Late Scholar’s Religious Books Donated To Library

Perry Library has acquired more than 1,000 books from the collection of the late Willard G. Oxtoby, who was one of the world’s leading scholars in the field of comparative religion. A prolific author, Oxtoby was best known for his standard textbooks in two volumes: “World Religions: Western Traditions” and “World Religions: Eastern Traditions.”

Primarily covering the areas of Christianity, Islam, philosophy, Judaism and Eastern religions, the collection includes many titles that are classics in comparative religion and does not duplicate any titles already held in the library’s collection, according to Virginia O’Herron, university librarian.

“These titles are a wonderful addition to the library’s holdings, especially the comparative religion collection,” O’Herron said.

Oxtoby, who died March 6, 2003, and his wife, Julia Ching, who preceded him in death, were friends and neighbors of ODU President Roseann Runte when she was president of Victoria University in Toronto. Before Oxtoby died, he told his son about the gift he planned to make to Old Dominion.

“This collection is a tribute to a fine scholar and a generous man and to his son, who was true to his father’s word,” Runte said.

An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church of California, Oxtoby worked in Jerusalem from 1958 to 1960 with a group of scholars translating the Dead Sea Scrolls. He taught at Harvard, Yale and McGill universities and at Trinity College in the University of Toronto, where he was founding director of the Centre for Religious Study. On his retirement, he was named professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.

Earlier this year, Perry Library and ODU’s Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding received a collection of more than 1,000 books and videos from Ruth Peisach-Schepper. The Schepper German-Jewish History Collection depicts, through historical documents, narrative and memoir, the lives of German and European Jews in the 20th century.