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Charles Hodge

From Wikipaedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Hodge

Charles Hodge (1797 – 1878) was the principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878. He was one of the greatest exponents and defenders of historical Calvinism in America during the 19th century.

Contents

• 1Life
• 2Literary and teaching activities
• 3Character and significance
• 4Hodge and slavery
• 5Bibliography
• 6References
• 7External links

Life

He matriculated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1812, and after graduation entered in 1816 the theological seminary in Princeton, having among his classmates his two lifelong friends, John Johns, afterward bishop of Virginia, and Charles P. Mollvaine, afterward bishop of Ohio. In 1819 Hodge was licensed as a minister by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and he preached regularly at the Falls of Schuylkill, the Philadelphia Arsenal, and Woodbury, New Jersey over the subsequent months. In 1822 he was appointed by the General Assembly professor of Biblical and Orientalliterature. In 1822 he married Sarah Bache, great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. Soon after he went abroad (1826–1828) to prosecute special studies, and in Paris, Halle, and Berlin attended the lectures of Silvestre de Sacy, Friedrich Tholuck, Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, and August Neander.

In 1824, he helped to found the Chi Phi Society along with Robert Baird and Archibald Alexander. In 1825 he founded the Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, and during forty years was its editor and the principal contributor to its pages. In 1840 he was transferred to the chair of didactic theology, retaining, however, the department of New Testament exegesis, the duties of which he continued to discharge until his death. He was moderator of the New Jersey General Assembly in 1846.

Fifty years of his professorate were completed in 1872, and the event was most impressively celebrated on April 23rd of that year. A large concourse, including 400 of his own pupils, assembled to do him honor. Representatives from various theological institutes, at home and abroad, mingled their congratulations with those of his colleagues; and letters expressing deepest sympathy with the occasion came from distinguished men from all quarters of the land and from across the sea.

Hodge enjoyed what President Woolsey, at the jubilee just referred to, hoped he might enjoy, "a sweet old age." He lived in the midst of his children and grandchildren; and, when the last moment came, they gathered round him. "Dearest," he said to a beloved daughter, "don't weep. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. To be with the Lord is to see him. To see the Lord is to be like him." Of the children who survived him, three were ministers; and two of these succeeded him in the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary, C. W. Hodge, in the department of exegetical theology, and A. A. Hodge, in that of dogmatics.

Portrait of Charles Hodge by the studio of Mathew Brady,

Washington, D.C., 1865-1878.

Literary and teaching activities

Hodge was a voluminous writer, and from the beginning to the end of his theological career his pen was never idle. In 1835 he published his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, his greatest exegetical work, and one of the most masterly commentaries on this epistle that has ever been written. Other works followed at intervals of longer or shorter duration - Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (1840); Way of Life (1841, republished in England, translated into other languages, and circulated to the extent of 35,000 copies in America); Commentary on Ephesians (1856); on First Corinthians (1857); on Second Corinthians (1859). His magnum opus is the Systematic Theology (1871–1873), of 3 volumes and extending to 2,260 pages. His last book, What is Darwinism? appeared in 1874. In addition to all this it must be remembered that he contributed upward of 130 articles to the Princeton Review, many of which, besides exerting a powerful influence at the time of their publication, have since been gathered into volumes, and as Selection of Essays and Reviews from the Princeton Review (1857) and Discussions in Church Polity (ed. W. Durant, 1878) have taken a permanent place in theological literature.

This record of Hodge's literary life is suggestive of the great influence that he exerted. But properly to estimate that influence, it must be remembered that 3,000 ministers of the Gospel passed under his instruction, and that to him was accorded the rare privilege, during the course of a long life, of achieving distinction as a teacher, exegete, preacher, controversialist, ecclesiastic, and systematic theologian. As a teacher he had few equals; and if he did not display popular gifts in the pulpit, he revealed homiletical powers of a high order in the "conferences" on Sabbath afternoons, where he spoke with his accustomed clearness and logical precision, but with great spontaneity and amazing tenderness and unction.

