The History and Special Collections of Andover Newton Theological School

Andover Newton Theological School

In 1965, Andover Theological Seminary and Newton Theological Institution merged to form Andover Newton Theological School. The School has been located on “the Hill” in Newton Centre, MA and is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the American Baptist Churches USA.

In July, 2017 Andover Newton Theological School and Yale Divinity School agreed to a formal affiliation.

Student publications were especially popular on campus during the 1960's and 1970's. Some publications were more informational and others offered commentary and humorous takes on current events.

Andover Newton Theological School was foundational to the development of CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education, as an integral component of theological education. In 1944, a group of theological educators and chaplains in the Boston area incorporated as the Institute of Pastoral Care. The Institute had close ties with the seminaries in the environs of Boston and nearby areas of New England. In Massachusetts, the beginning of the Institute was in the halls of Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1932, Austin Philip Guiles found an opportunity to develop clinical pastoral education as a part of a theological curriculum at Andover Newton Theological School. Financial assistance was provided by the Erhart Foundation, the family of Guiles's wife.

The Andover Newton Project was developed with the aid of the President of Andover Newton Theological School, Dr. Everett Herrick, and Dr. Richard Cabot, MD, who came to Newton in 1934 from a renowned position at Harvard Medical School. Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, was the major training center for students in the Boston area. Rev. Russell Dicks was the training supervisor at Massachusetts General. He was the first to use verbatim records of student's visits. President Herrick declared in support of the Andover Newton Project that “A curriculum must have a clinical character, related to experience and practice." He continues later in the article, "It is time to stand up to our task and consider the place of theology in a clinical curriculum.”

Text from The Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc.

Click on the thumbnails to see other scanned images from the exhibit related to Andover Newton Theological Institution.

Click on the thumbnails to see other scanned images from the exhibit related to Andover Newton Theological Institution.