“A Study in the Problem of Authority in Congregational Church Order”
(Section II)
James M. Gustafson
(c. 1950) pp. 17-29
James Gustafson is a long time professor at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. He wrote as the Congregational Church was headed toward a merger with the Evangelical and Reformed Church to become the United Church of Christ.
This section included here is a summary of early New England congregational thought with an emphasis on the meaning of covenant.
- Gustafson sees countervailing church claims as influencing polity. He seems to argue a sociological explanation for the church developing the way it did. How could this argument be critiqued?
- What was the basis of the ministerial call in early New England church life?
The text of this item is forthcoming.