Hodge's literary powers were seen at their best in his contributions to the Princeton Review, many of which are acknowledged masterpieces of controversial writing. They cover a wide range of topics, from apologetic questions that concern common Christianity to questions of ecclesiastical administration, in which only Presbyterians have been supposed to take interest. But the questions in debate among American theologians during the period covered by Hodge's life belonged, for the most part, to the departments of anthropology and soteriology; and it was upon these, accordingly, that his polemic powers were mainly applied.

Character and significance

Though always honorable in debate, one would not gain a correct idea of Hodge's character through judging him only by the polemic relations in which his writings reveal him. Controversy does not emphasize the amiable side of a man's nature.

Hodge was a man of warm affection, of generous impulses, and of John-like piety. Devotion to Christ was the salient characteristic of his experience, and it was the test by which he judged the experience of others. Hence, though a Presbyterian and a Calvinist, his sympathies went far beyond the boundaries of sect. He refused to entertain the narrow views of church polity which some of his brethren advocated. He repudiated the unhistorical position of those who denied the validity of Roman Catholicbaptism. He gave his sympathy to all good agencies.

He was conservative by nature, and his life was spent in defending the Reformed theology as set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Westminster Shorter Catechisms. He was fond of saying that Princeton had never originated a new idea; but this meant no more than that Princeton was the advocate of historical Calvinism in opposition to the modified and provincial Calvinism of a later day. And it is true that Hodge must be classed among the great defenders of the faith, rather than among the great constructive minds of the Church. He had no ambition to be epoch-making by marking the era of a new departure. But he earned a higher title to fame in that he was the champion of his Church's faith during a long and active life, her trusted leader in time of trial, and for more than half a century the most conspicuous teacher of her ministry. Hodges' understanding of the Christian faith and of historical Protestantism is given in his Systematic Theology.

Hodge and slavery

Hodge supported slavery in the 1830s, and while he condemned the mistreatment of slaves he did not condemn the institution of slavery itself. The background to this attitude, however, was not primarily his understanding of the Bible's teaching on the matter, but rather his churchmanship.

The Presbyterian church was divided along the same lines that would later split it during the American Civil War. Hodge himself was torn between the abolitionists in the North and the conservatives in the South, and he used his considerable influence in an attempt to restore order and find a middle ground between the two factions. In 1846, however, he became convinced that slavery was wrong, reversing his earlier anti-abolitionist stance, and he then publicly denounced slavery and supported both the Abolitionist movement and President Lincoln (Adams, 2003).

Bibliography

• Systematic Theology. Hendrickson Publishers (1999). ISBN 1-56563-459-4 (also available abridged by Edward N. Gross, ISBN 0-87552-224-6)
• Romans (The Crossway Classic Commentaries). Crossway Books (1994). ISBN 0-89107-724-3
• 1 Corinthians (Crossway Classic Commentaries). Crossway Books (1995). ISBN 0-89107-867-3
• 2 Corinthians (Crossway Classic Commentaries). Crossway Books (1995). ISBN 0-89107-868-1
• Ephesians (The Crossway Classic Commentaries). Crossway Books (1994). ISBN 0-89107-784-7
• The Way of Life (Sources of American Spirituality). Mark A. Noll, ed. Paulist Press (1987). ISBN 0-8091-0392-3
• What is Darwinism? (1874)

References

• Adams, John H. (April 21, 2003). Charles Hodge: A voice for today’s PCUSA?The Layman.
• Hicks, Peter (1997). The Philosophy of Charles Hodge: A 19th Century Evangelical Approach to Reason, Knowledge and Truth Edwin Mellen Pr. ISBN 0-7734-8657-7
• Hodge, A. A. (1880). The life of Charles Hodge: Professor in the Theological seminary, Princeton, N.J.. C. Scribner's sons. Reissued 1979 by Ayer Co. Pub. ISBN 0-405-00250-5
• Hoffecker, W. A. (1981). Piety and the Princeton Theologians: Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, and Benjamin Warfield P&R Publishing. ISBN 0-87552-280-7
• Noll, Mark A., ed. (2001). Princeton Theology, 1812-1921: Scripture, Science, and Theological Method from Archibald Alexander to Benjamin Warfield. Baker Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8010-6737-5
• Stewart, J. W. and J. H. Moorhead, eds. (2002). Charles Hodge Revisited: A Critical Appraisal of His Life and Work. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8028-4750-1

External links

• Works by Charles Hodge at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
• Hodge's commentary on Romans 5 regarding imputed righteousness: part 1 and part 2.
• The Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, 1830-82, at the University of Michigan's "Humanities Text Initiative".
• "What is Presbyterianism?" by Hodge.
• Audio recording of Hodge's Systematic Theology (unabridged) in MP3 format.

