From Office to Profession: A Social History of the New England Ministry, 1750-1850

by Donald M. Scott

This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

216 pages, Hardcover

Published January 29, 1978

Reviews

[Derric · Rating 4 out of 5]

“[The pastor] no longer saw himself as permanently bound and belonging to a place because of the character of his office. Instead, he entered it as an agent of organized evangelicalism, the dutiful occupant of a particular post which he might have to surrender if service to the greater evangelical cause demanded it.”

After reading this book I think that there’s much for us to recover from past generations that would add substance to the definitions of pastors/elders, church membership, and ministry. It was worth the read and I’d recommend it to you if you’re interested in reading historical analyses.