Machen's Hope: The Transformation of a Modernist in the New Princeton

by Richard E. Burnett, Mark A. Noll (Foreword by)

Overview

The first critical biography of J. Gresham Machen, examining the full arc of his intellectual career

J. Gresham Machen is known as a conservative hero of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy. But was he always so staunchly antimodernist?   

In this sweeping new biography, Richard E. Burnett examines the whole of Machen’s life and career—from his early years at Princeton, to his experience in the First World War, to his founding of Westminster Theological Seminary . Burnett pays special attention to topics that have received little attention from biographers, like Machen’s crisis of faith and his support for historical criticism of Scripture. 

Incorporating all of Machen’s major works as well as his previously unpublished private correspondence, Burnett crafts a nuanced narrative of Machen’s intellectual journey from enthusiastic modernist to stalwart conservative. Nuanced and thorough, Machen’s Hope will challenge scholars’ assumptions about Machen and his dynamic era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802883957
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/11/2024
Pages:	638
Sales rank:	346,165
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Richard E. Burnett is executive director and managing editor of Theology Matters. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and was formerly professor of systematic theology at Erskine Theological Seminary. His previous books include Karl Barth's Theological Exegesis: The Hermeneutical Principles of the Römerbrief Period.


 
Mark A. Noll is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Notre Dame. His other books include A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln, and Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Foreword by Mark A. Noll
Preface
List of Abbreviations
1. The Early Life of J. Gresham Machen
          Family
          Home
          Church
          Congregation
2. Student Years in Baltimore and Princeton
          Johns Hopkins University
          The Religion of Daniel Coit Gilman
          Princeton Theological Seminary
          Princeton University
          The Religion of Woodrow Wilson
3. Student Year in Germany, 1905–1906
          The University of Marburg
                    Die Verbindung Franconia
                    Academic Life
                    Social Life
          The University of Göttingen
                    Die Verbindung Germania
                    Academic Life
                    Social Life
          The Universities of the United States
                    The Battle for Intellectual Independence
                    The Religious Situation
                    Machen’s Hope
4. Inner Doubts and Vocational Struggles
          The Impossibility of Entering the Ministry
          Familial Encouragement and Advice
          Persuading Parents of His Plan
          Confronting Fears and Maternal Opposition
          Faith, Facts, and Free Investigation
5. The Rise of New Princeton and Decline of Old Princeton
          The Triumph of the New Princeton
          The Eclipse of Old Princeton
          Life as an Instructor of New Testament
          Key Friends and Supporters
          Raising Standards at Princeton Seminary
6. Awakening to a Tremendous Defection
          A Deeper Intellectual Challenge: Lucius Miller
          The Collapsing Lines of Higher and Lower Criticism: Benjamin Warfield
          The Student Rebellion of 1909: William Armstrong
          A Good Old-Fashioned Fight: Harris Kirk
          The Divided Minds of 1910
                    Presbyterian Church USA
                    Princeton University
                    Reckonings Old and New
7. Scientific Preparation and Centennial Celebration
          The Scientific Preparation of the Minister
                    Three Ways of Relating Knowledge and Piety
                              Assimilation
                              Isolation
                              Consecration
                    Modernism
          Princeton Seminary’s Centennial Celebration
                    Supernatural Christianity
                    Francis Patton’s Titanic Struggle
                    Jesus and Paul
8. The Road to Ordination
          Broker within the Brotherhood
          Ecclesial Service
          Academic Politics
          Ordination
9. Wars and Rumors of War
          The European Front: Sympathy for the Unpopular Side
          The University Front: John Hibben’s Spiritual Philosophy
          The Emerging Fundamentalist-Modernist Front
          The Popular-Piety Front: Billy Sunday and Albert Fitch
          The Intellectual Front: History and Faith
10. The Battle Lines at Home and Abroad
          Standing in the Breach
          The Triumph of Religion
          The Blood of Martyrs
          The Roots of Religionism and Its Fruit at Princeton
          Civic Duty and Religious Work
11. The End and Beginning of War
          Postwar Perspectives
          A New Passion for a Good Church
          The Origin of Paul’s Religion
          The Battle is Now On
          The Death of Warfield
          Babylonian Captivity
12. Conclusion
          The Transformation of Machen’s Hope
          The Terms of Hope
                    Supernatural Christianity
                    Religion
                    A Phenomenon of History
          The Substance of Hope
          The Resurrection of Hope
          The Queen of the Sciences
Appendix: J. Gresham Machen, “The Universities of the United States”
Works Cited

Editorial Reviews

Machen’s Hope provides an impressively detailed and comprehensive account of the intellectual formation of one of the most influential Christian scholars of the past century.”
—George Marsden, professor emeritus, University of Notre Dame
 
“In this fascinating and groundbreaking book, Burnett gives us the gold-standard work on Machen’s life and intellectual development, while at the same time offering fresh insights into the key controversies that shaped his career. It is a must for anyone interested not only in Machen but in a formative period of American church history.”
—Suzanne McDonald, professor of systematic and historical theology, Western Theological Seminary
 
“J. Gresham Machen was at the heart of theological controversies in the 1920s and 1930s that racked the American Presbyterian churches. U.S. Presbyterians have arguably never fully recovered and have had difficulty in finding their way ever since. The time is ripe for a reconsideration of Machen’s life and work. Richard E. Burnett’s careful and judicious intellectual biography is exactly the kind of study that Presbyterians of all stripes will need if they are ever to regain their bearings on the American scene and reverse their long, slow drift into oblivion.”
—George Hunsinger, McCord Professor of Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary
 
“The burden of the book is to detail how thoroughly the younger Machen was committed to the ‘modern’ academic fashions he experienced as a student at both Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University, but then how he became a dedicated opponent of theological ‘modernism’ even while retaining some habits of mind from his earlier embrace of ‘modern’ forms of thought. Burnett reveals especially how much Machen’s engagement with contemporary New Testament criticism originating in Germany influenced the shape of his later theological and ecclesiastical commitments.
     “Machen’s Hope does not so much challenge [earlier biographies] as show how much more can be revealed about Machen’s intellectual life from even more diligent research and by posing a wider array of interpretive questions. . . . Burnett’s clear and often compelling prose only adds to the achievement of this unusually thoughtful, unusually revealing, unusually impressive book.”
—from the foreword by Mark A. Noll

From the Publisher