Review of Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy by Paul C. Gutjahr

Charles Hodge’s (1797—1878) long, colorful, and sophisticated career as Princeton Seminary’s third professor and grandfather of American systematic theology deserves a thorough, wide-ranging, and intelligent analysis. Paul Gutjahr ably provides such an analysis in his new biography: Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy.

Lengthy, yet not prolix

With short chapters averaging between five to seven pages, this 385-page biography reads more like a novel than non-fiction. And thanks to Gutjahr’s organizational accumen, narrative skill, and mastery of Hodge’s massive corpus, the book reads quickly without sacrificing depth. He carefully prepares the narrative canvas early on with Hodge’s key intellectual themes and personality traits so that, as the chronologically-arranged narrative unfolds, issues in the foreground of each chapter sit comfortably against a proportionate background. Upon completing the book, the reader leaves with the satisfying sense that he or she has just spent several enjoyable afternoons in Hodge’s famous study listening to him narrate his life and times to his closest colleagues. This is American religious social history par excellence.

Colorful, yet not caricatural

Gutjahr weaves together the threads of Hodge’s non-theological passions and hobbys (farming, anatomy, medicine, politics, and modern science in general) with the threads of his theological pursuits in order to display the coat of many colors that is Hodge’s intellectual life. At the same time, he spends much effort in illuminating Hodge’s socio-political context in order to demonstrate how various times and events—especially the Civil War—profoundly shaped Hodge’s theological formulations and political views. Thus he shows Hodge to be a colorful intellectual who is both too complex for simplistic, ahistorical theological dismissals and too much man of his nineteenth-century times to allow for ahistorical repristinations of his theology straight into the twenty-first century.

Sophisticated, but one-sided at points

Even though Gutjahr employs the socio-historical method in exemplary fashion and illuminates Hodge’s thought in many useful ways, his method nevertheless invites shallowness in some of his theological assessments. Throughout the book the reader is given the tacit impression that Hodge’s theological views are almost exclusively the results of his stubborn disposition plus his educational background plus his philosophical context plus this or that. While no one would dispute that all of these sociological factors certainly make the man, a very important and foundational aspect of Hodge’s life is too often swallowed up by overemphasizing socio-historical analysis, namely, that he actually believed that the Bible is truly God’s Word and that the Westminster Standards provide the best summary of the Bible’s doctrine.

By reversing, albeit tacitly, the relationship between doctrine and life, text and context, belief and action, Gutjahr risks skewing one of the most basic facts of Hodge’s life: he lived, learned, led, and loved as a Presbyterian. However, if Hodge is not allowed to be a free-thinking Christian who built his life upon true doctrine rather than vice versa, then he has become a puppet, a mere product of the nineteenth-century rather than an actor in it. Thankfully, this sentiment only rears its head here and there throughout the book, and only implicitly. But, it is a methodological danger nonetheless.

A few unsubstantiated, albeit mostly minor, assessments are difficult to pass by without comment such as that Hodge differed significantly with Calvin regarding the nature of the sacraments or that Hodge waffled between reliance upon the Holy Spirit and reliance upon philosophical realism. Also, given that Gutjahr brings up the topic of Scottish Common Sense Realism time and again as a cornerstone of Hodge’s theological method (second only to the Westminster Confession of Faith), it was disappointing to find that the chapter devoted to this topic is based primarily on secondary sources and lacks the broad and deep perspective that Gutjahr normally and ably brings to bear upon most other aspects of Hodge’s thought.

Despite these small criticisms, Gutjahr’s biography is excellent and a delight to read. American Presbyterians will rejoice that Hodge has received the thorough and skillful treatment that his life and work deserve.

Intro to Reformed Scholasticism by van Asselt

For those interested in Reformed theology, van Asselt’s forthcoming Introduction to Reformed Scholasticism, a translation and update of his Inleiding in de Gereformeerde scholastiek, will be a wonderful resource.

Preview the contents, Richard Muller’s forward, and the essay by Willem J. van Asselt and Pieter L. Rouwendal, entitled, “What is Reformed Scholasticism?”

Learn more about this welcome addition to Reformation Heritage Books’ Historical-Theological Studies Series at the RHB blog.

