church; pastoral counseling; and other topics. The correspondence also documents Buttrick's interest in a range of social and political issues, most notably Christian pacifism, nuclear disarmament, protest against the Vietnam War, ecumenism, racial desegregation, McCarthyism and Cold War suspicion of liberal clergymen, and the conflict within Protestantism between liberals and fundamentalists. Noteworthy correspondents include John Foster Dulles, Henry Luce, Archibald MacLeish, Nathan M. Pusey (see file: Union Theol. Sem.-- Van Dusen, H.P.), and Paul Tillich.