This study primarily explores the history of evangelical Presbyterianism in America over the past four centuries. The first four chapters provide important background information. These chapters review the rise of Protestantism in the British Isles, the emergence of Puritans and Presbyterians within Stuart England, Presbyterians’ role in the English Civil War, and the impact of the restoration of the monarchy upon Presbyterians in England and Scotland. Subsequent chapters examine the growth of Presbyterians in the middle colonies and southern colonies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the organization of the first national body in 1729, the roles Presbyterians played during the First and Second Great Awakenings, and the Revolutionary War. These chapters play particular attention to how theological commitments informed Presbyterians’ involvement in these events, as well as how they impacted theological beliefs. Subsequent chapters analyze Presbyterians leaders’ involvement in debates over slavery, the Civil War, and church schisms and reunions and their response to Darwinism, immigration, urbanization, and industrialization, and the impact of the German university model of higher education upon American Protestantism. Chapters covering the twentieth century analyze the fundamentalist-modernist controversies, Presbyterian missionary efforts during the first half of the century, debates over women's ordination, the Civil Rights Movement, and changes to the confessional standards of mainline Presbyterian denominations. The final two chapters explore why and how many evangelical Presbyterians left mainline Presbyterian bodies to establish their own denominations, most notably the Presbyterian Church in America, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
The volume offers a panoramic perspective on the history of Presbyterianism in America. Some minor historical errors, however, detract from the volume. For instance, Woodrow Wilson attended but did not graduate from Davidson College. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1879. Wilson also became president of Princeton University in 1902, not 1892.
Unlike many other studies on the subject, this work carefully explains how Presbyterians resisted conforming to the Church of England before, during, and after the English Civil War. It cogently describes how Presbyterians in Scotland secured autonomy from the Church of England and how it came to function as the nation's established church. However, the study devotes little attention to how and why American Presbyterians, most notably those in Virginia, reversed their position on religious establishments and championed religious liberty in the second half of the eighteenth century over against the established Anglican and later Episcopal church. Oddly, the study sometimes repeats an explanation of material in later chapters that it had examined in earlier chapters. For instance, the study introduces the reader to Charles Lyell's concept of uniformitarianism in its examination of Presbyterians’ response to Darwinism in two different chapters (200, 203, and 247). The study also cites two different, though not necessary contradictory, definitions of fundamentalism (249 and 279).
These minor misgivings notwithstanding, Reformed and Evangelical across Four Centuries: The Presbyterian Story in America offers readers an engaging exploration of the history of evangelical Presbyterians in American history. The volume draws upon a rich array of primary sources and constructively interacts with secondary literature. While focusing upon the mainstream Presbyterian churches of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the study does address the history of smaller Presbyterian denominations that have often been overlooked by other studies. The volume also does a fine job of examining those important theological debates that have animated Presbyterians, such as debates over Darwinism, within their larger historical context. The study also explains the theological reasons that led various Presbyterian groups to leave the mainline Presbyterian churches in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The authors avoid a triumphalist tone in their assessment of evangelical Presbyterians, although at a few points in the final chapters they slid over into the hortatory. For these reasons, evangelical Presbyterians will find the study particularly useful and inspiring.
