ABSTRACT
There was always something inherently vague about theological education as it developed in the Church of England in the nineteenth century, at least when it is compared with models on offer elsewhere. Where German and American theological curricula were highly structured and often resembled other forms of “professional” education, the character of Anglican theological education was more usually described in terms of the assimilation of an ethos, the ownership of a tradition and the development of a way of life or a pattern of being, rather than being primarily focused on the education of the “clerical practitioner”.1 Furthermore, Anglican theological education has traditionally been rooted in the praying life of a religious community rather than in the purely intellectual atmosphere of the university. Indeed, as this opening section shows, it was the perceived failure of the university as a religious community that led to the development of theological colleges in the Church of England in the first place. What will be shown is that Anglican theological education provides a good
1 On the history of theological education in the nineteenth century, see F. W. B. Bullock, A History o f Training for the Ministry o f the Church of England, 1800-1874, London: Home Words, 1955; A History o f Training for the Ministry of the Church of England, 1875-1974, London: Home Words, 1976; Alan Haig, The Victorian Clergy, London: Croom Helm, 1984, pp. 116-76; D. A. Dowland, Nineteenth-Century Anglican Theological Education: The Redbrick Challenge, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997; K. Sterling, “The Education of the Anglican Clergy, 1830-1914”, Ph.D. diss. Leicester University, 1982.
