Participation Type

Paper

Presentation #1 Title

Ebenezer Parkman’s World of Sermons: An Eighteenth-Century Minister’s Experience

Presentation #1 Abstract

This paper analyzes the composition, context, and delivery of sermons by the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman (1703-1782), who served as minister of Westborough, Massachusetts, from 1724 until his death.

During his 58-year ministry, Ebenezer Parkman composed, delivered, repeated, heard, and read thousands of sermons. Drawing on his enormous diary and surviving manuscript sermons, this paper analyzes the composition, context, and delivery of his sermons, particularly those occasioned by major life transitions such as the deaths of family members.

The composition of sermons seemed nearly always to conflict with the obligations of his ministry, his large family, and the farm on which he depended for much of his livelihood. Exchanging pulpits with neighboring ministers eased some of the demands, but, at least from his point of view, and in occasional comments by some parishioners, he turned far too often to old sermons. Context was also crucial: while he composed some sermons with an orderly sequence in mind, events out of his control called forth special efforts or, as much as he might regret, the revision or repetition of an earlier sermon. And his delivery was almost never extemporaneous, presumably with his eyes focused on his small sermon booklets, a task made increasingly difficult in his last years with the onset of cataracts and macular degeneration.

At-A-Glance Bios- Presenter #1

Ross W. Beales, Jr. (Professor Emeritus, Department of History, College of the Holy Cross), is particularly interested in the relationship between religion, family, and community and has focused on eighteenth-century Westborough, Massachusetts, utilizing the extensive Parkman family papers, church records, and other surviving documents.

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COinS
 

Ebenezer Parkman’s World of Sermons: An Eighteenth-Century Minister’s Experience

Montréal, QC

This paper analyzes the composition, context, and delivery of sermons by the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman (1703-1782), who served as minister of Westborough, Massachusetts, from 1724 until his death.

During his 58-year ministry, Ebenezer Parkman composed, delivered, repeated, heard, and read thousands of sermons. Drawing on his enormous diary and surviving manuscript sermons, this paper analyzes the composition, context, and delivery of his sermons, particularly those occasioned by major life transitions such as the deaths of family members.

The composition of sermons seemed nearly always to conflict with the obligations of his ministry, his large family, and the farm on which he depended for much of his livelihood. Exchanging pulpits with neighboring ministers eased some of the demands, but, at least from his point of view, and in occasional comments by some parishioners, he turned far too often to old sermons. Context was also crucial: while he composed some sermons with an orderly sequence in mind, events out of his control called forth special efforts or, as much as he might regret, the revision or repetition of an earlier sermon. And his delivery was almost never extemporaneous, presumably with his eyes focused on his small sermon booklets, a task made increasingly difficult in his last years with the onset of cataracts and macular degeneration.