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Charles Hodge (1797-1878) was one of nineteenth-century America's leading theologians, owing in part to a lengthy teaching career, voluminous writings, and a faculty post at one of the nation's most influential schools, Princeton Theological Seminary. Surprisingly, the only biography of this towering figure was written by his son, just two years after his death. Paul C. Gutjahr's book is the first modern critical biography of a man some have called the "Pope of
Presbyterianism." Hodge's legacy is especially important to American Presbyterians. His brand of theological conservatism became vital in the 1920s, as Princeton Seminary saw itself,
and its denomination, split. The conservative wing held unswervingly to the Old School tradition championed by Hodge, and ultimately founded the breakaway Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The views that Hodge developed, refined, and propagated helped shape many of the central traditions of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American evangelicalism. Hodge helped establish a profound reliance on the Bible among Evangelicals, and he became one of the nation's most vocal
proponents of biblical inerrancy. Gutjahr's study reveals the exceptional depth, breadth, and longevity of Hodge's theological influence and illuminates the varied and complex nature of conservative American
Protestantism.
Charles Hodge (1797-1878) was one of nineteenth-century America's leading theologians, owing in part to a lengthy teaching career, voluminous writings, and a faculty post at one of the nation's most influential schools, Princeton Theological Seminary. Surprisingly, the only biography of this towering figure was written by his son, just two years after his death. Paul C. Gutjahr's book is the first modern critical biography of a man some have called the "Pope of
Presbyterianism." Hodge's legacy is especially important to American Presbyterians. His brand of theological conservatism became vital in the 1920s, as Princeton Seminary saw itself,
and its denomination, split. The conservative wing held unswervingly to the Old School tradition championed by Hodge, and ultimately founded the breakaway Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The views that Hodge developed, refined, and propagated helped shape many of the central traditions of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American evangelicalism. Hodge helped establish a profound reliance on the Bible among Evangelicals, and he became one of the nation's most vocal
proponents of biblical inerrancy. Gutjahr's study reveals the exceptional depth, breadth, and longevity of Hodge's theological influence and illuminates the varied and complex nature of conservative American
Protestantism.
Illustrations
Key Events in Hodge's Life
Key Figures in Hodge's Life
Prologue - The Pope of Presbyterianism
Part I 1797-1810 - The Hodges of Philadelphia
1. Andrew Hodge, Family Patriarch
2. Presbyterian Heritage
3. Beauty and the Beast
Part II The 1810s - Student Years
4. The Beginnings of Self
5. Prince's Town
6. Witherspoon's Common Sense
7. "Classick Learning"
8. Enlisting under the Banner of King Jesus
9. Happy Jaunts and the "Man of Men"
10. "Give us ministers!"
11. Student Years at the Seminary
12. "Where am I to go?"
Part III The 1820s - Young Professor
13. "The Most Eligible Situation for Improvement"
14. New England's Theological Landscape
15. Democratic Christianity
16. The Birth of the Biblical Repertory
17. The Trip to Europe
18. "The Dirtiest, Ugliest, Gloomiest Town"
19. Berlin and the Return Home
20. A Sense of Mission
21. The Repertory Reborn
Part IV The 1830s - Crusader
22. The Imputation Controversy
23. Romans
24. Crippled in Body, But not in Mind
25. Hodge's Home: "Sunny, Genial, Kindly and Tolerant"
26. The Coming Storm
27. The Slavery Question
28. The Schism
29. The New School Fights Back
30. Writing History
Part V The 1840s - Professor of Theology
31. The Way of Life
32. Didactic Theology
33. Teaching and Preaching
34. The Public Face of the Seminary
35. Moderator of the General Assembly
36. "The Nonsensical Dialect of Transcendentalism"
37. Roman Catholic Baptism
38. Infection of German Idealism
39. "When the will of the wife is the other way"
40. "Covered in Gloom"
Part VI The 1850s - Inspired Churchman
41. College Trustee
42. Language and Feeling
43. The Inspiration of Scripture
44. "Graces of the Spirit"
45. The Battle against "Churchianity"
46. Thornwell and "Thus Saith the Lord"
47. The Pauline Commentaries
48. Politics and Conscience
Part VII The 1860s - Conflicted Unionist
49. The State of the Country and the Church
50. Hodge's Family at War
51. The Unities of Mankind
52. The Disunities of Mankind
53. Reuniting the Old and New Schools
Part VIII 1870s - Systematic Theologian and Scientist
54. The Systematic Theology
55. "The apex of my life"
56. Science and Darwinism
57. "O Death, Where is Thy Sting?"
Epilogue - Hodge's Legacy
Index
Paul C. Gutjahr is Associate Professor of English at Indiana University. He also teaches American Studies and Religious Studies. He has written and edited numerous books and articles, including: An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1776-1881; Popular American Literature of the 19th Century; and Illuminating Letters: Typography and Literary Interpretation.
"Gutjahr gives a thoughtful and well-written analysis as an
historian of Charles Hodge in a volume that is beautifully
produced...[The] volume is a delight. It features a whole gallery
of rough sketches of the persona of Charles Hodge's circle and
contemporaries. The pictures, portraits, and lithographs reproduced
in the body of the book are stunning...The book involves an
impressive amount of research and, as one would expect from a
Professor of English, is
beautifully written."--Haddington House Journal
"Gutjahr's biography is worthwhile for anyone who is seriously
interested in Charles Hodge."--Interpretation
"Gutjahr's fine biography stands as a welcome challenge to a
historiography that tends to oversimplify and dehumanize both Hodge
and his cherished conservative orthodoxy."--The Journal of American
History
"Gutjahr's biography renders Charles Hodge's confessional Calvinism
in all its intricacy and combativeness, but it also restores the
humaneness of the man, his friendships, affections, travels,
ambitions, and frailties. Having spent ten years with Hodge,
Gutjahr has gained from that intimacy a remarkably panoramic view
of nineteenth-century American Protestant thought. It is an
impressive achievement."--Leigh E. Schmidt, Charles Warren
Professor of the
History of Religion in America, Harvard University
"Charles Hodge was an unwritten chapter in American religious
history until he met his biographer in Paul Gutjahr. This
monumental, carefully researched, and thoroughly readable study of
the 'Pope of Presbyterianism' fills a large gap in the history of
conservative Protestant theology in America and offers keen insight
into an intellectual tradition whose legacy can be traced to the
present day."--David Morgan, Professor of Religion, Duke
University
"Charles Hodge, one of the most influential religious thinkers in
nineteenth-century America, has been the subject of considerable
specialized research but few general studies. Paul Gutjahr has now
remedied this lack with an unusually capable book that both
explains why Hodge's conservative Calvinism exerted its great
influence and why the theologian became such a beloved figure to so
many (including some of his foes). It is a most welcome
biography."--Mark
Noll, author of America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham
Lincoln
"Fair and historically contextualized, showing Hodge's importance
in his time and world. The book is well written...Everyone
interested in nineteenth-century American church history or
Presbyterian history should read this work...Gutjahr's fine
biography will give its readers a good idea of why Charles Hodge
was loved by family, students, and all who knew him, while at the
same time being a churchman of great significance."--New
Horizons
"From a biographical standpoint, Gutjahr's book seems to be a bit
more effective in portraying Hodge as a total person. Not only is
the personal side of Hodge enhanced with pictures of Hodge's
family, friends, and homestead, Gutjahr's practice of having more
chapters of shorter length allows him to move back and forth
between the home and denomination more often, giving the reader a
more rounded picture of Hodge's life."--Detroit Baptist
Seminary
Journal
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