Ministerial Training in this Age

Abstract

"MINISTERIAL TRAINING IN THIS AGE SOME few years ago the eminent American preacher, Henry Sloane Coffin, declared that training for the ministry should be centred not in books but in the tasks that the minister is called to fulfil in this age. Coming from Union Theological Seminary the observation is deserving of careful notice. Dr. Coffin was not decrying the academic. He knew better than most how great a part books must play in the training of the minister; how greatly they enrich the mind and the heart of the student who seeks to master them. He would have admitted that they have an important place in the ministerial training but he was concerned to insist that they should not have the central place. They are means to an end and humans being pre-occupied with means are always in danger of forgetting the end they are meant to serve"