Clergy Education in America: Religious Leadership and 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.

Larry Abbott Golemon is the Executive Director of the Washington Theological Consortium, which brings Byzantine and Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, Evangelical, and Historic Black theological schools into partnership with institutes in Islamic, Jewish, Biblical, and Spirituality studies. He has contributed articles for Teaching Theology and Religion, Reflective Practice, and the Mercer Law Review.