This article includes content derived from the public domainSchaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914.

Archibald Alexander Hodge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A. A. Hodge

Archibald Alexander (A. A.) Hodge (July 18, 1823 – November 12, 1886), an AmericanPresbyterian leader, was the principal of Princeton Seminary between 1878 and 1886. He was the son of Charles Hodge, named after the first principal of Princeton Seminary, Archibald Alexander.

Contents

• 1Education and Career
• 2Influence
• 3Characteristics
• 4Sermons
• 5Works of A. A. Hodge
• 6References
• 7External links

Education and Career

Hodge attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) and Princeton Theological Seminary. He served as a missionary in India for three years (1847–1850). He held pastorates at Lower West Nottingham, Maryland (1851–1855), Fredericksburg, Virginia (1855–1861), and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (1861–1864). In 1864 he accepted a call to the chair of systematic theology in Western Theological Seminary (later Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There he remained until in 1877 he was called to Princeton to be the associate of his father, Charles Hodge, in the distinguished chair of systematic theology. He took on the full responsibilities of the chair of systematic theology in 1878. This post he retained till his death in 1886.

Influence

At the time of his death, he was a trustee of the College of New Jersey and a leader in the Presbyterian Church. His interests extended widely beyond religion. He touched the religious world at many points. During the years immediately preceding his death he did not slacken his work, but continued his work of writing, preaching, lecturing, making addresses, coming into contact with men, influencing them, and by doing so widening the influence of Christianity.

Characteristics

Hodge's distinguishing characteristic as a theologian was his power as a thinker. He had a mind of singular acuteness, and though never a professed student of metaphysics, he was essentially and by nature a metaphysician. His theology was that of the Reformed confessions. He had no peculiar views and no peculiar method of organizing theologicaldogmas; in this he may be identified with his father, who claimed at the end of his life that he had taught and written nothing new. Though he taught the same theology that his father had taught before him, he was independent as well as reverent. His first book and that by which he is best known was his Outlines of Theology (New York, 1860; enlarged ed., 1878; reprinted 1996, ISBN 0-85151-160-0), which was translated into Welsh, modern Greek, and Hindustani. The Atonement (Philadelphia, 1868; reprinted 1989, ISBN 0-685-26838-1) is still one of the best treatises on the subject. This was followed by his commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith (1869, ISBN 0-8370-0932-4), a very useful book, full of clear thinking and compact statement. He contributed some important articles to encyclopedias – Johnson's, McClintock and Strong's, and the Schaff-Herzog (the Schaff-Herzog encyclopedia furnished the kernel from which this article developed). He was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Review, to the pages of which he was a frequent contributor.

Sermons

In the Pulpit Hodge was a man of marked power. As he was not under the necessity of making fresh preparation every week, he had but few sermons, and he preached them frequently. They were never written; nor were they deliberately planned as great efforts. They grew from small beginnings and, as he went through the process of thinking them over as often as he preached them, they gradually became more elaborate and became possessed of greater literary charm.

Works of A. A. Hodge

• The Rule of Faith and Practice
• The Protestant rule of faith
• The Rules of Interpreting Scripture
• The Holy Scriptures - Canon and Inspiration (Part 1)(Part 2)
• The Inspiration of the Bible
• A. A. Hodge's commentary on the Entire Westminster Confession of Faith
• God - His Nature And Relation To The Universe
• Assurance and Humility
• A Short History of Creeds and Confessions
• God's Covenants With Man--The Church
• Baptism
• The Mode of Baptism
• Sactification (revised by B.B. Warfield)
• Free Will
• Outlines of Theology: Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism & Augustinianism
• Justification (Part 1)(Part 2)(Part 3)
• Predestination
• Selected Essays by Archibald Alexander Hodge

References

• This article includes content derived from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914, which is in the public domain.

