Who and What are Priests?
Philadelphia: New Church Congregational Union, 1870. 12mo (18.5 x 12 cm). 29 pages. Original printed wrappers. Wrappers lightly browned, with a pale shadow of transecting lines on front wrapper. Item #406093
FIRST EDITION. Parsons's paper was originally printed in 'New Jerusalem Magazine.' He has added further text to correct certain misapprehensions of the original text, and to supplement it with with text that would have made it too long for publication in the magazine. Parsons argues emphatically for a recognized ministry, and one that is structured on a firm organization, but, he repeats, "I want a ministry, and not a priesthood."
Son of the noted Massachusetts jurist of the same name, Theophilus Parsons, Jr. was a Boston lawyer and
literary figure best remembered for the legal texts he authored during his long tenure as Dane Professor of
Law at Harvard. He was also a man of literary, philosophical, and religious interests, editing several journals
and writing on a variety of topics (including Swedenborgianism, a preoccupation he shared with the
Transcendentalists).
Scarce: WorldCat/OCLC (163583416) list only one copy, at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA.
Price: $200.00