Related Reads on Reformed Scholasticism

Brief Review: Reformed Theology in America – ed. David Wells

ISBN: 0801021480 (Google Books)
Publisher: Baker (1997; reprint 2000)
Genre: Historical theology
Reading Level: high school to college
Worthy read? Yes
Price: $28.80 @ WTS Books

These essays present historical overviews of the main streams and major thinkers of Reformed theology in America. Thus, to the student of American Reformed theology, this book is a great “reader’s guide”–if you  start here before jumping straight into Hodge, Warfield, Van Til, Dabney, Thornwell, et. al., then you will have the distinct advantage of reading these American Reformed theologians within their respective social and philosophical contexts.

Calvin Confronts Caroli’s Calumny: The 1537 Trinitarian Controversy and its Ecclesiastical and Theological Significance

Summary

In 1537 a Roman Catholic priest and professor, Peter Caroli, who himself had left the Roman Church multiple times to support the Protestant cause only to return again each time to Rome, accused John Calvin and the Protestant Reformers of trinitarian heresy. Caroli’s main arguments were based upon the Reformers’ unwillingness to subscribe to the ancient creeds of the church and their refusal to use extra-biblical terminology such as “trinity” in their teaching. Calvin disputes Caroli over a protracted year of five disputations and synods, strongly condemning the Caroli’s calumny.

The 1537 Caroli affair is a significant event in Calvin’s life and in the historical development of the Reformers’ doctrine of the Trinity. On the former, although Calvin easily won the disputes, his ad hominem tactics and apparent (though not substantial) disdain for traditional trinitarian formulations caused public distrust, a sentiment which eventually led to his expulsion from Geneva the following year

On the latter, Calvin successfully upheld the Protestant principle of sola Scriptura against Caroli’s contemptuous attempt to subvert the Reformation by means of demanding submission to church tradition. Furthermore, these disputes provided impetus for the Reformers to clarify their exegetical basis for the Trinity and their qualified rejection of patristic and scholastic trinitarian formulations, a clarification necessary for the Reformers’ subsequent disputes with growing antitrinitarian movements. Calvin’s confrontation with Caroli, therefore, reveals Calvin not as one who rejects trinitarian orthodoxy, but rather as one who rejects ecclesiastical tyranny.

Viewed as an event in the organic historical development of the Reformed doctrine of the Trinity, the 1537 Caroli affair emerges as a transition event from what Richard Muller describes as the “earlier” and “later” stages in the dogmatic development. Such an organic perspective allows us to avoid Caroli’s error on the one hand and uncritical hagiography on the other.

Read the Paper

• Calvin Confronts Caroli (.PDF; 11 pp.; 138 KB)
• Calvin Confronts Caroli (.ODT; 11 pp.; 30 KB)

Annotated Bibliography

The following is a partial list of works I found helpful for researching this topic. See the “Works Cited” page for a complete listing.

Barth’s lectures on the life of Calvin contain a lengthy section on the Caroli affair in which Barth details each of the five disputations and synods and evaluates the significance of the 1537 events.

Calvin published this original version of his Institutes the year before Peter Caroli accused Calvin of trinitarian heresy. Muller cites this volume to demonstrate that Calvin’s trinitarian orthodoxy was never in question. Barth notes that it is interesting that Calvin never referred to this work in his debates, a fact which may indicate the “politics” of Calvin’s solidarity with Farel and the reformers being more in view rather than Calvin’s own trinitarian teaching.

The later editions of the Institutes reflect Calvin’s trinitarian disputes, perhaps even with Caroli. Note Calvin’s dealing with the issue of whether or not it is proper to use technical terms such as “trinity,” etc.

Douglas Kelly has a great article on Calvin’s trinitarian theology in this collection of essays: “The True and Triune God: Calvin’s Doctrine of the Holy Trinity.”

Volume 4 of Muller’s Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics argues for a two-age development of the Reformed doctrine of the Holy Trinity and provides a summary of the characterics of both ages. When thinking through the Caroli debates, it is important to know, for example, that it was characteristic of the Reformed to resist extra-biblical terms such as “trinity” prior to 1540. (As is noted in the paper, Barth notes that one of the results of the 1537 synods is that Calvin is forced by the synod to use the term “trinity” in his teachings.) Muller provides evidence from Calvin’s own teachings that Calvin’s trinitarian orthodoxy was never in doubt and a offers a most useful organic historical perspective within which to view the events of 1537.