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Archibald Alexander Hodge

• A short biography
• "Dogmatic Christianity, the Essential Ground of Practical Christianity" - he Inaugural Address of Archibald Alexander Hodge, upon his installation as Associate Professor of Dogmatic and Polemic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, November 8, 1877.
• Photographic tour of A.A. Hodge's grave at Princeton Cemetery.

THE BURNING BUSH

Volume 13 Number 1, January 2007

© Far Eastern Bible College, Singapore. All rights reserved.

CAN VERBAL PLENARY INSPIRATION DO WITHOUT VERBAL PLENARY PRESERVATION?:

THE ACHILLES’ HEEL OF PRINCETON BIBLIOLOGY

Dr Jeffrey Khoo is the Academic Dean of Far Eastern Bible College, and an Elder of True Life Bible-Presbyterian Church.

The old Princeton theology has often been regarded as the scholarly orthodoxy that should characterise evangelical theology in the face of challenges posed by liberalism or modernism. Alexander, Hodge and Warfield are household names in evangelical-theological scholarship. They have become reference points of theological orthodoxy. Despite their noble attempts to articulate the fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith, it is increasingly discovered that Princeton in its efforts to defend theological orthodoxy and gain a certain level of acceptability and respectability in the scholarly world had compromised the supreme and absolute authority of the Scriptures by adopting the textual critical methods of rationalistic scholasticism.

Textual criticism introduced by Princeton Seminary is the Trojan horse in Reformed, evangelical, and fundamentalist Bibliology today. No Reformed, evangelical or fundamentalist "scholar," without wanting to look stupid or foolish, would dare affirm without equivocation that the Bible in our hands today is infallible and inerrant, without any mistake. This is the tragedy of compromise.

This paper seeks to expose the fallacy of the Princeton theology especially as regards its Bibliology, and warn of the dangers that it presents to God’s people as they face the incessant salvoes against Christ and His Word by Postmodernism, Ecumenism, Neo-Evangelicalism, Neo-Fundamentalism, Open Theism and Neo-Deism today.

Archibald Alexander

The theology of Princeton was shaped by Archibald Alexander (1772-1851), the first professor of theology at Princeton, and by his successors, Charles Hodge and B B Warfield.1 These men remain highly respected by reformed and evangelical scholars today. But before we decide to bow to their scholarship, we need to examine what they believed about the Scriptures.

Archibald Alexander promoted the Westminster Standards to be the orthodox expression of faith. He also upheld the power of human reason. What of the Bible in his hands? Well he believed that the Bible was indeed preserved "by God’s singular care and providence" as spelled out in the Westminster Confession of Faith quoting Matthew 5:18, but his human mind could not accept the idea that the apographs (ie, copies of the originals) could be infallible and inerrant. It ought to be noted that Alexander’s preserved text manifested no less than 60,000 scribal errors, but in his opinion, these did not affect doctrine in any way.2 In his inaugural sermon at his installation as Princeton’s first professor of theology, he spoke positively of textual criticism, and posited the theory of conceptual preservation: "For though the serious mind is at first astonished and confounded, upon being informed of the multitude of various readings … yet it is relieved, when on careful examination, it appears that not more than one of a hundred of these, makes the slightest variation in the sense, and that the whole of them do not materially affect one important fact or doctrine."3

Alexander saw no contradiction between his opinion of scribal errors in the texts that he had in his hands and the Westminster Confession’s affirmation of the divine preservation of Scripture because he considered the perfection of the autographs and the purity of the apographs to concern merely doctrine and not words. In other words, these scribal errors do not affect any vital doctrine of the Christian faith, and there is no trouble even in seeing that God could have "inspired" these scribal errors in the lost autographs and that these same scribal errors could have been "preserved" in the apographs the church now has in her hands. It appears that Alexander had no qualms admitting that the autographs were not inerrant for he wrote, "it is even possible that some of the autographs, if we had them, might not be altogether free from such errors as arise from the slip of the pen, as the apostles [had] amanuens[es] who were not inspired."4