Charles Hodge

Charles Hodge

6 Sermons|2 Images
Charles Hodge (December 27, 1797 – June 19, 1878) was an American preacher, theologian, and educator whose ministry and scholarship solidified him as a towering figure in 19th-century Presbyterianism and Reformed theology. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Hugh Hodge, a surgeon, and Mary Blanchard, he lost his father at six months, leaving his mother to raise him and his brother Hugh Lenox amid financial strain, supported by her brother’s mercantile success. Educated at the College of New Jersey (Princeton, B.A., 1815) and Princeton Theological Seminary (1816–1819), he was ordained in 1821 by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, beginning his preaching career with a pastorate at the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia while teaching at the seminary. Hodge’s ministry flourished as he joined Princeton Seminary’s faculty in 1820, becoming Professor of Oriental and Biblical Literature in 1822 and later Professor of Systematic Theology in 1840, a role he held until his death. His preaching, though less documented in pulpits outside academia, shaped generations through chapel sermons and his editorship of the Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review (1825–1871), defending Old School Presbyterianism against liberalism during the 1837 schism. Author of over 150 articles and seminal works like Systematic Theology (1871–1873)—still a Reformed standard—he preached intellectual rigor and biblical fidelity. Married to Sarah Bache in 1822, with whom he had eight children, and later to Mary Hunter Stockton in 1852 after Sarah’s death, he died at 80 in Princeton, New Jersey, buried in Princeton Cemetery, his influence enduring in theological education and evangelical thought.
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