Reason and Faith in the Theology of Charles Hodge

DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0001 Other Palgrave Pivot Titles

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0001 Reason and Faith in the Theology of Charles Hodge: American Common Sense Realism

Owen Anderson Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies at Arizona State University, USA

All rights reserved. First published in 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN: 978–1–137–36290–2 PDF ISBN: 978–1–349–47473–8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. First edition: 2014 www.palgrave.com/pivot doi: 10.1057/9781137362902

I would like to dedicate this book to Logos Theological Seminary, Phoenix, Az

DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0001

Figure P.1 Charles Hodge

DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0001 Contents

List of Figures ix Preface x Acknowledgments xiii

1 Introduction 1 The theology of Charles Hodge 2 The purpose of this book 4 2 Why Study Charles Hodge? The Problem 8 Overview of Hodge’s life 10 3 Rationalism, Mysticism, Faith, and Reason 20 Variations on knowing God 21 Rationalism and deism 22 Transition from rationalism to pantheism 27 Mysticism 30 Schleiermacher’s mysticism 30 4 Religion and Natural Theology 36 Defining theology and religion 37 Natural theology 39 Reason and faith 47 Hodge and the role of reason 50 5 Clarity, Unbelief, and Inexcusability 57 Faith and inexcusability 58 Philosophy and theology 64 Epistemology, externalism, reason 66 The general mass of mankind 68

DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0001 vii viii Contents

6 Sensus Divinitatis and Proofs for the Knowledge of God 73 Hodge and the sensus divinitatis 74 Intuition and the sensus divinitatis 76 Romans and the sensus divinitatis 79 Knowledge and the sensus divinitatis 80 Content of the sensus divinitatis 81 Laws of our nature and the sensus divinitatis 82 Proofs for the existence of God 86 Hodge’s approach to theistic proofs 87 7 Anti-theism 103 Original monotheism 104 Pantheism 105 Materialism 108 Eastern pantheism 110 Greek pantheism 112 Medieval and Modern pantheism 115 8 The Highest Good 120 The glory of God 121 The knowledge of God 121 The justice of God 122 Insufficiency of general revelation 123 Knowing God and knowing ourselves 125 The beatific vision 125 9 Conclusion 129

Bibliography 134 Index 136

DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0001 List of Figures

P.1 Charles Hodge vi P.2 “A Northwest Prospect of Nassau Hall”, 1807 xiv 1.1 The Princeton Seminary drawing 7 2.1 Image of the plaque outside Nassau Hall 14 2.2 Statue of John Witherspoon 16 2.3 Image of Hodge’s house 18 2.4 Image of the plaque outside Hodge’s house 18 5.1 Image of Princeton faculty 71

DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0002 ix Preface

I have used portions of Milton’s Paradise Lost at the beginning of each chapter. This is not because I endorse his personal theology. Instead, it is because of how he illustrates the conflict between belief and unbelief. His work shows the epic scale of this conflict. Where Homer gave us epics about a battle between Greek city-states and then the voy- age home, and Virgil gave us an epic about the founding of an empire, and Dante an epic about the afterlife, Milton has enlarged the theme to be about the very origin and conflict between good and evil. In his account, evil is not simply evil because there are evil characters. It is not simply evil because it is motivated by envy or pride. Rather, the feelings of envy and pride that motivate the evil characters emerge from each charac- ter’s thinking process. Satan questions whether or not God alone is eternal and suggests that perhaps he and the other angels have also existed from eternity. If so, Satan reasons that they should not have to worship the Son of God. Satan proposes to Eve that perhaps she can be God, and Adam eats because he cannot live with the idea of losing Eve and chooses her over God. All of these situations involve thinking about what has existed from eternity and what is our highest good. Mistaken beliefs about these things are culpable and lead to sinful choices. This illustrates the relationship between our desires (for happiness, glory, praise, relationships, etc.) and our beliefs about what is the highest good. Our thinking about the highest good is itself a reflection of what we believe to be eternal (without beginning).

x DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0003 Preface xi

When we speak about beliefs we are speaking about identifying what is and is not real. Here we can speak about true and false. This study will look at how Charles Hodge understood the knowledge of God and the chief end of man. He is arguably the most influential American Theologian. This is because of his relationship to historic Christianity as expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith. However, we will see that because of assumptions he held about the beatific vision as the highest good, he was limited in his ability to develop the role of the knowledge of God in the Christian life. If the highest good is attained in the afterlife through a direct vision of God, then this raises questions about the purpose of the Christian life and often limits it to a focus on duty (deontology). The Westminster Confession does not affirm that the beatific vision is the chief end of man. Instead, by putting together the answers to questions 1, 46, and 101 of the Shorter Catechism we can see that it affirms that man’s chief end is to glorify God in all that by which He makes Himself known, in all His works of creation and providence. Whereas the doctrine of the beatific vision shifts the knowledge of God to a non- cognitive and mystical state, the Confession affirms that God can be known cognitively through His works, and not directly apart from those works. These competing definitions of the good play a significant role in the theology of Charles Hodge. While he argues that theistic proofs are possible, he downplays their importance and role for the Christian because they become disconnected from the highest good of the beatific vision. His empiricism, deontology, and belief in the beatific vision cre- ate tensions in his systematic theology. In Milton’s account, Satan can and should have known that he has not existed from eternity. Eve should have responded to Satan that she as a creature cannot become an uncreated God. Adam should have responded to Eve that he cannot follow her into sin because he as a creature cannot become an uncreated God and because their relationship is not a higher good than his relationship with God. Each of these illustrates how beliefs inform our desires and our actions. This is a book about the continuation of that epic. It is an epic at the largest level although it plays out in particular persons, institutions, and times. It is a spiritual battle between good and evil, between knowledge and culpable unbelief or ignorance, although it sometimes also becomes a physical battle (our study covers the time periods of both the American Revolution and the Civil War). In order to study the conflict between good and evil we must first accurately define these terms. If the

DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0003 xii Preface highest good (man’s chief end) is a beatific vision in the afterlife then this will hamper all of Hodge’s theology and his thinking about Genesis 1–3, about redemption, and about the relationship between faith and reason. In my previous book, The Clarity of God’s Existence, I studied ways that knowing God is neglected. Both Christians and non-Christians are involved in this neglect. I also studied ways that the clarity of God’s existence is avoided through saying it really isn’t that clear after all, or it is clear in a way that involves circular reasoning such as the sensus divinitatis. I also studied how the clarity of God’s existence is rejected, or suppressed some might say. This is done by bringing up alternative accounts of what has existed from eternity to replace God. In Milton, Satan engages in this suppression when he suggests that perhaps he has always existed. Humans do this when they suggest that perhaps the material world, or their own selves, have existed from eternity. In this book I continue that study. Much of the focus of Christianity in American History has been on soteriology. This is the study of salvation. American Christianity has been concerned with presenting the Gospel so as to save unbelievers. There have arisen divisions about what is called the ordo salutis, the order of salvation. Whether regeneration proceeds conversion is a particularly heated topic between many American denominations. Furthermore, new religious movements emerged claim- ing to have alternative beliefs about what is eternal and the nature of God. Some said God was once a man, that Christ is created and not eternal, others that all is God or mind is God. This book is meant to get at the basic issue behind these kinds of divisions. What can be known of God and how is this knowledge possible? Is the failure to know God culpable ignorance? If it is, then it is inexcusable. This inexcusability permeates our desires and choices, affecting all of life both individually and together as a community and nation. We will study a portion of this epic struggle by looking at a specific theologian and institution. The lessons we learn will be historical but not merely so. Instead, we will learn about the condition of the struggle, victories and defeats in the recent past, and the legacy we have been handed. Was the inexcusability of unbelief shown by the Old School Princetonians? Or, like Eve, are we quickly turned from this truth about God and do we exchange the glory of God for something else because we are not able to respond to the arguments given by those who reject the eternality of God?

DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0003 Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge Arizona State University for the sabbatical leave that allowed me to research and write this book. I would also like to thank the Center for Critical Inquiry and Cultural Studies for providing a grant. Princeton University and Princeton Seminary were very accommodating in providing access to images, archives, and their libraries. Brian Phelps has helped me on previous editing projects and his work on this project is greatly appreciated. There are many persons that have contributed to my thinking about this subject over the years. These include my parents who have encouraged me since my youth in the importance of theology and Christianity. It also includes Surrendra Gangadean. He has been my philosophy teacher and mentor since 1995. As a member of its first class I would like to thank Logos Theological Seminary, to which this book is dedicated, for the past 15 years of my education. In the spiritual preparation needed to witness to the Logos, the Word of God, I realize I have a long way to go. Finally, although my children are young, they are not only an inspiration but also a continual source of questions about basic things. This reminds me that natural theology studies the most basic question that humans can ask.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0004 xiii Figure P.2 Image of Nassau Hall painting. Jonathan Fisher (1768–1847). “A Northwest Prospect of Nassau Hall,” 1807, Oil on Canvas. After engraving by Henry Dawkins. After engraving by William Tennent

DOI: 10.1057/9781137362902.0005