ABSTRACT

At least four streams of ecclesiastical history have come together to form the educational enterprise of the United Church of Christ. The United Church of Christ (UCC) was formed in 1957 with the union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Each of the two churches had already joined two other separate traditions in 1931 and 1934. The clearest single tradition uniting the UCC is the combined influence of continental European Reformed covenant theology, brought to abortive fruition within the English Puritan Revolution, but allowing its colonial anticipation as New England Puritanism to become the most powerful initial American religious/educational paradigm. Reformation influences dominated Puritan educational ideals. Puritans saw themselves as heirs of a medieval university tradition conceiving of the whole of human society as unified in Christ in terms of his royal, priestly, and prophetic roles.