The Development of American Liberalism

The Development of American Liberalism A.The great foe of Fundamentalism has always been modern theological liberalism 1.the one position all liberals oppose is orthodox Christianity.

2.Liberalism’s antithesis has always uniformly been the idea of the verbal inspiration and absolute authority of Scripture 3.liberalism comes in innumerable varieties

4.an outline of the growth of liberalism and its most common characteristics is important for an understanding of Fundamentalism B.Backgrounds in the Enlightenment

1.The period that followed the Reformation of the six­teenth century was one of consolidation and doctrinal formulation 2.it was also a time of religious wars, both intellectual and military

3.in the succeeding period the pendulum swung back from reli­gious intolerance to religious freedom and indifference a.Rene’ Descartes (1596-1650) ①.French champion of the deductive method

②.    insisted that the first step in the search for truth is to rid oneself of all preconceived notions

③.    Descartes concluded that since he doubted, he must exist-hence his famous maxim, "I think; therefore, I am."

④.    With no apparent intention of attacking Christian­ity, Descartes established a religious philosophy whose guiding principle was that each person is a law unto himself

⑤.Such an outlook, however, superseded belief in the absolute authority of the Scriptures. b.The late seven­teenth century and the eighteenth century have become known as the Age of Reason

①.(because it was dominated by rationalism) or the Enlightenment (because of its condescending attitude to previous ages so dominated by "ignorance") ②.The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) i.in his Reasonableness of Christianity (1695) ii.attempted to defend Christianity, but in so doing he advocated a mild type of rationalism iii.This paved the way for a more extreme form, which took the name of Deism and taught that Christian doctrine should be reduced to certain universal principles of natural religion that could be ascertained by the use of reason and without the benefit of special revelation iv.The Deists launched a strong attack on biblical miracles and those doctrines that offended human reason. v.The roots of higher criticism also lie in the Enlight­enment 1st.Richard Simon (1638-1712) denied the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch

2nd.Jean Astruc (1684-1788), maintaining that the various documents from which Genesis was compiled could be separated by ob­serving the divine names that were used, laid the foun­dation stones for the documentary hypothesis 3rd.Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1752-1827) continued Astruc’s work on the Old Testament 4th.Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768) laid the foundation of radical New Testament criticism

01.Reimarus tried to approach the New Testament under the assumption that miracles are impossible vi.The latter part of the eighteenth century 1st.Marked by radical philosophical and theological sys­tems 01.Radical Deism and atheism enjoyed popularity in France during the French Revolution

02.    The Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) and the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

¨     while in one sense undercutting Deism by their attack on reason, in another sense prepared the way for modern liberalism

¨    Instead of transferring the seat of authority back to the Bible, Kant placed it in man as a inner sense of moral obligation, the "categorical imperative.

C.The Beginnings of Native American Liberalism 1.Several varieties of liberalism developed in America a.1761, Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766) ①.the liberal Armenian pastor of Boston’s West Church ②.published a sermon calledStriving to Enter In at the Strait Gate ③.Mayhew taught that the unregenerate could strive after holiness

④.Religious pluralism fostered the idea among laymen that heretics and pagans were not such bad people after all, no matter what the preacher said about their eternal destiny b.New England Congregationalism gave birth to Uni­tarianism in the late 1700s

①.    The seeds of English Unitarianism had found fertile ground in the growing Arminianism of eastern Massachusetts

②.    By 1805 Unitar­ians controlled Harvard College and, within the next few decades, most of the older churches as well

③.    closely allied to the New England upper, Unitarianism failed to make much headway elsewhere in America

④.Transcendentalism, the child of Unitarianism, broke more decisively with historic Christianity and achieved greater popularity through the writings and lectures of such scintillating literary figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau D.Influences of the New England Theology 1.Those Congregationalists who resisted the Unitarian Theology a.New England Theologydeveloped from the thought of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and passed through a variety of stages before it died in the late 1880s b.Founded on a speculative idealism, the New England Theology kept the appearances of orthodoxy while under­mining its foundations c.Many advocates of the New England Theology were evangelistic preachers who par­ticipated in the Second Great Awakening d.Though they did not doubt the Bible nor question its authority, these men, in the name of defending Calvinism and promoting revivalism, shifted away from some of the old Puritan emphases ①.Two main doctrinal features characterized the New England Theology i.First, the Governmental Theory of the Atonement (first developed by the seventeenth-century Dutch jurist, Hugo Grotius) subtly overshadowed Jona­than Edwards’s emphasis on the substitutionary aspect of Christ’s work and on its propitiation of God’s wrath ii.The Grotian view depicted God as the "Moral and Benev­olent Governor" of the universe whose primary purpose in the atonement was to maintain respect for His own laws iii.Advanced and popularized by Jonathan Edwards, Jr. (1754-1801) and Joseph Bellamy (1719-1790), each of whom had sat at the feet of the elder Edwards

1st.     the Governmental Theory virtually omitted any emphasis on the demands of God’s holiness

