Newspaper clipping: 'Allison Back After Getting Oxford Ph.D.; Notes Justification Doctrine' (Dr. C. FitzSimons Allison)
Book 1, Page 309 ·1954–1958
Transcription
Newspaper clipping (headline, two columns of text, photograph at right)
Allison Back After Getting Oxford Ph.D.; Notes Justification Doctrine
Dr. C. FitzSimons Allison, a former assistant rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, recently came to Columbia after studying for two years at Oxford University in England. He was awarded the Ph.D. degree from that university.
The son of Dr. and Mrs. J. Richard Allison of 1537 Haynesworth Road, Dr. Fitz Allison went to Oxford to study 17th century theology. The topic of his dissertation was “Doctrine of Justification in the Caroline Divines.”
Doctor Allison explained he wanted to find out what the Anglican Church felt about the doctrine of justification one hundred years after the Reformation. At Oxford he was able, because of the excellent collection of 17th century manuscripts and books, to treat the subject fully.
At the completion of his research, Doctor Allison defended his dissertation before a jury composed of professors from Oxford and Cambridge. He was awarded the Ph.D. degree in June.
Doctor Allison will join the faculty of Sewanee in September where he will teach church history.
A former University of South Carolina student, Doctor Allison served two years with the United States Army. He returned to the University in 1947, then transferred to Sewanee where he received an A. B. degree in history. He attended the Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va., and was graduated in 1952 with the B. D. degree. During the next two years he served as assistant rector of Trinity Church.
He went to England in 1954 to continue his studies and was accompanied by his wife, the former Martha Allison Parker of Georgetown and his son, Christopher who is now 3½ years old. A second son, James, was born in England.
During their stay abroad, the Allisons traveled in France, Switzerland, and Italy. They were visited this spring by Dr. Allison’s parents from Columbia.
Photograph caption (beneath the photograph at right of clipping)
RECEIVES DOCTORATE FROM OXFORD: Dr. Christopher FitzSimons Allison, son of Dr. and Mrs. J. Richard Allison of Columbia, received his Ph. D. degree in 17th century theology from Oxford University, England. Doctor Allison will join the faculty of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn, in September. (Staff Photo by Taylor.)
Pencil annotation (in the compiler’s hand, lower left of page)
(Miss) Martha Burger Columbia
AI Notes
A single newspaper clipping mounted on the page, with a large studio photograph of the Rev. Dr. C. FitzSimons Allison seated in a clerical collar. The article reports on his return to Columbia after two years at Oxford studying 17th-century theology, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in June for a dissertation titled ‘Doctrine of Justification in the Caroline Divines.’ He will join the faculty of the University of the South at Sewanee in September. Beneath the clipping is a faint pencil annotation in the compiler’s hand identifying the source: ‘(Miss) Martha Burger / Columbia.’
The 1958 Oxford doctoral dissertation, “The Rise of Moralism: The Proclamation of the Gospel from Hooker to Baxter,” was published as a book in 1966 and remains Allison’s best-known scholarly work. Twenty-two years after this Columbia homecoming, he would be consecrated XII Bishop of South Carolina (see pages 321–325). His maternal grandfather was Christopher “Kit” FitzSimons (1856–1925), the Columbia cottonseed-oil executive whose obituaries appear on pages 304 and 308.