In 1814 Furman was elected as the first president of the Baptist Triennial Convention. As president of the Baptist Convention, Furman continued to press the burden of education upon his brethren. His plans were brilliant, but they did not unfold as he had intended. His original plan was for a central institution in Washington D. C. with preparatory institutions in each state, or between states. From this original plan emerged the Columbian College (now a part of George Washington University). Other institutions that grew out of this plan are Furman Institution (now University), the Mercer Institute (now University), the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and probably Newton in Massachusetts (now Andover-Newton Theological Seminary). (emphasis added)Another impetus behind the formation of Newton Theological Seminary was the booming interest in foreign missions. Adoniram Judson, then a student at Andover Theological Seminary (1810), and his friends strongly urged the ministers Massachusetts to address the pressing need of missions to the heathen. This era of missionary zeal saw a handful of new training and supportive institutions birthed.
Needless to say, there is a lot of important history concerning the genesis of Andover Theological Seminary and Newton Theological Seminary. The story of these two early American schools, their union in 1931, and their joint contribution to the evangelical church to this day has been documented in a new book by Margaret Lamberts Bendroth. This week Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishers announced the release of this historical-critical work.
What follows are details about this book and about its author. Researching Bendroth's literary output has given me good reason to think that this book will be a valuable contribution to American Evangelical historical studies. I also expect that we will find plenty of Bendroth's evaluation of the Fundamentalist movement as it pertains to this historic school (note the table of contents listed below).
Bendroth, Margaret Lamberts. A School of the Church: Andover Newton Across Two Centuries. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008.
Format: Hardback. 240 pages; dimensions (in inches): 6 x 9; 29 b&w illustrations; List Price: $28.00 USDISBNs: 0802863701 / 978-0-8028-6370-6
Purchase: Eerdmans | Amazon | CBD
Description from the publisher:
Andover Newton Theological School has a storied 200-year history. Margaret Lamberts Bendroth has written a compelling account of this historic institution and its two original sources — Andover Seminary, a Congregational school established in 1808 and the model for theological education in the United States, and Newton Theological Institution, a Baptist school established in 1825 — which merged in 1931. The book offers entirely new material on the development of the school after the 1931 merger.
As part of Andover Newton’s history, Bendroth explores the unquestionable intellectual contributions of the faculty, including Moses Stuart, Alvah Hovey, Gabriel Fackre, Max Stackhouse, Phyllis Trible, and many others. She also examines the many paths intersecting with the school’s story, from American education in general to the development of Protestant thought, to the complex histories of race and gender in American society.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
EPILOGUE: The Andover Newton Legacy
INDEX
Margaret Lamberts Bendroth is a historian, executive director of the American Congregational Association and director of the Congregational Library in Boston.
Bibliography -
- Co-edited and contributed to Faith Traditions and the Family. The Family, Religion and Culture series. (WJK, 1996)
- Fundamentalism and Gender: 1875 to the Present (Yale UP, 1996)
- Press Release
- "Bendroth's sensitivity to the religious integrity of fundamentalism is matched by her awareness of its ambiguities about women. The book as a whole breaks new ground in both research and analysis. It is a fine piece of work."—Mark A. Noll
- The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ: Outreach and Diversity. Volume 5. (Pilgrim Press, 2000)
- Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism Edited by Margaret Lamberts Bendroth and Virginia Lieson Brereton (University of Illinois Press, 2001)
- Growing Up Protestant: Parents, Children and Mainline Churches (Rutgers UP, 2002)
- Fundamentalist in the City: Conflict and Division in Boston's Churches, 1885-1950 (Oxford UP, 2005)
- Press Release
- "'All religion is, in the end, local,' observes Margaret Bendroth in this important study. Bendroth provides an engaging history of revivalist Protestantism in Boston in the era from Dwight L. Moody to Billy Graham. She shows that in the formerly Puritan city the movement that in the 1920s became known as 'fundamentalist' had a distinctive local background and eventually helped shape a broader 'new evangelicalism,' associated with Graham." -- George Marsden, author of Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925
- A School of the Church: Andover Newton Across Two Centuries (Eerdmans, 2008)
