Acknowledgements -- Translator's Preface to the English Edition -- Historical Passages -- Terminology -- Sources -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- The Social Position of Pastors -- Professions, Professionalism, and Professionalization -- The Design of this Study -- CHAPTER I. "For the Pulpit and Congregation" - The Work of Nineteenth-Century Ministers -- Preaching -- Worship -- Rites of Passage -- "Religious Education" -- The Lord's Supper -- Pastoral Care -- A Social Calling -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER II. "Officials with the Title of Prophet" - The Reformed Church in King William's Realm -- A Governing Elite -- A Church Association -- "Improvement of the Status of Ministers" -- "A Circle of Reverend Men" -- "Folly, Vanity, Damnation!": Discontent with the Enlightenment -- "Secessionism" -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER III. The Light of Scholarship - Theologians, Academia, and the Church -- Digression: Higher Education for Dissenting Ministers -- Theological Education: The Struggle for Control -- "Uplifting" the Congregation: the Groningen School -- "The Flock Leading its Shepherds": Theologians versus the Laity -- A Protestant Nation? -- "Personal Relations between Professors and the Reformed Church" -- Professors at the Synod -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER IV. "The Young Cleric" - The Life of a Theology Student -- Recruitment -- "Bowing, Groveling, Fawning": The Life of a Proponent -- Theology on the Margins -- A College of Their Own -- A Map of Academy-Land -- Theology Students Go to War -- Theology Students and "the Corps" -- Aspects of Integration -- Frat Boys and Oinks -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER V. "That Fellow with the White Bowtie" - Theologians in Dutch Literary Life -- Pastor-Professors -- Cultural Capital -- Formal Eloquence as Habitus -- Received Standard Dutch -- Theology Students as Romantics -- "A Humoristic Revolution".

"How Do We Sound to Them?": Theology and Practice -- Pastor-Poets -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER VI. "The Worst of the Five" - The Rise of the Young Doctor of Theology -- "A Divine Beginning" -- Background -- The Rise of the Young Doctor -- Theological Societies -- University Essay Competitions -- In the Interest of Theology -- A Scholar in the Manse -- Eager Learners -- Modern Theology: "Faith plus Chemistry" -- Building on Scholarship -- Academic Manners -- Experts and Laypeople -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER VII. Inequality and Fraternity - The Social Structure of the Ministry -- Ministers-in-waiting -- Seniority -- Retirement -- Career Alternatives -- Climbing the Career Ladder -- City and Country -- The Road to the City -- A Hierarchy of Congregations -- Pastors and Professors -- Very Reverend Gentlemen -- Publish or Perish -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER VIII. Servants of the Congregation? - Reformed Pastors in Relation to their Flocks -- Historical Background -- "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" -- "Called by God's congregation, and hence by God himself" -- Ethical Theology: "The Faith of the Congregation" -- "The Dominion of the Bourgeoisie": Church Elections -- "The Right of the Congregations versus the Power of the Church": Abraham Kuyper and the Neo-Calvinist Party -- The Church and the Masses: Abraham Kuyper and the Neo-Calvinist Party (II) -- God and Mammon -- Theology Times Two -- The End of the Great Church: Abraham Kuyper and the Neo-Calvinist Party (III) -- Conclusion -- Conclusions -- Glossary -- Bilingual Glossary of Proper Names -- List of Abbreviations -- List of Illustrations -- Tables -- Sources and literature -- Index.