The Princeton tradition

I just finished reading the second volume of David Calhoun's Princeton Seminary (vol.1, Faith and Learning, 1812 - 1868; vol. 2, The Majestic Testimony, 1869 - 1929). I had started the first volume at least a year ago, and finally finished the entire work last night.

For over a hundred years, the faculty of Princeton remained faithful to the gospel, and steadfastly upheld historic, orthodox Christianity no matter what direction the cultural, ecclesiastical, and scholarly winds were blowing. I was truly inspired by the story. Here are three things about the history of Princeton Seminary that impressed me:

First, the Princeton tradition brought heart and mind together in the service and love of Christ. Before I read the books, I had known something about the high scholarly standards of old Princeton. In the world of Christian thought and theology, Princeton was a leading institution (and the premier seminary for conservative Christianity in the English-speaking world). Her professors were first-rate scholars. But they were also men of tremendous piety and sincere love for Christ. They studied not just to grow in knowledge, but to grow in the knowledge of God.

Reformed theology (the theology of Princeton) need not produce Christians who have knowledge without zeal (if that is the case, the fault lies not with the theology, but with the individual!). The proof of this is that Princeton Seminary, at its finest, produced pastors and missionaries who devoted themselves to prayer and ministry. In the early years, the students of Princeton were at the vanguard of the American missionary movement, both within the United States and abroad.

Secondly, I was struck by what I'll call a deep-seated "confessional consciousness." The theologians of Princeton were committed to orthodox, Reformed, Christian doctrine as it was set down in the Westminster Standards. They were eminently students of the Bible, and true to the Reformation principle that the Word of God in the Scriptures is the final authority for faith and life. But they also believed that the Westminster standards were a faithful summary of the Bible's teaching. And this confessional mooring gave them a theology that was conservative and orthodox, but not narrowly fundamentalist. At times they were criticized for being too liberal, at other times for being too conservative. They were willing to be different from the culture, and to be different from the academic world, because they valued, and were thoroughly grounded in, a system of theology that guided their approach to contemporary cultural and scholarly issues.

Thirdly, I was impressed by how the Princeton teachers were eager to understand the opponents of orthodox Christianity in order to defend the faith. Many of the professors (including Charles Hodge and J. Gresham Machen) studied in Europe under teachers with whom they had deep disagreements. But they knew what these theologians taught, they understood it, and they were able to respond to questionable or false Christian teaching with respect, intellectual honesty, and rigorous scholarship. Though not every Christian is called to be a theologian or scholar, the Princetonians set a fine example for Christians today in first listening to those who differ, and then carefully and thoughtfully addressing their contentions or questions from the perspective of faith.

The men who made up the Princeton tradition were not flawless, of course. Calhoun gives fair criticism here and there, which is right and good. But I put down the book with an huge amount of admiration for the professors and students who made up Old Princeton.