The Christadelphian, April 1987, Michael Ashton

“Christadelphian Office Library”

One of the highlights for visitors to The Christadelphian Office is the time spent in the Library. Elsewhere in the building modern techniques, specifically in printing technology, are to the fore. Entering the Library is, by contrast, stepping back in time. Many visitors express surprise that they were previously unaware of its existence and invariably comment that it should be more widely known and extensively used. It is for this reason that this short article has been written, describing how it came into being, some of its more fascinating volumes and its availability for personal study.

Brief History of the Office

It is necessary to start with a very abbreviated history of The Christadelphian Office itself. Under the first Editor, Brother Robert Roberts, the magazine was a private venture, operated personally by him from various locations within Birmingham. Rooms were used in the Atheneum Buildings, later in Moor Street, then, with the assistance of Brother C. C. Walker who succeeded Brother Roberts as Editor, in Brother Walker’s own house in Hendon Road, Sparkhill. The Office was located in these premises longer than it has been anywhere else. As the work of magazine and book production increased, Brother Walker was forced to find other accommodation for himself and his family.

Shortly before his death he had the foresight to place the running of the publishing work in the hands of a formally constituted Committee whose first task was to appoint a new Editor, Brother John Carter. This should help to explain that at the beginning the books used in The Christadelphian Office were the privately owned volumes of successive Editors.

Unfortunately, few of Brother Roberts’ books remain, though pride of place among the archival material must be a small collection of his personal Bibles. In one of these, in his own handwriting alongside Daniel chapter 11, are some calculations working out his age, should he have lived to see a fulfilment of some of the prophecies in the period he anticipated. Letters and manuscripts from this period are more numerous, and include some between Brother Roberts and Brother Thomas. Displayed in the entrance hall of the Office are three letters from Brother Roberts written a few days before his death; one to Brother Walker, one to his daughter, and one to his wife. Accompanying these is the letter from Brother Thomas explaining the reason he advised adopting the name “Christadelphian”—this was to stop brethren and sisters being called ‘Thomasites’! Due to its fragility, the majority of this early material is separately housed, and for the foundation of the library proper we owe our thanks to Brother C. C. Walker.

Brother C. C. Walker

Less well known than John Thomas or Robert Roberts, Brother Walker was nonetheless a fascinating character. He had wide interests, many of them reflected in the books he owned. He always, it seems, read a book with a pen in his hand. There are many volumes on the library shelves copiously annotated, occasionally in shorthand. One commonly recurring remark is the emphatic “Just so!”, when a particular phrase won his approval. There is a whole section of the library, dealing with Palestinian matters, that is almost totally made up of books purchased by him. He lived, of course, during a period when archaeology was the new science and the pursuit of gentlemen. Various learned societies were established and their transactions published, often in very high quality bindings. A large series of these, Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, now form part of the Library.

With this basis already available, the Library continued to grow by three means. Firstly, as new books were published by the Office, these were placed in the Library; other new books, or even second-hand works of reference have been added as Editors have seen fit; and various brethren and sisters have bequeathed their own libraries (or parts of them) so that a good body of material can be more widely available.

When, through the generosity and in accordance with the wishes of the world-wide brotherhood, new purpose-built offices were constructed in 1963, the opportunity was taken to provide a separate room to house this growing collection. Almost a quarter of a century has passed, and now even this room cannot contain the full extent of the library. The Library is also a Committee Room and is regularly used for meetings.

Scope of the Library

To give a general idea of the contents of the Library, it is probably simplest to list the main categories of books in each floor to ceiling bookstack. Firstly there is a full collection of The Christadelphian magazines. These start with those published in America by Brother Thomas, and continue with The Ambassador, subsequently renamed The Christadelphian. All the books and pamphlets (in most of their editions) published by the Christadelpian Office since the earliest days are housed in chronological order. Reference works on Bible manuscripts and translations, with dictionaries and Bible Encyclopaedias fill the next stack. Two separate bookshelves contain information and concordances on Biblical Hebrew and Greek. There is almost a complete stack which contains just Bibles—in various versions, translations and languages. A whole historical and geographical section has background material on nations mentioned in Scripture, particularly Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome. A very full Palestinian section has works on the nation and land of Israel, and on her Arab neighbours.

All the way along one complete wall of the Library are shelves containing commentaries on the individual books of the Bible, set out in Scriptural order. Books describing the development of the early church and the introduction of heresies are housed alongside those dealing with the Roman Catholic Church and other faiths. Dictionaries, encyclopaedias and other general reference books complete the material which is currently displayed.

Rare, Early Volumes

Some of the volumes are quite rare, and presumably of increasing value. The works of Thomas Mede (early 17th century) and Isaac Newton (late 17th century), for example, are available in very early editions. There is a set of Elliott’s Horæ Apocalypticæ, which was a great influence on the work of Brother Thomas when he was writing Eureka. More recently, and as a result of some donations received for the work of the Office, an attempt has been made to fill some of the gaps in the material available. A new edition (in 18 volumes) of the Encyclopædia Judaica has been purchased, as have some recently published books on the Zionist movement and the more modern history of the re-established State of Israel.

It is hoped to be able to include in future issues a brief description of some of the more interesting volumes and a note of any new acquisitions, as set out below. Perhaps by keeping this information more to the forefront of the attention of the Brotherhood, this very useful facility will become more widely known and more extensively used. An added facility is the ready availability of photocopying equipment. Anyone wishing to carry out personal Bible study utilising the reference works in the Office Library, may like to check beforehand that it is not being used for a meeting on that day.

Michael Ashton