Reformed Theology in American, A History of Its Modern Development

Title: Reformed Theology in America, A History of Its Modern Development

Editor: David F. Wells

Publisher: Baker, 1997

Pages: 248

Begun: March 14, 2009

Finished: July 1, 2009

This is a compilation of essays by about a dozen Presbyterian scholars, edited by David Wells. It is, as the title suggests, about the development of Reformed Theology in America and it gives great insight into a part of American Christian culture that those of us from the non-reformed background know so little about. 

There are three parts to the book:

1. The Princeton Theology which begins with an explanation of what exactly that it and then three biographical studies of the three most significant men in this group, men that we would probably all be familiar with: Charles Hodge, B.B. Warfield, and J. Gresham Machen. I really enjoyed this section and felt a lot of sympathy for the theology and views.

2. The Dutch Reformed Theology which started with an essay on the Dutch Schools before going into a biographical examination of an essay a piece on Louis Berkhof, Herman Dooyeweerd, and Cornelius Van Til.  Berkhof is, of course, well know in our independent circles because it is his systematic theology that was used at places like Bob Jones for years. The apologetics of Van Til have become more popular of late, but I had never heard of Dooyeweerd. However, I realized that I have a little bit of a connection to this branch of Reformed through Christian Liberty Academy Satellite Schools which had close affiliation with the Dutch Reformed. More well-known to us, perhaps, is Beeke.

3. The Southern Reformed Theology. Again, this starts with an essay on the particularities of the Souther Tradition that was hugely affected by the Civil War issues and then by three biographical essays of their most important men. I had to restrain myself to wait until it was the proper order of time to read about one of my all-time favorites, R.L. Dabney, and then trudged through the essay on James Henley Thornwell who apparently was very influential and still has an impact on RTS in Jackson, MO.

It was inspiring to me to read these essays and to wade through their philosophies and theology. These were men of conviction who believed that ideas mattered. The impact of their ideas last to this day in huge segments of conservative and fundamental presbyterianism. It was also fascinating to see that no man, particularly the remarkably great Dabney, could escape being affected by his times. But Dabney was also almost prophetic.

He wrote:

The history of human rights is, that their intelligent assertors usually learn the true grounds of them 'in the furnace of affliction'; that the posterity who inherit these rights hold them for a while, in pride and ignorant prescription; that after a while, when the true logic of the rights has been forgotten, and when some plausible temptation presses them to do so, the next generation discards the precious rights bodily, and goes back to the practice of the old tyranny... You may deem it a strange prophecy, but I predict that the time will come in this once free America when the battle for religious liberty will have to be fought over again, and will probably be lost, because the people are already ignorant of its true basis and conditions.

That is disturbingly even more realistic today.

This is a good read. I'm glad I did it. Opened my eyes to understand my Reformed brothers and their noble tradition even better. It also inspired me to be a thinker.