1 Recent book treatments of the New Divinity include Conforti, Joseph, Samuel Hopkins and the New Divinity Movement: Calvinism, the Congregational Ministry, and Reform in New England between the Great Awakenings (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1981); Conforti, Joseph A., Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition, and American Culture (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1995); Ferm, Robert L., Jonathan Edwards the Younger, 1745–1801: A Colonial Pastor (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1976); Guelzo, Allen C., Edwards on the Will: A Century of American Theological Debate (Middletown, Conn., 1989); Kling, David W., A Field of Divine Wonders: The New Divinity and Village Revivals in Northwestern Connecticut, 1792–1822 (University Park, Pa., 1993); and Valeri, Mark, Law and Providence in Joseph Bellamy's New England: The Origins of the New Divinity in Revolutionary America (New York, 1994). Google Scholar

2 Sloan, Douglas, ed. and intro., The Great Awakening and American Education: A Documentary History (New York, 1973). Goen, Clarence C., “Changing Conceptions of Protestant Theological Education in America,” Foundations 6 (1963): 297; Miller, Glenn T., Piety and Intellect: The Aims and Purposes of Ante-Bellum Theological Education (Atlanta, Ga., 1990), 55; Gambrell, Mary Latimer, Ministerial Training in Eighteenth-Century New England (New York, 1937), chs. 6, 7; Bainton, Roland, Yale and the Ministry: A History of Education for the Christian Ministry at Yale from the Founding in 1701 (New York, 1957), ch. 5; Conforti, , Samuel Hopkins, ch. 2. Google Scholar

3 Conforti, , Samuel Hopkins, ch. 11, and esp. Kling, , Field of Divine Wonders; Hall, Peter Dobkin, The Organization of American Culture, 1700–1900: Private Institutions, Elites, and the Origins of American Nationality (New York, 1982), 162. The following Yale alumni who became college presidents received theological instruction in the schools of the prophets: Azel Backus (Hamilton), Henry Davis (Middlebury, Hamilton), Edward Dorr Griffin (Williams), Heman Humphrey (Amherst). Other New Divinity trained ministers who became college presidents included Jonathan Edwards, Jr. (Union), Zephaniah Swift Moore (Williams, Amherst), and Stephen Chapin (Columbia). Conforti, , Samuel Hopkins, 157–58; Rohrer, James R., Keepers of the Covenant: Frontier Missions and the Decline of Congregationalism, 1774–1818 (New York, 1995). Google Scholar

4 On Philemon Robbins, see Sprague, William B., Annals of the American Pulpit (New York, 1857–69), 1:367; Weber, Donald, Rhetoric and History in Revolutionary New England (New York, 1988), ch. 1; on Ammi Robbins, see Dexter, Franklin B., Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College: With Annals of the College History (New York, 1885–1912), 2: 670–73; Sprague, , Annals, 1: 369–70; on Thomas Robbins, see The Diary of Thomas Robbins, D.D., 1796–1854, ed. Tarbox, Increase (Boston, 1886), 1: iii-vii. Google Scholar

5 Cragg, Gerald R., “Training in the Ministry—The Older Tradition,” Andover Newton Quarterly 8 (Mar. 1968): 226–29. For examples of the continuity of these tutorial practices in America, see Shewmaker, William O., “The Training of the Protestant Ministry in the United States of America, before the Establishment of Theological Seminaries,” Papers of the American Society of Church History, 2d ser., 6 (1921): 150–52. Gambrell, , Ministerial Training, 52. The realization of the educational ideal for ministers represented a continuation of past practices. Gambrell calculated that between 1640 and 1740, of 250 ministers known to have been ordained, only twenty-five were not definitely known to have held a college degree (pp. 21–22). Google Scholar

6 Mead, Sidney E., “The Rise of the Evangelical Conception of the Ministry,” in The Ministry in Historical Perspectives, ed. Niebuhr, H. Richard and Williams, Daniel D. (New York, 1956), 242. Harvard established the Hollis chair in divinity in 1721, Yale its chair in 1756.Google Scholar

