John Williamson Nevin: High Church Calvinist (American Reformed Biographies) - Hardcover

Hart, Darryl G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0875526624 ISBN 13: 9780875526621

Publisher: P&R Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

This biography, written by a provocative, prolific historian, gives readers insights into Nevin's critique of the revivalist tradition and shows how it applies today. Hart recovers a nearly forgotten nineteenth-century theologian and demonstrates his ongoing relevance. This book is extensively documented, and includes a substantial bibliographical essay and an index. Nevin (1803—1886) taught at Mercersburg Seminary when he wrote The Anxious Bench (1843) and The Mystical Presence (1846), volumes dealing with revivalism and the Lord's Supper, respectively. The last ten years have seen a revival of interest in this theologian, who was a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and who substituted for Hodge during his two-year study-leave in Europe.

About this title

About the Author

D. G. Hart studied American history at the Johns Hopkins University and has served as Director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College and Academic Dean and Professor of Church History at Westminster Seminary in California. He is currently Visiting Professor of History at Hillsdale College. His books include Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism (1994); The Lost Soul of American Protestantism (2002); With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship (2002); John Williamson Nevin: High Church Calvinist (2005); and A Secular Faith: Why Christianity Favors the Separation of Church and State (2006).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

(Introduction) John Williamson Nevin should matter to American Presbyterians and Reformed Christians more than he does. For starters, he has Princeton Theological Seminary's seal of approval, having graduated from the young school in 1826. So impressive was Nevin as a seminarian that when Charles Hodge, who was a classmate of Nevin, went to Germany for further study, Nevin filled in for the third professor of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.'s first theological seminary. In addition to teaching at Princeton, Nevin trained Presbyterian ministers in the fine points of exegesis and Calvinism at Western Theological Seminary, an institution established in 1825 to serve the presbyteries of western Pennsylvania and Ohio, a region of Presbyterian vitality comparable to the vicinity of Philadelphia and Princeton. In 1840 Nevin advanced to his third teaching post. He assumed instructional duties at Mercersburg Theological Seminary, a school located in Central Pennsylvania close to the Nevin family's home.

About this edition

• Publisher: P&R Publishing
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0875526624
• ISBN 13: 9780875526621
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272