A Genetic History of New England Theology

Routledge Revivals A Genetic History of the New England Theology First published in 1907, this text provides a scientiﬁc treatment of New England theology and American dogmatic history. Frank Hugh Foster analyses the eighteenth-century rise of the school of New Eng- land theology, which became the dominant school of thought in New England congregationalism and, as argued by Foster, a ‘world phe- nomenon’. The chapters arise from readings of the various dis- tinguished views of such contemporaries as Jonathan Edwards, Joseph Bellamy and Samuel Hopkins, placing them within the historical and theological context in which they developed. A fascinating and detailed title, this reissue will be of value to students of theology and Church history with a particular interest in the development of Amer- ican religious thought. This page intentionally left blank A Genetic History of the New England Theology Frank Hugh Foster First published in 1907 by University of Chicago Press Reprinted in 1987 by Garland Publishing, Inc. This edition ﬁrst published in 2015 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1907 Frank Hugh Foster All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact. A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 87011844 ISBN 13: 978-1-138-81539-1 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-1-315-74668-5 (ebk) A Genetic History of the New England Theology I Frank Hugh Foster Garland Publishing, Inc. New York & London 1 9 8 7 For a complete list of the titles in this series, see the final pages of this volume. This facsimile has been made from a copy in the Yale University Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Foster, Frank Hugh, 1851-1935. A genetic history of the New England theology. (American religious thought of the 18th and 19th centuries) Reprint. Originally published: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1907. Includes index. 1. New England theology. I. Title. II. Series. BX7250.F7 1987 230'.0974 87-11844 ISBN 0-8240-6956-0 (alk. paper) The volumes in this series are printed on acid-free, 250-year-life paper. Printed in the United States of America A Genetic History of the New England Theology BJ FRANK HUGH FOSTER Author of Tit Fmimunu! Ueai ° f (it Rcmm Cstktlit Ckurek Chriuim lift m i Tittltfj Etc. CHICAGO THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 1907 ComiGHT 1907 Bt T n UmvsBsiTT or Chicago Printed February 1907 vOPpONQ IN rnMM WJ The Vafcrcrsky o f Chicago Ptoaa CMcago, IlMMto. U . S. A . PREFACE The following work— suggested by the professional obli gations of a professor of church history; continued and at last completed under a sense of pious duty toward the great men who toiled to hand down to their posterity an undi minished and perfected system of doctrinal truth; neces sarily the fruit of long labors, interrupted by other engage ments, but resumed and completed when opportunity has offered— is now presented to the public It has been written directly from the sources. The selection of material has been determined by the purpose to write a genetic history, and not a mere record of opinions, however interesting they might be in themselves. By the aid of great libraries, above all that of Harvard University, from which I have received hundreds of tracts for examination, but also of that in the Congregational House, of the Massachusetts His torical Society, the Athenaeum, the Boston Public Library, and the libraries in Union Theological Seminary, New York, in Oberlin and Olivet Colleges, and in Andover and Pacific Theological Seminaries, it has been possible to examine all the important sources. Acknowledgments are hereby made to the publishers of the American Journal of Theology and of the Bibliotheca Sacra for permission to use matter which had already appeared in their pages. There have been no predecessors in this particular line of study of our theology from whom I could draw; but I take the opportunity to acknowledge my indebtedness to the late Professors Gottfried Thomasius, of Erlangen, for my conception of historical method, and Edwards A. Park, of Andover, for much help of a historical character, both personal and through his historical writings, as well as for vi PREFACE the dogmatic point of view of the whole period. Professor George P. Fisher has afforded a splendid example of scientific treatment of our theology in his historical articles, by which he became the pioneer and unsurpassed chief of American dogmatic history. And to ease and success in discovering and handling the vast apparatus which has passed under my eye, the marvelous bibliography of the great historian of Congregational polity, Dr. Henry M. Dexter, has contributed indispensable aid. Some consider able additions to Dr. Dexter’s lists will be found in the notes to the following text Descendant of Puritan and Pilgrim as I am, bom and baptized in one of our most ancient Massachusetts churches, trained at our oldest university, and taught my profession at the center of intensest interest in “the New England theology,” it would be strange if I had not begun this history with a feeling of the warmest appreciation of our New Eng land Fathers and a conviction that they had originated a school destined, under whatever changes, to the exercise of a long-extended influence. These sentiments are reflected upon the earlier pages of the book in many a phrase which I have left standing. With the progress of the work my point of view and my feeling haye changed together. The final historical review of the whole period has made me a critic of the school and its work, and led me to the per ception of a fact that was long hidden from me— that it was not without reason that a strong reaction set in against this theology about the year 1880. I find myself no longer reckonable to its adherents. But all the more does it seem to me important to learn from this great movement the lessons it has to teach the present time and all the future, to appropriate its good and to avoid its evil. And, certainly, no American theological scholar can claim to understand the course of religious thought among us, who has not PREFACE vii made himself familiar with this greatest indigenous school of American theology. The chief peculiarity of the style of the book is the large use made of quotation from the authors discussed. My object has been, not merely to secure thereby the true objec tivity of the report I have given, but also, in the certainty that very few of my readers will have access to the originals, to give them an acquaintance at first hand, though brief, with these pioneers and fathers of our theology. So I send out the book; and to the historian’s com mendation I add the dogmatician’s exhortation: Prove all things; hold fast that which is true. F. H. F. This page intentionally left blank TABLE OF CONTENTS r«oi THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Introduction ............................................................................................. 3 Rise of a school of theology in southwestern New England. Influ ence upon America. Place in the course of the world’s thought A result of life. Pursued the same cycle as other movements else where. A homogeneous school. A microcosm. The history to be genetic. General view. C hapter I. The First Century in New England, 1620-1720 . 12 John Robinson. Harmony with the common Calvinism of his day. The Puritans. William Pynchon’s book. Norton’s reply. Pyn- chon’s rejoinder. Essentially a protest, not constructive. Systems of divinity in these early days. Anne Hutchinson. Her exaggera tions of Calvinism. Confusion upon the nature of faith. Degenera tion of the churches. Depressing preaching. The doctrine of inability to repent. Half-Way Covenant. Further decline. Solo mon Stoddard and the Lord’s Supper. Unconverted ministry. JONATHAN EDWARDS C hapter II. Edwards’ Earlier Labors..................................... ...... 47 Edwards the man for his times. Early intellectual history. His Calvinism. Personal qualifications for the problem before him. Beginning of his ministry. Boston sermon in 1731. Sermons on Justification in 1734. Edwards’ conception of his task. Holds to inability. Treatise on the Religious Affections. Witness of the Spirit. Place of Christian Experience. Qualifications for Com munion. C hapter III. The Treatise on the Freedom of the Will . 62 Edwards’ view of the fundamental difficulty of the times. His start ing-point in the treatment of the will. Was the motive an efficient cause? Division of the faculties of the mind. Whitby and his theory of the will. Edwards’ reply. Relation to Locke. Substance of Edwards’ work. Edwards’ meaning. Necessity. Ability. Lib erty. The rcductio ad absurdum. Criticism. Service of the work. Origin of evil. Edwards’ place in the history of this doctrine. C hapter IV. Edwards’ Remaining Metaphysical Treatises . 82 John Taylor’s Doctrine 0} O riginal S in . Good features of the work. Its true meaning. Various replies to Taylor. Edwards’ reply. The ix X CONTENTS PACK argument.

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