7 On general educational efforts prior to the advent of formal seminaries, see Simpson, Samuel, “Early Ministerial Training in America,” Papers of the American Society of Church History, 2d ser., 2 (1910): 117–29; Shewmaker, , “Training of the Protestant Ministry,” 71–197; and McCloy, Frank Dixon, “The History of Theological Education in America,” Church History 31 (1962): 449–53. Google Scholar

8 Sloan, Douglas, The Scottish Enlightenment and the American College Ideal (New York, 1971), ch. 2.Google Scholar

9 For a general treatment of Yale's response to the Great Awakening, see Hofstadter, Richard and Metzger, Walter P., The Development of Academic Freedom in the United States (New York, 1955), 163–77; Kelley, Brooks Mather, Yale: A History (New Haven, Conn., 1974), 49–55. Google Scholar

10 Edwards, , “Some Thoughts concerning the Present Revival in New-England,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards: The Great Awakening, ed. Goen, C. C. (New Haven, Conn., 1972), 510–12.Google Scholar

11 On this episode, see Warch, Richard, “The Shepherd's Tent: Education and Enthusiasm in the Great Awakening,” American Quarterly 30 (summer 1978): 177–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Jedrey, Christopher M., The World of John Cleaveland: Family and Community in Eighteenth-Century New England (New York, 1979), 40.Google Scholar

13 Valeri, Mark, Law and Providence in Joseph Bellamy's New England: The Origins of the New Divinity in Revolutionary America (New York, 1994), 4. Hopkins, Samuel, Sketches of the Life of the Late Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D., ed. West, Stephen (Hartford, Conn., 1805), pp. 102–3. Stiles, Ezra, The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, ed. Dexter, Franklin B. (New York, 1901), 3: 463–64. Bentley, William, The Diary of William Bentley, D.D., Pastor of the East Church, Salem, Massachusetts (1905–14; reprint, Gloucester, Mass., 1963), 4: 302. Google Scholar

14 This figure was calculated by first identifying New Divinity pastor-teachers and then identifying their students. Sources: Sprague, , Annals, vols. 1–4; Dexter, , Biographical Sketches, vols. 1–5; Godell, C. L., “John Smalley,” Congregational Quarterly 15 (July 1873): 362; Vaill, Joseph, “Theological Education in Connecticut, Seventy Years Ago,” Congregational Quarterly 6 (1864): 137–42; Durfee, Calvin, Williams Biographical Annals (Boston, 1871). See also listings of New Divinity men in Conrad Wright, , The Beginnings of Unitarianism in America (Boston, 1955), 288–91; Conforti, , Samuel Hopkins, 227–32; and Kling, , Field of Divine Wonders. 245–50. Google Scholar

15 Park, Edwards A., “Memoir of Nathanael Emmons,” in The Works of Nathanael Emmons, D.D. (Boston, 1861), 1:221–63; Dahlquist, John T., “Nathanael Emmons: His Life and Work” (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1963), 203–4. On Backus, see Sprague, , Annals, 2: 61–68; Vaill, , “Theological Education,” 139; on Burton, see Burton, Asa, The Life of Asa Burton Written by Himself, ed. Latham, Charles Jr. (Thetford, Vt., 1973); Sprague, , Annals, 2: 140–47. Google Scholar

16 For example, see the pedigree chart in Kling, , Field of Divine Wonders, 31. This informal web of connections characterizes purposive movements in general. The New Divinity movement closely followed bonding patterns of the English Puritan movement. As David D. Hall notes in The Faithful Shepherd: A History of the New England Ministry in the Seventeenth Century (1972; New York, 1974), “Family intermarriage, familial patterns of recruitment, and a complex set of spiritual relationships were other bonds among the members of the [Puritan] brotherhood” (p. 50).Google Scholar

17 “Memoir of Nathanael Emmons, D.D.,” in The Works of Nathanael Emmons, D.D.: With a Memoir of His Life, ed. Ide, Jacob (Boston, 1842), 1:xxv. Sprague, , Annals, 2: 321; see also Vaill, , “Theological Education,” 141–42. Google Scholar

18 Clark, Sereno D., The New England Ministry Sixty Years Ago: The Memoir of John Woodbridge, D.D. (Boston, 1877), 34.Google Scholar

19 Vaill, , “Theological Education,” 141; Sprague, , Annals, 2: 63–64. Bellamy permitted and encouraged his students to preach in the outlying areas of Bethlehem. See The Works of Joseph Bellamy, D.D…. With a Memoir of His Life and Character (Boston, 1885), 1: lvii. Google Scholar

