ABSTRACT
James DeKoven was at the center of controversies that swirled around the catholic movement in the Episcopal Church during the nineteenth century. DeKoven was a graduate of General Theological Seminary, at the time a national center of High Churchmanship with roots in the teachings of American Bishops Samuel Seabury and John Henry Hobart and in the Church of England's Oxford Movement. Thomas C. Reeves notes that DeKoven emerged from General Seminary as an advanced High Churchman, or ritualist, uncompromisingly committed to Catholic liturgy, ceremonial and architecture DeKoven was best known for his defense of Eucharistic adoration at the General Conventions of 1871 and 1874, where he was the leader of the High Church forces in the House of Deputies. DeKoven saw rationalism in the American culture around him, and he opposed the hesitancy that rationalism seemed to cause relative to the mysteries of faith. DeKoven also underscores the traditional importance of episcopal ministry.
