Title Details
286 Pages
23.4 x 15.6 cm
2 line illus.
Series: Studies in Modern British Religious History
Series Vol. Number:
35
Imprint: Boydell Press
The Education of the Anglican Clergy, 1780-1839
- Description
- Contents
- Reviews
This study of recruitment to the ministry of the Church of England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries overturns many long-standing assumptions about the education and backgrounds of the clergy in late HanoverianEngland and Wales.
This study of recruitment to the ministry of the Church of England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries overturns many long-standing assumptions about the education and backgrounds of the clergy in late HanoverianEngland and Wales. It offers insights into the nature and development of the profession generally and into the role that individual bishops played in shaping the staffing of their dioceses. In its exploration of how it was possible for boys of relatively humble social origins to be promoted into the pulpits of the established Church, it throws light on mechanisms of social mobility and shows how aspirant clergy went about fashioning a credible social andprofessional identity.
By examining how would be clergymen were educated and professionally formed, the book shows that, alongside the well-known route through the universities, there was an alternative route via specialist grammar schools. Prospective ordinands might also seek out clerical tutors to help them to study for the academic parts of ordination exams and to prepare for the spiritual and pastoral aspects of their role. These alternativemethods of ordination preparation were sometimes under the cognizance of bishops, and occasionally under their control, but they were generally authored by parish clergy and were small-scale, self-supporting, bottom-up solutions to the needs of upcoming generations of clergy.
This book has much to interest historians of religion, culture, class and education, and illustrates how in-depth prosopographical study can offer fresh perspectives.
SARA SLINN is Research Fellow at the School of History & Heritage, University of Lincoln.
This study of recruitment to the ministry of the Church of England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries overturns many long-standing assumptions about the education and backgrounds of the clergy in late HanoverianEngland and Wales. It offers insights into the nature and development of the profession generally and into the role that individual bishops played in shaping the staffing of their dioceses. In its exploration of how it was possible for boys of relatively humble social origins to be promoted into the pulpits of the established Church, it throws light on mechanisms of social mobility and shows how aspirant clergy went about fashioning a credible social andprofessional identity.
By examining how would be clergymen were educated and professionally formed, the book shows that, alongside the well-known route through the universities, there was an alternative route via specialist grammar schools. Prospective ordinands might also seek out clerical tutors to help them to study for the academic parts of ordination exams and to prepare for the spiritual and pastoral aspects of their role. These alternativemethods of ordination preparation were sometimes under the cognizance of bishops, and occasionally under their control, but they were generally authored by parish clergy and were small-scale, self-supporting, bottom-up solutions to the needs of upcoming generations of clergy.
This book has much to interest historians of religion, culture, class and education, and illustrates how in-depth prosopographical study can offer fresh perspectives.
SARA SLINN is Research Fellow at the School of History & Heritage, University of Lincoln.
Introduction
Recruitment to the Established Church
Episcopal Ordination: policy and practice
The Ordinand and the University
Literate Clergy and the Grammar Schools
Autodidacts, Tutors for Orders and Parish Clerical Seminaries
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Ordination Profiles of Bishops, 1780-1839
Appendix 2: A Note on Methodology
Bibliography
Recruitment to the Established Church
Episcopal Ordination: policy and practice
The Ordinand and the University
Literate Clergy and the Grammar Schools
Autodidacts, Tutors for Orders and Parish Clerical Seminaries
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Ordination Profiles of Bishops, 1780-1839
Appendix 2: A Note on Methodology
Bibliography
"An enjoyable and satisfying account. Slinn's book is essential reading for anyone interested in the workings of the Hanoverian Church of England." ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW
"Provide[s] much interesting and invaluable information on how those who sought a career in the church prepared themselves for ordination, and it also throws light on the social mores of the clerical profession." FACHRS NEWSLETTER
"A detailed, analytical and scholarly work that is successful in identifying fresh sources to bring new insight to an important era in the life of the Anglican Church." HISTORY OF EDUCATION
"A valuable corrective to received opinion." JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, LITERATURE AND CULTURE
"Both academically rigorous but also surprisingly readable for a scholarly prosopographical study. Although it is a valuable work of Church history, it deserves to be read by any scholar interested in the social history of Britain in the late Hanoverian period, and indeed by anyone interested in the history of the Church of England more broadly." READING RELIGION
"Demonstrates that Church of England clergy were socially, culturally, and educationally a more diverse group than has been previously recognised." CHURCH TIMES
"Slinn's work is methodologically robust and she demonstrates a caution in her judgments. Her research across a very wide range of archival sources is exemplary. . . . Slinn's is a useful study that will inform discussion on clerical educational standards in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. It will also contribute to the study of clerical career patterns and the wider issues of the relations between parsons and parishioners." William Gibson, Journal of British Studies
Hardcover
9781783271757
May 2017
£80.00 / $115.00
Ebook (EPDF)
9781787440074
May 2017
£24.99 / $29.95
Title Details
286 Pages
2.34 x 1.56 cm
2 line illus.
Series: Studies in Modern British Religious History
Series Vol. Number:
35
Imprint: Boydell Press
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