20 Student quoted in The Works of Nathanael Emmons, D.D., ed. Ide, Jacob (Boston, 1861), 1:220; Williston quoted in Sprague, , Annals, 1: 590; Works of Bellamy, 1: lvii; Works of Emmons (1861), 1: 220 (quotation). Google Scholar

21 Gambrell, , Ministerial Training, 135.Google Scholar

22 Works of Bellamy, 1:lvii.Google Scholar

23 Conforti, , Samuel Hopkins, 37; Works of Emmons (1842), 1: xxiv; on West, see Sprague, , Annals, 1: 553; on Hooker, see Sprague, , Annals, 2: 320–21; on Backus, see Vaill, , “Theological Education,” 141. Google Scholar

24 See “The Theological Questions of President Edwards, Senior, and Dr. Edwards, His Son” (Providence, R.I., 1822); Bellamy, Joseph to Hopkins, Samuel, 30 Jan. 1756, Gratz Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Gambrell, , Ministerial Training, 134.Google Scholar

25 See The Panoplist 2 (June 1807): 326; Sprague, , Annals 1: 553 (quotation); for an extended discussion of New Divinity library holdings, see Gambrell, , Ministerial Training, 108–24; on Emmons's holdings, see Dahlquist, , “Nathanael Emmons,” 102–10. For other references to New Divinity “reading lists,” see Robbins, , Diary, 1: 36–50; Park, , “Memoir of Emmons,” 218–19. Google Scholar

26 Scott, Donald M., From Office to Profession: The New England Ministry, 1750–1850 (Philadelphia, 1978); Andrew, John A. III, Rebuilding the Christian Commonwealth: New England Congregationalists and Foreign Missions, 1800–1830 (Lexington, Ky., 1976), 39. Kling, , Field of Divine Wonders, 35–42, discusses this changing conception of ministry in the context of clerical mobility, salary disputes, personal ambition, and increasing factiousness between pastor and parishioners. Google Scholar

27 Edwards, Jonathan, “The True Excellency of a Gospel Minister” (1744), in The Works of President Edwards (1847; reprint, New York, 1968), 10:506. For a sensitive treatment of Edwards's conception of the ministry, see Westra, Helen Petter, “‘Above All Others’: Jonathan Edwards and the Gospel Ministry,” American Presbyterians 67 (fall 1989): 209–19. Edwards, , “True Excellency,” 506. Google Scholar

28 On the goals of ministry, see Perkins, Nathan, “A Sermon, preached at the installation of the Rev. Mr. Solomon Wolcott,… May 24th, 1786” (Hartford, Conn., [1786]), 23; Backus, Charles, “The Faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ Rewarded: A sermon, delivered at the ordination of the Rev. Azel Backus, … April 6, 1791” (Litchfield, Conn., [1791]), 7; Burton, Asa, “A Sermon, preached at the Ordination of the Rev. Timothy Clark,… January 1, 1800” (Windsor, Vt., 1800), 16. Hart, Levi, “The Christian Minister, or Faithful Preacher of the Gospel described, a Sermon delivered at the Ordination of the Reverend Mr. Joel Benedict,… 21st of February, 1771” (New London, Conn., 1771), 8–9. Perkins, , “Sermon preached at the Installation of Wolcott,” 8. Google Scholar

29 Trumbull, Benjamin, “A Sermon, delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. Lemuel Taylor, … May 7th, 1789” (New Haven, Conn., 1793), 7; Backus, Charles, “Qualifications and Duties of the Christian Pastor: A Sermon, delivered … October 29, 1975, at the ordination of the Reverend Freegrace Reynolds …” (Boston, 1795), 10–12; Edwards, Jonathan Jr., “The Duty of Ministers of the Gospel to Preach the Truth; illustrated in a sermon: delivered at the ordination of the Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin, … June 4th, A.D. 1795” (Hartford, Conn., 1795), 13; Perkins, , “Sermon, preached at the installation of Wolcott,” 16; Emmons, Nathanael, “A Sermon, Delivered … January 4, 1797, at the Ordination of the Rev. John Smith” (Concord, N.H., 1797), 22. Google Scholar

