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.

Orestes A. Brownson was one of the most original, creative and controversial of the American intellectuals in early and mid-19th century America. This bibliography offers a complete list of over 1500 of his essays, pamphlets and books.

In the decades before the U.S. Civil War, the city of Boston evolved from a dilapidated, haphazardly planned, and architecturally stagnant provincial town into a booming and visually impressive metropolis. In an effort to remake Boston into the "Athens of America," neighborhoods were leveled, streets straightened, and an ambitious set of architectural ordinances enacted. However, even as residents reveled in a vibrant new landscape of landmark buildings, art galleries, parks, and bustling streets, the social and sensory upheaval of city life also gave rise to a widespread fascination with the unseen. Focusing his analysis between 1820 and 1860, Justin T. Clark traces how the effort to impose moral and social order on the city also inspired many—from Transcendentalists to clairvoyants and amateur artists—to seek out more ethereal visions of the infinite and ideal beyond the gilded paintings and glimmering storefronts. By elucidating the reciprocal influence of two of the most important developments in nineteenth-century American culture—the spectacular city and visionary culture—Clark demonstrates how the nineteenth-century city is not only the birthplace of modern spectacle but also a battleground for the freedom and autonomy of the spectator.

Reproduction of the original: Unitarianism in America by George Willis Cooke

This book, awarded the Brewer Prize by the American Society of Church History, is a study of the efforts of the Transcendentalists of the New England Renaissance to reform the Unitarian Church. Scholarly interpreters have, in general, agreed on the basic religious orientation of the Transcendentalist Movement. Mr. Hutchison, however, believes that it was far more than a tendency to appraise the universe in terms of an intuitive faith. Most of the men closely associated with the Movement in New England were Unitarian ministers, and he has concentrated on their attempt to apply transcendental thinking to theology and to the everyday problems of the parish ministry. At the same time he has produced a sympathetic appraisal of the conservative Unitarian position in his review of the so-called Transcendentalist Controversy. Yale Historical Publications, Miscellany 71. Mr. Hutchison is associate professor of American civilization at The American University in Washington, D.C.