Eden Theological Seminary: Press Building

Friday, April 1, 2016

St. Louis Trip, Day 4, Monday, July 27, 2015
Across from the SPICE building is Eden Theological Seminary.  Papa and I walked over to see the seminary's Press Building while my sisters finished their chess games.  This ecumenical seminary was established in 1850.
In 1924, the seminary moved to its current location in Webster Groves, MO.  The Press Building is named after Dr. Samuel Press.  The tower is 106 feet tall, and was originally used as a water tower!  Water was pumped up into it to provide water pressure for the campus.  It is now used as a bell tower.
From the Rand Rotunda (above) we went into the Luhr Reading Room, which originally was the seminary library.  For a while it served as a reception room, but since 2011 has again been the reading room.  Since it was summer, work was being done on some of the other parts of the building, and the reading room was as far as we got.

But the reading room was far enough for me to see the oldest man-made objects I had ever seen: 1531 and 1536 editions of the Zurich Bible!  This Bible contains revised versions Martin Luther's translation of the New Testament and part of the Old Testament, and Zurich-based translations of the prophets and Apocrypha.  Zwingli wrote the preface & summaries. 
Taped onto the door leading into the reading room was an interesting quote:
"A church that does not provoke any crisis, preach a gospel that does not unsettle, proclaim a word of God that does not get under anyone's skin or a word of God that does not touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed: what kind of gospel is that?"  --Oscar Romero

What is the oldest book or other object you have ever seen?

31 comments:

  1. bETHANY DEFINITELY NICE PLaCE TO VISIt. tHE SERTING IS GREAT TOO

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    1. It was nice to have an interesting building to tour in our spare time.

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  2. I love that you do so many interesting things on your travels...you explore and delve into, experience and enjoy many wonderful places! Blessings- Hope you have a wonderful weekend- xo Diana

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    1. It's a lot funner to visit the neat places in the vicinity of our travels than it would be to have to look back and wish we had! It's good to try to enjoy every moment.

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  3. What a great place to visit! I love seeing the old bibles and the quote is very good.

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  4. It is a very nice building, and the Seminary seems to be located on a peaceful place that invites to study. It is remarkable that there are such old editions of the Bible in the reading room. I like the pics.

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    1. I definitely wasn't expecting to see such old Bibles! It was a pleasant surprise to find them there.

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  5. Wow that is fascinating! The oldest thing I've seen (and touched!) is probably the Alamo.

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    1. Oh, that must have been neat to see the Alamo! That's one place I haven't visited yet. :)

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  6. What a gorgeous place, Bethany! Your photos are lovely.

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  7. This looks like an interesting place to visit! How neat to see such old books.

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  8. I couldn't really recall something that old that I've seen outside of normal things in an average museum.

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  9. Wow, those are old Bibles. The color illustration looks so vibrant still. Old academic buildings are often so interesting to look at in terms of architecture.

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    1. It is awesome how well the Bibles have been preserved over the centuries.

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  10. WoW Bethany, a wonderful and very interesting place to visit. Your photographs are beautiful!!

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  11. Beautiful place to visit! I really enjoy touring old buildings with so much history and so many stories to tell. And I also really enjoy when bloggers share their own discoveries and make me feel like I'm right there with them!

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    1. It is nice to see so many places through the eyes of blogging friends that I would never see on my own! A few places are tempting enough though to make me want to travel and see them for myself!

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  12. Hmmm...I am so old my memory is stumped on remembering what is the oldest thing I have ever seen, but I am impressed by seeing a photo of what you saw! xx

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    1. I'm not sure what would be the oldest thing that I've seen other than those Bibles...possibly a book that my grandma gave me.

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  13. What a lovely building and nice place to visit. I would love to spend some time in the reading area :)

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  14. Such a pretty building - obviously with some rich history. I think I could be nice and scholarly there. ;) xoxo

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  15. Whoa! It would be pretty cool to see those Bibles! We had a rare books section in our college library with really interesting manuscripts, but I'm not remembering anything quite that old. I guess the oldest 'thing' I've seen in Angkor Wat in Cambodia, which is thought to have been built in the 1100s.

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  16. Bethany - I really appreciate these photos. As an alum it brings back many memories. Exam day would often find me in the chapel half way up the tower where I would be writing away in the blue exam book. The year I was graduating they had some structure issues in the tower and each piece was removed and labeled and sat in the grass in front of the building. It was nice to see the "faces" up close. I am glad you too the time to visit - it is a great place to visit and walk around.

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