Clergy have historically been represented as figures of authority, wielding great influence over our society. During certain periods of American history, members of the clergy were nearly ever-present in public life. But men and women of the clergy are not born that way, they are made. And therefore, the matter of their education is a question of fundamental public importance. In Clergy Education in America, Larry Golemon shows not only how our conception of professionalism in religious life has changed over time, but also how the education of religious leaders have influenced American culture. Tracing the history of clergy education in America from the Early Republic through the first decades of the twentieth century, Golemon tracks how the clergy has become increasingly diversified in terms of race, gender, and class in part because of this engagement with public life. At the same time, he demonstrates that as theological education became increasingly intertwined with academia the clergy's sphere of influence shrank significantly, marking a turn away from public life and a decline in their cultural influence. Clergy Education in America offers a sweeping look at an oft-overlooked but critically important aspect of American public life.

Clergy have historically been represented as figures of authority, wielding great influence over our society. During certain periods of American history, members of the clergy were nearly ever-present in public life. But men and women of the clergy are not born that way, they are made. And therefore, the matter of their education is a question of fundamental public importance. In Clergy Education in America, Larry Golemon shows not only how our conception of professionalism in religious life has changed over time, but also how the education of religious leaders have influenced American culture. Tracing the history of clergy education in America from the Early Republic through the first decades of the twentieth century, Golemon tracks how the clergy has become increasingly diversified in terms of race, gender, and class in part because of this engagement with public life. At the same time, he demonstrates that as theological education became increasingly intertwined with academia the clergy's sphere of influence shrank significantly, marking a turn away from public life and a decline in their cultural influence. Clergy Education in America offers a sweeping look at an oft-overlooked but critically important aspect of American public life.

"The first 100 years of the education of the clergy in the United States is rightly understood as classical professional education-that is, a formation into an identity and calling to serve the wider public through specialized knowledge and skills. This book argues that pastors, priests, and rabbis were best formed into capacities of culture building through the construction of narratives, symbols, and practices that served their religious communities and the wider public. This kind of education was closely aligned with liberal arts pedagogies of studying classical texts, languages, and rhetorical practices. The theory of culture here is indebted to Geertz and Bruner's social-semiotic view, which identifies culture as the social construction of narrative, symbols, and practices that shape the identity and meaning-making of certain communities. The theological framework of analysis is indebted to Lindbeck's cultural-linguistic view, which emphasizes the role of doctrine as grammatical rules that govern narratives, doctrinal grammars, and social practices for distinct religious communities. This framework is pushed toward the renewal and reconstruction of religious frameworks by the postmodern work of Sheila Devaney and Kathryn Tanner. The book also employs several other concepts from social theory, borrowed from Jurgen Habermas, Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu, Michael Young, and Bernard Anderson"--

Based on extensive literary and field research involving surveys, classroom observations, and interviews with faculty, students, and administrators in Roman Catholic, mainline and evangelical Protestant, and Reform and Conservative Jewish seminaries, Educating Clergy explores the influence of their historic traditions and academic settings in contemporary classroom and communal pedagogies. The book describes elements in classroom pedagogies shared across these religious traditions that distinctively integrate the cognitive, practical, and normative apprenticeships to be found in all forms of professional education.

In God's Ambassadors E. Brooks Holifield masterfully traces the history of America's Christian clergy from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, analyzing the changes in practice and authority that have transformed the clerical profession. Challenging one-sided depictions of decline in clerical authority, Holifield locates the complex story of the clergy within the context not only of changing theologies but also of transitions in American culture and society. The result is a thorough social history of the profession that also takes seriously the theological presuppositions that have informed clerical activity. With alternating chapters on Protestant and Catholic clergy, the book permits sustained comparisons between the two dominant Christian traditions in American history. At the same time, God's Ambassadors depicts a vocation that has remained deeply ambivalent regarding the professional status marking the other traditional learned callings in the American workplace. Changing expectations about clerical education, as well as enduring theological questions, have engendered a debate about the professional ideal that has distinguished the clerical vocation from such fields as law and medicine. The American clergy from the past four centuries constitute a colorful, diverse cast of characters who have, in ways both obvious and obscure, helped to shape the tone of American culture. For a well-rounded narrative of their story told by a master historian, God's Ambassadors is the book to read.

Frontcover -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Part One: Entrants to the Clerical Profession, 1780-1839 -- 1. Recruitment to the Established Church -- 2. Episcopal Ordination: Policy and Practice -- Part Two: Routes to Ordination -- 3. The Ordinand and the University -- 4. Literate Clergy and the Grammar Schools -- 5. Autodidacts, Tutors for Orders and Parish Clerical Seminaries -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1. Ordination Profiles of Bishops, 1780-1839 -- Appendix 2. A Note on Methodology -- Bibliography -- Index

"The first 100 years of the education of the clergy in the United States is rightly understood as classical professional education-that is, a formation into an identity and calling to serve the wider public through specialized knowledge and skills. This book argues that pastors, priests, and rabbis were best formed into capacities of culture building through the construction of narratives, symbols, and practices that served their religious communities and the wider public. This kind of education was closely aligned with liberal arts pedagogies of studying classical texts, languages, and rhetorical practices. The theory of culture here is indebted to Geertz and Bruner's social-semiotic view, which identifies culture as the social construction of narrative, symbols, and practices that shape the identity and meaning-making of certain communities. The theological framework of analysis is indebted to Lindbeck's cultural-linguistic view, which emphasizes the role of doctrine as grammatical rules that govern narratives, doctrinal grammars, and social practices for distinct religious communities. This framework is pushed toward the renewal and reconstruction of religious frameworks by the postmodern work of Sheila Devaney and Kathryn Tanner. The book also employs several other concepts from social theory, borrowed from Jurgen Habermas, Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu, Michael Young, and Bernard Anderson"--