2nd.    Secondly, advocates of the New England Theology strongly asserted that God’s primary purpose in permitting sin to enter the world was the ultimate happiness and benefit of man

3rd.    According to this utilitarian doctrine, the entrance of sin was the necessary means to the greatest good

4th.    As proof, Hopkins cited the case of Joseph’s brothers selling him into bondage-"God did it for good." God could not have permitted sin for His own ultimate glory, for the Benevolent Ruler could not be virtuous while interested in His own attributes

5th.The more radical wing of the New England Theology, the followers of Nathaniel W. Taylor (1786-1858) of Yale Divinity School at New Haven, Connecticut 01.Insisted that all sin is voluntary, not inherited

02.    According to this New Haven doctrine, which is very similar to the ancient heresy called Pelagianism, man is sinful because he sins; man does not sin because he is sinful

03.Its proponents, such as N. W. Taylor and Charles G. Finney (1792-1875), denied the doctrine of the imputation of Adam’s sin and guilt to his posterity E.The Case of Oberlin College 1.Charles Finney was most famous as an innovative revivalist a.who introduced "new measures" or pragmatic methods ①.such as the "anxious bench"

②.and the protracted meeting, to induce individuals to respond to the gospel b.In 1835, he became professor of theology at Oberlin College (Esther 1832) in Ohio, where he remained for the rest of his life ①.He served as the college president from 1851 to 1865

②.    Finney, along with Asa Mahan, Oberlin’s first president, established and popularized the institution as a seedbed of New England Theology

③.Out of the welter of contra­dictory ideas at Oberlin, two distinct theological trends found significant support i.Pragmatism and Perfection­ism 1st.The pragmatic tendency was revealed in Finney’s attitude toward revivals:

01.    "Revival is not a miracle, or dependent on a miracle in any sense.

02.    It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means."

2nd.    He justified the means that he used based on the results he achieved

3rd.If his "new measures" persuaded men to make professions of faith, then they must be legitimate ii.Oberlin Perfectionism⁵ 1st.Taught that man is capable of attaining entire sanctification in this life

2nd.    Charles Hodge, a critic of the view, maintained that the root of this system was the assertion that "every man, in virtue of being a free agent, has plenary ability to fulfill all his obliga­tions."

^3rd.Finney assumed that God cannot justly require a man to do anything he is unable to do, and thus the law is brought down to the level of a man’s ability 4th.if every man can be entirely sanctified, then society itself is also perfectible

01.    Mahan and Finney trained scores of professional evangelists who were noted for their zeal for social reform

02.    This ideal of changing society was most popularly expressed in the work of Charles M. Sheldon (1857-1946)

03.a graduate of Andover Seminary and pastor of the Central Congregational Church in Topeka, Kansas ¨His novel, In His Steps (1896) ¨Which he read chapter by chapter to his congregation ¨presented a method for reforming society through following the ex­ample of Jesus 04.Pragmatism and Pelagian Perfectionism blended naturally into what became the Social Gospel The accompanying chart illustrates the connections New Haven Theology [ The Oberlin Theology d ;

Pragmatism, which placed an ex­treme emphasis on activities, methods, and principles of achieving individual contentment and social reform d What works is true and right d Oberlin Perfectionism, which de­fined all sin as willful (or known) d This Pelagian tendency ignored or denied the inward corruption of the human heart; hence, social reform is attainable d Humanism and the New Theology with its Social Gospel emphasis F.Andover Theological Seminary and the Developing New Theology

G.    In 1807, Congregationalists, under Rev. Jedidiah Morse’s (1761-1826) leadership, established Andover Theological Seminary⁸ in Andover, Massachusetts, as a reaction to the Unitarian takeover of Harvard College.

1.Andover’s original charter explained her purpose: a."to increase the number of learned and able defenders of the Gospel of Christ, as well as of orthodox pious and zealous ministers of the New Testament." b.The school provided great impetus to the Second Great Awakening and to the nineteenth-century foreign missions movement c.While Andover Seminary represented a conservative opposition to Unitarianism, most of her professors, almost from the beginning, expressed various degrees of agree­ment with the Hopkinsian variety of New England Theology d.Leonard Woods (1774-1854)

①.who held the chair of theology from 1808 to 1848; Moses Stuart (1780-1852), who held the professorship of sacred literature from 1810 to 1848 ②.Ebenezer Porter, professor of sacred rhetoric from 1812 to 1832

③.Edwards A. Park (1808-1900), who was professor of sacred rhetoric from 1836 to 1847, and professor of Christian (systematic) theology from 1847 to 1881 i.It was here at Andover in 1844 that Park instituted the famous theological journal, Bibliotheca ii.Both Stuart and Park avoided the doctrine of inerrancy in their writings, iii.many conservatives felt that Park’s theology was too man-centered iv.His famous article, "The Theology of the Intellect and That of the Feelings," led to an open controversy with Charles Hodge of Princeton Seminary