Harvard Divinity School: The First Hundred Years

While the first mention of a theological "seminary" at Harvard does not occur in the records until October 1816 and the first mention of a theological "faculty" occurs in 1819, the earliest record of organized study of divinity appears in the General Repository and Review, v. 1 (1812), p. 209-10.

The earliest "rules" of the school were printed in: Constitution and Rules of the Theological Seminary of the University in Cambridge, printed at the beginning of: Norton, Andrews. Inaugural Discourse: Delivered before the University in Cambridge, August 10, 1819. Cambridge: Printed by Hilliard and Metcalf, at the University press; Sold also by Cummings & Hilliard, 1819.

The curriculum of the “Divinity College, Cambridge,” largely consisted of biblical studies, pastoral theology, and “evidences.”  Readings might have included Paley’s Evidences of the Christian Faith  and, what would have been considered innovative at the time, Palfrey’s Grammar – quite a contrast to the Coleridge and Carlyle that inspired and influenced Emerson.