ABSTRACT
Basing recommendations for seminary education on actual or ideal characteristics of education in the local church is like carrying coals to Newcastle. At this late stage of their development, these institutions appear to be more or less independent. However, they have common roots, as Lynn has emphasized.
The genius of the American people in the years from 1815 to 1860 was not so much located in persons as in institutions. After the War of 1812–14, a remarkable array of institutions came into being.
At the heart of this educational ecology was the Revival. Around this center clustered a host of varied enterprises, propelled into existence by the evangelical spirit of the revival. One of the first offshoots of the revival was the Sunday School. Next came the nineteenth century denominational college …. Another institution created on the American shores was the seminary. Making up the ecology of that period—an ecology which persists to this day—were others: the system of public schools that were beginning to take form; the various mission agencies of the churches, foreign and domestic; and a variety of reform movements, such as abolition of slavery, peace, temperance, education and the like. Meanwhile, numerous religious journals kept church people informed about the work of each one of these educational ventures.
That basic pattern is still evident, though often in a feeble and disorderly state. The problems of the contemporary Sunday School are not simply those of one institution, but rather a reflection of a large systematic confusion within the enterprise as a whole. But whenever the ecology remains intact and the evangelical spirit is strong, there one will discover latter day reminders of the Sunday School in its hey day. 1