30 Backus, , “Faithful Ministers,” 24; Trumbull, , “Sermon, delivered at Ordination of Tyler,” 8; Backus, Charles, “Ministers Serving God in the Gospel of His Son: A sermon delivered at the ordination of the Rev. Timothy Mather Cooley, … February 3, 1796” (West Springfield, Mass., 1796), 11; Backus, , “Faithful Ministers,” 22, 24 (quotation); Hooker, Asahel, “The Immoral and Pernicious Tendency of Error. Illustrated in a Sermon, delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. James Beach … Jan. 1st, 1806” (Hartford, Conn., 1806). 23. Google Scholar

31 Perkins, , “Sermon preached at installation of Wolcott,” 8; Edwards, Jonathan Jr., “All Divine Truth Profitable: Illustrated in a Sermon preached … January 11th, 1792, at the Ordination of the Rev. Dan Bradley” (New Haven, Conn., 1792), 37; Emmons, Nathanael, “A Discourse, preached at the Ordination of the Rev. Eli Smith … November 27th, 1793” (Worcester, Mass., 1794), 14; Backus, Charles, “The High Importance of Love to Jesus Christ in the Minister of the Gospel: A sermon, delivered at the ordination of the Reverend John Hubbard Church,… October 31, 1799” (Amherst, N.H., 1799), 9. Google Scholar

32 Perkins, , “Discourse delivered at Ordination of Miller,” 12–18; Trumbull, , “Sermon at Ordination of Tyler,” 8; Backus, , “Qualifications and Duties,” 18; Edwards, Jr., “Duty of Ministers,” 16; Emmons, Nathanael, “A Discourse, delivered … November 4, 1795, at the Ordination of the Reverend James Tufts” (Brattleborough, Vt., 1797), 21–22. For the varying approaches, attitudes, and successes of New Divinity preaching, see Kling, , Field of Divine Wonders, ch. 4. Google Scholar

33 Edwards, , “True Excellency of a Gospel Minister,” 509; Perkins, , “Sermon, preached at the Installation of Wolcott,” 16; Edwards, Jr., “Duty of Ministers,” 15. Regarding unprofitable conversations, see Backus, , “Qualifications and Duties,” 9; and Emmons, , “Sermon delivered at Ordination of Smith,” 8, 29. Google Scholar

34 See Gambrell, , Ministerial Training, ch. 8; Bainton, , Yale and the Ministry, ch. 7. See Woods, Leonard, History of Andover Theological Seminary (Boston, 1885). On the rise of these professions, see Haber, Samuel, The Quest for Authority and Honor in the American Professions, 1750–1900 (Chicago, 1991). Google Scholar

35 For an extended treatment of the New Divinity at Williams, see Kling, David W., “The New Divinity and Williams College, 1793–1836,” Religion and American Culture 6 (summer 1996): 195–223. The college's presidents were Ebenezer Fitch, 1793–1815; Zephaniah Swift Moore, 1815–21; and Edward Dorr Griffin, 1821–36; the first five vice-presidents were Stephen West, Alan Hyde, Samuel Shepard, Timothy Mather Cooley, and Emerson Davis; New Divinity members of the board included the Reverends Daniel Collins, Seth Swift, Job Swift, Ammi Robbins, and Jacob Catlin.Google Scholar

36 These and subsequent calculations on Williams graduates (unless otherwise noted) are based upon Durfee, , Williams Biographical Annals. Google Scholar

37 For the Edwardsean views of Griffin, see Kling, , Field of Divine Wonders; for Richards, see Sprague, , Annals, 4:99–112; Adams, John Quincy, A History of Auburn Theological Seminary, 1818–1918 (Auburn, N.Y., 1918), 73; Gridley, Samuel, “Biographical Sketch,” in Lectures on Mental Philosophy and Theology, by James Richards (New York, 1846), 86–87; and Richards, , Lectures, 97–153, 476–501; Adams, , History of Auburn Theological Seminary, 94. Google Scholar

38 For a helpful discussion of the rise of the theological seminary, see Naylor, Natalie A., “The Theological Seminary in the Configuration of American Higher Education: The Ante-Bellum Years,” History of Education Quarterly 17 (spring 1977): 17–30.Google Scholar