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[Identification of item], Thor Hall Papers, University Archives, Duke University.
The Thor Hall Papers were received by the University Archives as a transfer in 1986.
Processed by Jessica Wood, June 2006
Encoded by Kimberly Sims, July 2006
Accession A86-34 is described in this finding aid.
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This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
Dr. Thor Hall was born and raised in Larvik, Norway and educated there as well as in Sweden, England and the United States. He received an Examen Artium (B.A.) degree from Oslo University, a Diploma of Theology (B.D.) degree from Scandinavian Methodist Seminary (Sweden), and the M.R.E. and Ph.D. degree from Duke University. Following seminary, he studied for a year at the Selly Oak College in Birmingham, England, holding a scholarship from the World Council of Churches. During his graduate work at Duke, he held a Crusade Scholarship from the Methodist Church, a Kearns Fellowship in Religion, the Angier B. Duke Memorial Fellowship and a James B. Duke Fellowship.
Dr. Hall, his wife Gerd, and their son Jan Tore came to America in 1957. During his five years of graduate study, Dr. Hall served one year as pastor of the Ansonville Methodist Church in the Western North Carolina Conference and almost three years as Assistant to the Minister and Interim Minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Durham, North Carolina. He joined the Duke faculty in September 1962, teaching in the areas of systematic theology and preaching. He spent his sabbatical 1968-69 with his family at the University of Lund, Sweden, completing work on a major book on Lundensian theological methodology, entitled A Framework for Faith. Other books by Dr. Hall include A Theology of Christian Devotion and a collection of sermons by Charles P. Bowles entitled The Unfinished Pyramid.
Dr. Hall was Associate Professor of Preaching and Theology in the Duke Divinity School from 1962 until 1972. Currently, Dr. Hall is a Martin Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga.
The materials range in date from 1961-1972 and include correspondence, minutes, reports, brochures, and proposals. Two photographs of students at the Approved Pastors School (circa 1963) were transferred from this collection to the University Archives Photograph Collection.
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