Newton Theological Institution began instruction on November 28, 1825 at Newton Centre, Massachusetts as a graduate seminary formally affiliated with the group now known as American Baptist Churches USA, the oldest Baptist denomination in America. As the institution developed, it adopted Andover Theological Seminary's curricular pattern and shared the same theological tradition of loyalty to the evangelical Gospel and zeal for its dissemination. Prior to the founding of Newton and Andover, the model for the training of clergy was based on an undergraduate degree . The graduate model and the... three-year curriculum with a resident student body and resident faculty pioneered at Andover and Newton has become the standard for almost all of the 140 Protestant theological schools in the country. Founders of the Seminary were Joseph Grafton, Lucius Bolles, Daniel Sharp, Jonathan Going, Bela Jacobs, Ebenezer Nelson, Francis Wayland, Henry Jackson, Ensign Lincoln, Jonathan Bacheller, and Nathaniel R. Cobb.
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