The office of bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States has long begged attention from historians. Yankee Bishops: Apostles in the New Republic, 1783 to 1873 is the first collective examination of the American episcopate and offers critical insight into the theory and practice of episcopal ministry in these formative years. In this period, one hundred men were elected and consecrated to the episcopal order and exercised oversight. These bishops firmly believed their office to mirror the primitive pattern of apostolic ministry. How this primitive ideal of episcopacy was understood and lived out in the new republic is the main focus of this study. Yankee Bishops is also the first book to scrutinize and analyze as a body the sermons preached at episcopal consecrations. These valuable texts are important for the image and role of the bishop they propagate and the theology of episcopacy expounded. The final portrait that emerges of the bishop in these years is chiefly that of a sacramental and missionary figure to whom the pastoral staff came to be bestowed as a fitting symbol of office. These bishops were truly apostolic pioneers who carved out a new, vigorous model of ministry in the Anglican Communion. Yankee Bishops will be a primary source in Anglican and ecumenical studies and of general interest to the reader of American religious and social history.
Industry Reviews
«The American Revolution necessarily set Anglicanism in the new world on a new path. Much of the DNA that is ever present in today's Episcopal Church can be traced to the Yankee bishops of the early post-colonial history. This is not an antiquarian account of dead white men who led the church in another era but a vital history that deepens our understanding of our past and provides the substance from which we can reflect upon our future. Charles R. Henery's work is well worth our time and attention.» (J. Neil Alexander, Dean of the School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee; IXth Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta)
«It is a pleasure to endorse this new book by Charles R. Henery, which takes its title from a nineteenth-century British term for American bishops. There is no more thorough or comprehensive study of the ministry and practice of the nearly one hundred bishops who served in the Episcopal Church from about 1783 to 1873 than this ground-breaking study of their social and family ties, their educational and professional backgrounds, their theological and churchmanship leanings, and their leadership as chief pastors, preachers, and teachers. Virtually no source has been overlooked, including consecration sermons, diaries, correspondence, convention addresses, pastoral letters, charges, diaries, memoirs, histories, and periodicals. For the period and subject, this is now the definitive piece of research.» (J. Robert Wright, Historiographer of the Episcopal Church, Emeritus,The General Theological Seminary, New York City)
