The Narnia 3 Book Review Blog

David B. Calhoun. Princeton Seminary: Faith & Learning 1812—1868, vol. 1. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1995. xvii + 495 pp. $28.95 (cloth).

For over 100 years (1812—1929) Princeton Theological Seminary was perhaps the most significant voice in America for orthodox Christianity and also served as a model for seminary education. The author, a professor of Church History at Covenant Seminary, has written a history of "Old Princeton" in two volumes.

This first volume chronicles the initial fifty-six years of Princeton, from the origins of the school to just after the Civil War. Though this work is painstaking in its detail, the author writes in a clear and refreshing style that is all too uncommon in historical works. The lives of the key personalities, Archibald Alexander, Samuel Miller, Ashbel Green, and Charles Hodge, are given thorough treatment. Of particular value is the section dealing with the relation of Princeton and the Princeton men to the "Old School-New School" controversies of the 1830s, which resulted in the split of the Presbyterian Church and the demise of the Plan of Union with the Congregational Church.

The author has researched well and skillfully intersperses quotations from personal correspondence and published writings of key figures with his careful presentation. One is immediately struck by the qualities which made the instructors at Princeton so effective in the hand of God: (1) their commitment to the truth of Scripture and sound doctrine, (2) their love for the students, (3) their commitment to sound preaching of the Scripture, (4) their commitment to evangelism, and (5) their commitment to excellence in the classroom.

The work has two excellent appendices, the most interesting being the "Plan for a Theological Seminary" written by Ashbel Green, which became the charter for the seminary and serves to remind the modern reader that "strategic planning" existed before the last twenty years. The other appendix is the author's excellent narrative discussing various bibliographic sources available for the study of Princeton.

David B. Calhoun. Princeton Seminary: The Majestic Testimony, 1869-1929, (Volume 2). Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1996. 560 pp. $29.99 (cloth).

This is the second volume of the author’s history of "Old Princeton." The second volume takes the reader from the period just after the Civil War to the reorganization of Princeton in 1929. During this period there was a slow shift on two fronts: the Presbyterian Church was moving away from its theological foundations and embracing first critical views of Scripture and then a more liberal theology; Princeton Seminary itself was changing as the senior faculty began to retire and die. All of these changes Calhoun chronicles with great skill in both clarity of style and breadth of detail.

This volume contains a nearly 30-page subject index covering both volumes, and as with the first volume, the author has provided evidence of substantial research with over 80 pages of endnotes. There are two appendices, one listing a detailed bibliographic resource for the study of Old Princeton and the key personalities, and another providing a brief biographic sketch of various faculty members who served from 1812-1929.

The death of Charles Hodge in 1878 marked the end of an era at Princeton. Hodge had taught for over 50 years. Shunning any honor to himself or his work he stated:

All that can be said is that God has been pleased to take up a poor little stick and do something with it. What I have done is as nothing compared to what is done by a man who goes to Africa and labors among a heathen tribe, and reduces their language to writing. I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose the shoes of such a man (62).

Upon Charles Hodge's death, his son, A. A. Hodge, became professor of theology, and although not the senior professor, he was "the real power at Princeton Seminary"(100). Calhoun describes the younger Hodge as "a theologian who could preach and a preacher who could teach theology" (ibid). He details how he and the young B. B. Warfield began to defend the inspiration and inerrancy of the Scripture against the higher critical views and liberalism which were already gaining strong footholds in the American denominations. A. A. Hodge's sudden and unexpected death in 1886 (only eight years after his father) was traumatic for both Princeton and the conservative Calvinists within the Presbyterian church. Although Hodge would be succeeded by the brilliant B. B. Warfield as professor of theology, Warfield would never have the impact in the denomination that Hodge had, and his writings, although classics in scholarly defense of the faith, would never have the popular appeal that the younger Hodge's did.

Calhoun insightfully describes the relationship of the seminary to Princeton College and reflects on the negative impact Woodrow Wilson (later president of the United States) had on the college when he became its president. Wilson stated that, "Princeton is a Presbyterian college only because the Presbyterians were wise and progressive enough to found it" (272). Wilson, the first president of the school who was not an ordained Presbyterian minister, during his administration eliminated all the previously required biblical instruction and hired the first non-Christian faculty members. Calhoun rightly describes Wilson's impact on the college (and indirectly the seminary) as a move from "Protestant establishment to established nonbelief" (ibid). Although Calhoun does not expand on this line of inquirey, there is an interesting comparison also to be made between Wilson's role at Princeton College and his later role as president of the United States, after World War I. As the real founder of the ill-fated "League of Nations" Wilson's "ecumenical spirit" was extremely influential in political thhought, and would ulimately lead, for better or worse, the the forming of the United Nations.

Most readers enjoy a book with a happy ending; however, the history of "Old Princeton" does not lend to such an ending. Calhoun describes the increasing tension within the faculty itself as men with varying commitments to the Scripture tried to work together. Calhoun calls the death of Warfield in 1920 "the end of an era" (326). The battle, which would find J. Gresham Machen as a lightning rod, would intensify until the reorganization of 1929 and the departure of Machen, Robert Dick Wilson, Oswald T. Allis, and Cornelius Van Til to form Westminster Theological Seminary.This reviewer highly recommends this volume, as well as the first. Calhoun's final chapter on "The Princeton Theology" (401-29) is an excellent summation of the institution's distinctive theology. Calhoun writes, "Old Princeton ceased to exist in 1929, but through its history and literature it still inspires, instructs and encourages" (428).