Though not mentioned in the paper, Berkhof defends Calvin’s orthodox view of the eternal generation of the Son:

It is sometimes said that Calvin denied the eternal generation of the Son. This assertion is based on the following passage: “For what is the profit of disputing whether the Father always generates, seeing that it is foolish to imagine a continuous act of generating when it is evident that three persons have subsisted in one God from eternity.” Institutes I. 13, 29. But this statement can hardly be intended as a denial of the eternal generation of the Son, since he teaches this explicitly in other passages. It is more liekly that it is simply an expression of disagreement with the Nicene speculation about eternal generation as a perpetual movement, always complete, and yet never completed. (Quoted from Berkhof, History of Christian Doctrines, 95-96.)

Also not mentioned in the paper, Velema and van Genderen refer to Calvin’s orthodox views regarding the ancient symbols and Christ’s eternal generation:

As for the councils of Nicea (325) through Chalcedon (451), Calvin said that he regarded them as holy insofar as they conerned the doctrines (dogmata) of the faith. When someone brings the church into confusion with his teaching and it looks as though serious discord will ensue, the churches must convene and make a pronouncement that is derived from Scripture (definitio ex Scriptura sumpta). Thus the Council of Nicea upheld the eternal divinity of Christ over against Arius (Institutes, 4.9.8, 13). (Quoted from van Genderen and Velema, Concise Reformed Dogmatics, 2.)

Review: Lest We Forget by Robert K. Churchill

Lest We Forget: A Personal Reflection on the Formation of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church By Robert K. Churchill
Published by the Committee for the Historian of the OPC
135 pages; List price: $6.95, softback; ISBN: 0-934688-34-6

Overview

Lest We Forget is pastor Robert Churchill’s autobiographical account of the tumultuous years of conflict in the early 20th century between German liberalism, American fundamentalism, and historic Presbyterianism. Written from the perspective of a young Presbyterian who would be ordained at the first General Assembly of the newly formed Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Churchill’s reflections are aimed at reminding future Orthodox Presbyterians of their roots and theological identity, as if Grandpa has sat down in his rocking chair to give his grandchild an important, factual, and wisdom-filled glance into the past for the purpose of helping his grandchild chart a wise course for the future.

Chapter 1

In ch. 1, Churchill recalls his conversion and call to the ministry. Though minor points, young ministerial candidates will do well to chew on two nuggets of advice, the first on education for ministry:

I attempted a short cut [to ministry], via a course in the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. But “No,” said that inner voice, “get a thorough education, the best available, before you preach the word” (p. 19).

And the second on making your call sure during your training, internship time, etc.:

I became a minister because I had to. As it came to Paul, so in a lesser way it came to me: “Yea, woe is me if I preach not the gospel!” (p. 19)

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 surveys two Presbyterian churches to introduce the looming conflict between liberalism and historic, orthodox Christianity, the first ingredient in the Presbyterian conflict in the 1920s and 30s.

Chapter 3

The second ingredient, the “new kind of fundamentalism” with its dispensational theology, is introduced in chapter 3. This new fundamentalism is not like historic fundamentalism that simply upholds five fundamentals of Christianity (i.e. verbal plenary inspiration and authority of Sacred Scripture; the virgin birth of Christ; supernatural miracles; Jesus’ physical resurrection; Christ’s substitutionary, penal atonement). Rather, using a dispensational hermeneutic the new fundamentalism drove a wedge between the people of God in the Old and New covenants, thereby introducing two plans of salvation instead of one, unified plan of salvation in Christ Jesus. This new fundamentalism also fails to appropriately relate law and grace in the New Testament’s doctrine of salvation.

Chapter 4

Churchill introduces the third and final ingredient in the Presbyterian conflict in chapter 4: the Westminster tradition, with such pastors and theologians as J. Gresham Machen and Cornelius Van Til. This institution, where Churchill received his seminary degree, and these men stood for orthodox, Reformed Presbyterianism. Churchill describes his time at Westminster in terms of being introduced to the “largeness” of the Reformed faith over against the smallness of the dispensational theology coming out of dispensational strongholds such as Dallas Theological Seminary.

Chapter 5

In chapter 5 Churchill focuses on Presbyterian ecclesiology, using the analogy of Lincoln’s “house divided” speech to show the growing rift in America’s Presbyterian church. The 1923 a conservative General Assembly affirmed five fundamentals of the Christian faith (as noted above). The following year the same body denied these fundamentals in what became known as the Auburn Affirmation. This affirmation also revealed the liberals’ strategy: flanking by degrees, or an invasion of “half truths” instead of a full frontal attack.

