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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.

"The first 100 years of the education of the clergy in the United States is rightly understood as classical professional education-that is, a formation into an identity and calling to serve the wider public through specialized knowledge and skills. This book argues that pastors, priests, and rabbis were best formed into capacities of culture building through the construction of narratives, symbols, and practices that served their religious communities and the wider public. This kind of education was closely aligned with liberal arts pedagogies of studying classical texts, languages, and rhetorical practices. The theory of culture here is indebted to Geertz and Bruner's social-semiotic view, which identifies culture as the social construction of narrative, symbols, and practices that shape the identity and meaning-making of certain communities. The theological framework of analysis is indebted to Lindbeck's cultural-linguistic view, which emphasizes the role of doctrine as grammatical rules that govern narratives, doctrinal grammars, and social practices for distinct religious communities. This framework is pushed toward the renewal and reconstruction of religious frameworks by the postmodern work of Sheila Devaney and Kathryn Tanner. The book also employs several other concepts from social theory, borrowed from Jurgen Habermas, Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu, Michael Young, and Bernard Anderson"--

Tokens of Affection & Regard is a sumptuously photographed coffee-table book, tracing the historic development of photography, and all of the cultural reasons photo-jewelry was given (person-to-person) instead of portrait miniatures, for each major life-event in the Victorian period, throughout America & Europe. It also reviews the largest photographic galleries of the 1840-1900 period (that produced photo-jewelry), explaining (with vintage images) how they operated as a business: assembly, marketing, and pricing----in one of the most competitive markets of the day. Based on over 10 years of research, Tokens 256 pgs have nearly 300 illustrations, contributed by over three dozen private and institutional sources, from the United States and overseas (with pieces from the US, England, France, Germany, and The Netherlands). Most of the illustrations are previously unpublished. The first edition is a collectible, limited to 1,600 copies. It looks like an historic bound volume encased entirely in engraved gold. It has a padded cover & back with gold tinted photographs of an actual gold photo-jewelry piece, called appropriately---a booklet. All of the book edges are gilded.It is the definitive reference book on not only photo-jewelry, but also the operations of many well-known, mid-nineteenth century photograph galleries who sold photo-jewelry: from Mathew Brady and Jeremiah Gurney, to Southworth & Hawes and Whipple & Black. Tokens contains many unpublished photographs of these photographers, in the gallery, or in the field, or with their families. Tokensalso explores the life of the 19th century woman, through her accessories & contributions to photography. This includes Queen Victorian herself, who contributed to the acceptance & use of hair, mourning, & remembrance photo-jewelry. Tokens contains sections for collectors & institutions on: collecting; pricing; repair; condition; rarity; and a full reference compendium of illustrated pieces from around the world. This includes many cased daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, & tintypes showing people wearing fashions of the day, & wearing photo-jewelry, along with the cultural interpretation, dating, & meaning involved. Besdies the authors, three experts from related fields contributed commentary & analysis: G.Romer on daguerreotypes & photography; J.Jonas on jewelry & manufacturing; and J.Severa on costume, culture, and image dating.