Raymond F. Cottrell Papers

Collection

Identifier: Collection 238

Staff Only

Content Description

This is a very extensive collection of well over 250 scholarly papers, the vast majority of them written by Cottrell. There are papers covering the topics of hermeneutics, exegesis, church polity, governance, and history, Daniel, Revelation, Ellen White, science, plus many others. Cottrell surely had a wide range of interests and seemingly an input on almost every subject which became current in the second half of the 20th century. Nearly all of the papers are unpublished meaning they were designed for limited circulation. Many of the papers were prepared for distribution to a church sponsored study group or committee such as the Bible Research Fellowship or the Biblical Research Institute.

Perhaps one of Cottrell’s greatest contributions to the Adventist Church was his work on the authoritative Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary series. As mentioned above he served as the associate editor of the series along with editor Francis D. Nichol. Besides editing many thousands of pages of other peoples work he wrote about 2,000 pages. The Commentary articles are not signed. Cottrell provides a list of the various authors and what books of the Bible they contributed to on the project.

A significant work of Cottrell’s which is not well known is his Eschatology of Daniel. It is at number 222 in the inventory. It was never formally published. Cottrell says the manuscript awaits a climate of openness and objectivity in the church, which is essential to a fair examination of the facts.”

Dates

1940 - 1994

Creator

Cottrell, Raymond F., 1911-2003 (Person)

Conditions Governing Use

All users of this collection are required to complete the “Application to Use Unpublished Records,” and toobserve the regulations specified in the “Patron’s Agreement” and the “Researcher’s Code of Conduct.” Allrecords in this collection are open and available for research. The suggested citation for this collection is:

# ________, Raymond F. Cottrell Collection (collection 238), Center for Adventist Research, JamesWhite Library, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.

Extent

1 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Existence and Location of Originals

Raymond F. Cottrell originally donated the collection to the Loma Linda University Department of Archives and Special Collections. The date of that donation is not known though it was after 1996. In 2005 the Center for Adventist Research at Andrews University asked the Loma Linda University Department of Archives and Special Collections to make a photocopy of the collection. This was done.

It should also be noted that at the time of Cottrell's original donation to Loma Linda some of the documents listed in Cottrell's inventory were missing from the collection. Such instances are noted by the heading "Empty folder" in the register.

Arrangement

The papers were originally arranged by Cottrell himself. We retained his comments about many of the papers. This can be seen in the following Inventory. This commentary often provides invaluable insight into the context in which a paper was prepared. His arrangement followed a topical approach with the following major sections:

Corporate Bible study in the church
Hermeneutical methodology
Applied hermeneutics
Ford and Rea affairs
Ellen White and Biblical hermeneutics
Church polity, governance, and history
Unclassified

Bibliography

These sections contained over 200 papers in Cottrell’s arrangement. In addition to the classified papers there were a large number of unclassified works as well as papers not in the inventory originally supplied by Cottrell. During processing, the Center for Adventist Research personnel attempted to classify many of these previously unclassified papers. Several things were done. Previously unclassified papers were placed at the end of each subject section. Consequently, the call numbers for these papers are not always in sequential order. Brief descriptions of the unclassified papers have also been added; longer comments written havebeen written in italics to distinguish them from Cottrell's remarks. They also have been given an alpha-numeric number in the register inventory. For example, 219a, 219b, etc. Page 2 of 39. The numbering can be slightly confusing until you understand what it all means. Here is an example and an explanation.

Box 1 Folder 42 Call No. 024041 39. “Hermeneutics . . .
The Box 1 Folder 42 is the documents position within the collection as arranged by the Center.
The 024041 is the call number the Center needs in order to retrieve the document for you.
The 39. is Cottrell’s original numbering.

Bibliography

Due to the manner in which the Center is managing this collection you should call for the papers by the six digit number associated with each title – 024041 in the above example.