The Affirmation revealed the campaign strategy of the modernists. The attack on historic Christianity was not to be an open, forthright one. It was to be a denial of the faith by feigned affirmations (p. 65).

By separating redemptive fact from the divine interpretation of those facts, liberal theologians sought to affirm Christianity’s facts and to deny Christianity’s doctrines simultaneously, a ferocious non sequitur based ultimately on a denial of Scripture’s authority.

Chapter 6

This chapter looks into the impact of heterodoxy on the Presbyterian world missions scene related to the 1932 work, Re-Thinking Missions. Conservatives in the church did not want to send their money to support theologically liberal missionaries, and conservative missionary candidates did not want to be rejected for service simply because they believed in historic, orthodox Christianity. Thus, the stage was set for explaining the purpose behind J. Gresham Machen’s independent mission board, which he formed outside the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church.

Chapter 7

Once it became clear to conservative Presbyterians that their money was being used to support liberal missionaries and that conservative missionary candidates were having trouble getting certified for the field, Dr. Machen led the charge to form the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions for the purpose of supporting missionaries who held to orthodox Christianity. The church reacted swiftly in a 1934 deliverance demanding extra ordination and membership vows which required support of the church’s official mission board. This action created an impasse for conservatives: either support the liberal mission board or face church discipline.

Chapters 8 & 9

Under the pretense of the mission board issue, Dr. Machen, along with other conservative ministers, were brought before the church’s courts, given an unjust (i.e. non-judicial, but strictly administrative) trial, and then defrocked. This last point is often forgotten–the conservatives did not split the church. Rather, they were kicked out. Only then were they forced to start their own denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, renamed to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Chapter 10

The final chapter ends in the OPC’s tumultuous first year. Now free from the common foe of liberalism, the conservatives faced internal strife, especially on the issue of premillennial dispensationalism. Churchill outlines four main challenges in building momentum around a conservative identity:

1. Unpopularity — By definition the Gospel of Christ is an offense. Thus it will always be a challenge to spread the light in a dark American context that is addicted to entertainment, pleasure, and all things hedonistic.
2. High Financial Cost — For a pastor to leave the large Presbyterian denomination would cost him his salary, pension, benefits, etc. And the cost for a church was its building, assets, etc. Thus many churches were not quick to join the conservatives due to the high cost of leaving.
3. Internal Theological Division, especially dispensationalism — Premillennial dispensational theology (i.e. from the Scofield Reference Bible) had gained a large foothold even among conservative churches. The new church struggled to maintain a consistent Reformed hermeneutic (i.e. covenant theology, Reformed eschatology).
4. Christian Liberty — Whereas historic Reformed theology promotes a robust doctrine of Christian liberty according to the Scriptures, the “new fundamentalism” (referenced above) in the conservative Presbyterian movement sought to use the church to support politically-charged movements such as prohibition and extra-Biblical mandates, such as no card playing, movie going, etc.

These four challenges led to a splinter group emerging in the OPC’s first year. The dispensationalist- and new-fundamentalist-friendly members formed into the Bible Presbyterian Church and founded Faith Theological Seminary.

Critique

At times, Churchill’s reporting is juvenile (see p. 117, for example), one-sided (i.e. no reference to opposing views anywhere in the book, as on p. 99, for example), and triumphalistic. But such observations ought to be taken with a grain of salt when the genre of Churchill’s work, autobiographical reflection, is held in view. Further, even though the work is not a meant to be a research paper, Churchill’s wide sweeping comments about the analogy between church and statue authority (i.e. pp. 111-12) are unnecessarily broad; his points regarding the nature of church authority would have been better served with appeals to Scripture.

Conclusion

Overall I found Lest We Forget easy to read and fairly engaging. Each chapter (except chapter 1) cuts quickly to the main idea of the chapter and clearly unfolds the implications for the OPC. Thus friends of the OPC will find in Churchill a friendly and fatherly voice which gives an “insider’s” look into the foundation of a 71 year old denomination. Also, anyone interested in the history of American Baptistic fundamentalism (i.e. the fundamentalism akin to Bob Jones University, Pensacola Christian College, and the like) or the historical influence of Dispensationalism will find Churchill’s book helpful in setting the historical context for these theologies, albeit from a Presbyterian perspective. Lastly, those interested in tracing the flow of historic, orthodox, confessional Christianity in the 20th century will benefit too from Churchill’s autobiographical work.