WALKER, WILLISTON
(1 July 1860, Portland, ME-9 March 1922, New Haven, CT). Education: B.A., Amherst College, 1883; B.D., Hartford Seminary, 1886; Ph.D., Leipzig, 1888. Career: Professor of history, Bryn Mawr College, 1888-89; professor of church history, Hartford Seminary, 1889- 1901; professor of church history, Yale University, 1901-22.
During the closing years of the nineteenth century many of America's brightest young scholars went to Germany for graduate work. There they learned to apply scientific methods to the study of history, literature, and society. Williston Walker, the son of a Congregational minister, George Leon Walker, was one of those students.
On his return from abroad he succeeded Woodrow Wilson as associate professor of history at Bryn Mawr College, then taught at Hartford Theological Seminary. In his early forties he became Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale, a position he held until his death. Walker is best known for his writings on Congregational history. He set a standard for authoritative writing on his own denomination and also helped establish church history in general as an academic discipline.
Walker's writing is distinguished by its clarity and objectivity. He has sometimes been faulted for stressing the idea of Congregationalism, rather than the history of Congregational fellowship. But his accounts are among the most useful descriptions of the denomination. Several of Walker's volumes, published before the turn of the century, were republished in recent years-an indication of his enduring influence.
An underlying theme in Walker's work is the growth of toleration in American-a development that the early Puritans would have lamented, but which he embraced whole heartedly. He also favored the movement towards Christian unity. But at the same time he was proud of the Congregational heritage and favored the energetic growth of the denomination. In these sentiments he wrestled with a problem in American life that became even more pressing after his death: how can an ethnic group or a religious denomination participate in a common culture and still preserve its own unique heritage? Walker's answer lay in describing the history of a people who had nourished a denominational tradition for three centuries while wrestling with the competing demands of local autonomy and corporate unity.
Bibliography
A: The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism (New York, 1893; Boston, 1960); A History of the Congregational Churches in the United States (New York, 1894); The Validity of Congregational Ordination (Hartford, 1898); The Reformation (Edinburgh, 1900); Ten New England Leaders (New York, 1901, 1969); John Calvin (New York, 1906); Great Men of the Christian Church (Chicago, 1908); A History of the Christian Church (New York, 1918; rev. eds., 1959, 1970, 1975).
B: DAB 19,366-67; NCAB 19,29-30; SH 12, 257.
During the closing years of the nineteenth century many of America's brightest young scholars went to Germany for graduate work. There they learned to apply scientific methods to the study of history, literature, and society. Williston Walker, the son of a Congregational minister, George Leon Walker, was one of those students.
On his return from abroad he succeeded Woodrow Wilson as associate professor of history at Bryn Mawr College, then taught at Hartford Theological Seminary. In his early forties he became Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale, a position he held until his death. Walker is best known for his writings on Congregational history. He set a standard for authoritative writing on his own denomination and also helped establish church history in general as an academic discipline.
Walker's writing is distinguished by its clarity and objectivity. He has sometimes been faulted for stressing the idea of Congregationalism, rather than the history of Congregational fellowship. But his accounts are among the most useful descriptions of the denomination. Several of Walker's volumes, published before the turn of the century, were republished in recent years-an indication of his enduring influence.
An underlying theme in Walker's work is the growth of toleration in American-a development that the early Puritans would have lamented, but which he embraced whole heartedly. He also favored the movement towards Christian unity. But at the same time he was proud of the Congregational heritage and favored the energetic growth of the denomination. In these sentiments he wrestled with a problem in American life that became even more pressing after his death: how can an ethnic group or a religious denomination participate in a common culture and still preserve its own unique heritage? Walker's answer lay in describing the history of a people who had nourished a denominational tradition for three centuries while wrestling with the competing demands of local autonomy and corporate unity.
Bibliography
A: The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism (New York, 1893; Boston, 1960); A History of the Congregational Churches in the United States (New York, 1894); The Validity of Congregational Ordination (Hartford, 1898); The Reformation (Edinburgh, 1900); Ten New England Leaders (New York, 1901, 1969); John Calvin (New York, 1906); Great Men of the Christian Church (Chicago, 1908); A History of the Christian Church (New York, 1918; rev. eds., 1959, 1970, 1975).
B: DAB 19,366-67; NCAB 19,29-30; SH 12, 257.