In the days when New York City's most populous area was below Fourteenth Street, what is today the oldest theological seminary of the Episcopal Church enrolled its first students at St. Paul's Chapel. Founded in 1817, before a decade had passed the Seminary moved to the woods and fields of Clement Clarke Moore's country estate just north of the town in Chelsea. There its stone buildings soon became a familiar landmark. The General Seminary still occupies that site, now Chelsea Square, on the lower west side. For a hundred and fifty years its life has been intimately interwoven, not only with that of the Episcopal Church, but also with the changing scene of New York City. Dr. Dawley's history of the Seminary begins with the circumstances leading to its establishment by the General Convention, and describes the experimental years of the new institution, when there were few precedents to guide the pioneering venture. Much of the subsequent story is told in biographical vignettes, giving the reader vivid glimpses of a continuing community of men, teachers and students, priests and candidates for the ministry, who strove to fulfill in their successive generations the vocation to which they were called. Chapters deal with the ministry and theological education in the early nineteenth century, old New York and its churches, the growth of the Seminary, its years of crisis and controversy, the development of the theological curriculum, and the story of the institution during the recent years of change. The theological community in Chelsea today is a landmark, not only of the long history of the Seminary, but also of the Church's determination to remain close to the inner-city that has become an urgent frontier of Christianity in the contemporary world. At a time when reform in theological education is believed to be essential to any effective program for the renewal of the Church, the experience of the past, recaptured in these pages, may be both enlightening for the present and instructive for the future.

The Episcopal Church has long been regarded as the religion of choice among America's ruling elite, helping to set the tone for the moral and social life of the nation during the twentieth century. Shaped by their experiences of the Great Depression and World War II, a new generation of Episcopal leaders emerged after 1945, eager to place their church in the vanguard of social reform and reconciliation. These liberal activists came to dominate the church's national structures during the 1960s and shaped its response to the civil rights and anti-war movements. They sought to reposition the Episcopal Church as a catalyst for progressive change. Even so, these leaders routinely neglected black, female, and working-class Episcopalians, even as they espoused the causes of equality and liberation in the wider society. This study focuses on forms of social activism and theological innovation pursued by members of the war generation. Attending to the development of such activities among the WASP elite provides crucial insight into their underlying assumptions about social and theological authority and helps explain their ambivalent response to the challenges faced in the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing upon extensive archival research, this book not only offers a group portrait of Episcopalianism's leading post-war figures but documents the ways in which their individual pursuits influenced the direction of the church as a whole.

Robert Prichard examines both high-church and evangelical theology in the nineteenth-century Episcopal church, claiming a commonality between the two that has been neglected in the study of Anglican history. Parting company with the interpretation dominant among historians of the Episcopal church for more than sixty years, he focuses on shared theological assumptions rather than on liturgical divisions. By focusing on these shared theological assumptions, he sheds new light on the Episcopal church, helping the reader to see the evangelical and high-church parties as concerned with theological as well as liturgical topics. Prichard's approach avoids overemphasis on division and opens the way for a broader comparison of the Episcopal church's relationship to other Protestant churches.

Gallons of ink have been used analyzing Adm. Alfred Thayer Mahan’s thoughts, his naval theories, and his contribution to sea power. One vital aspect of his life, however, has been ignored or misunderstood by many scholars: his religious faith. Mahan was a professing Christian who took his faith with the utmost seriousness, and as a result, his worldview was inherently Christian. He wrote and spoke extensively on religious issues, a point frequently ignored by many historians. This is a fundamental mistake, for a deeper and more accurate understanding of Mahan as a person and as a naval theorist can be gained by a meaningful examination of his religious beliefs. God and Sea Power is the first work to examine in a detailed and contextual way how Mahan’s faith influenced his views on war, politics, and foreign relations.

Saint James School is far more than one of the oldest boarding schools in the United States. The school was founded in 1842 in western Maryland as the second iteration of the national scholastic vision of William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796–1877) who, with his principal disciples in five states, established some of the best schools in American history. These schools pursued academic excellence without sacrificing the Christian faith. Saint James, St. Paul’s (Concord, NH), St. Mark’s (Southborough, MA), and many other schools set a national tone in the preparation of young men for college and for life. Their objective was to educate the whole person to excellence and they largely succeeded. Saint James School of Maryland: 175 Years tells the story of the school by focusing on the long tenures of five headmasters.

In this utterly immersive volume, Mike Wallace captures the swings of prosperity and downturn, from the 1898 skyscraper-driven boom to the Bankers' Panic of 1907, the labor upheaval, and violent repression during and after the First World War. Here is New York on a whole new scale, moving from national to global prominence -- an urban dynamo driven by restless ambition, boundless energy, immigrant dreams, and Wall Street greed. Within the first two decades of the twentieth century, a newly consolidated New York grew exponentially. The city exploded into the air, with skyscrapers jostling for prominence, and dove deep into the bedrock where massive underground networks of subways, water pipes, and electrical conduits sprawled beneath the city to serve a surging population of New Yorkers from all walks of life. New York was transformed in these two decades as the world's second-largest city and now its financial capital, thriving and sustained by the city's seemingly unlimited potential. Wallace's new book matches its predecessor in pure page-turning appeal and takes America's greatest city to new heights.