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- Title
The Congregational Way Assailed: The Reverend Thomas Goss in Revolutionary Massachusetts.
- Authors
CRAY, ROBERT E.
- Abstract
Little known today, the Reverend Thomas Goss (1716--1780) attained notoriety in the late eighteenth century when his parishioners' efforts to oust him because of alleged intoxication ignited a showdown over clerical authority in the Congregational Church. At stake was the historical identity of the church. Established in the early seventeenth century as a lay-led gathering of churches, the Congregational Church by the eighteenth century was subjected to both the upheavals of the Great Awakening and a counter effort by a professionally centered ministry to create a more centralized governance structure and to increase ministerial prerogatives and overall denominational authority. Played out in the shadow of rising imperial tensions between Great Britain and the colonies, the Goss affair became a bitter contest over Congregational identity. Ultimately, the episode served to define the character of the Congregational Church as a laity-defined denomination in which clerical professionalism and authority faced definite limits. Author Robert E. Cray is a professor of history at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
- Subjects
BOLTON (Mass.); MASSACHUSETTS; GOSS, Thomas; CONGREGATIONAL churches; DISMISSAL of clergy; CONGREGATIONAL clergy; CONGREGATIONAL churches -- Government; GREAT Awakening; EIGHTEENTH century; HISTORY
- Publication
Historical Journal of Massachusetts, 2015, Vol 43, Issue 1, p124
- ISSN
0276-8313
- Publication type
Article