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Select Holdings
While the Pitts Library collects across a great number of topics in theology and religious studies, the library also identifies several select holdings focused on certain exclusive topics.
Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection
The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century was the pivotal religious movement in Western culture since the introduction of Christianity, and the purpose of the Kessler Collection has been to document that reformation in Germany. The collection has focused on the works of Martin Luther (1483-1546), his colleagues, and opponents, which were printed during their lifetimes, although the works of other reformers in Germany, the Roman Catholic responses to Luther, and publications by Humanists such as Erasmus have been included as well. The aim has been to gather materials that would give historians and theologians the opportunity to hear the full range of voices that were raised in this dynamic period.
English Religious History Collection
The English Religious History Collection is a body of over 35,000 items that date from 1660 until 1920 and illuminates the various religious currents in England, Scotland, and Wales during this period. Holdings are particularly strong for Anglicanism, English Catholicism, and Methodism.
Wesleyana Collection
The strength of the Wesleyana Collection at Pitts is the quantity of materials from the prolific Wesley brothers and their associates and the collection of corresponding materials that establish the broader context of Methodism within English religious history.
English and American Hymnody and Psalmody Collection
The English and American Hymnody and Psalmody Collection is about 15,000 print and microfilm items that range in date from the 16th through the 20th century.
Sub-Saharan African Collection
The Pitts Theology Library holds more than 4,500 books and pamphlets published in Sub-Saharan countries-almost half from Nigeria alone. With more than eight hundred theological publications from almost 40 countries, the Sub-Saharan African Periodicals Collection at Pitts is one of the world's larger collections of periodical literature documenting the history as well as social and cultural aspects of religious institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa since the 1970s.
Reverend Gordon Taylor Collection of Church Histories
The Reverend Gordon Taylor Collection of Church Histories consists of over 7,100 short works on English churches, monasteries, and cathedrals published from the early nineteenth century to the present.