The Fundamentalist-Modernist Conflict in the Presbyterian Church in the 1920S and ’30S, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A

For Church and Country: The Fundamentalist-Modernist Conflict in the Presbyterian Church In the 1920s and ’30s, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. was torn by conflict over the issues of theology and ecclesiology. Underneath those struggles lay profound concerns about the role of Christianity in the culture and how that role was to be expressed. by Bradley J. Longfield THE 1920S AND ’30S WERE NOT HAPPY concepts of all science, except perhaps times for the Presbyterian Church in the mathematics, the American boy of 1854 U.S.A. In those decades, issues that had stood nearer the year 1 than to the year been developing for over half a century 1900.”2 finally erupted in the fundamentalist/mod- On another front, technological innova- ernist conflicts as conservatives and liberals tions in the generation of power, manufac- battled for the soul of the church and, at least turing, transportation, and communications implicitly, for the soul of America. While created unprecedented economic growth these battles were fought primarily over is- and helped America become the leading sues of theology and ecclesiology, the major industrial nation in the world by the turn of protagonists in the struggles were also pro- the century.3 Key entrepreneurs—such as foundly concerned with the role of Chris- Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and tianity in the culture and how that role was Cornelius Vanderbilt—made unprecedented to be expressed. sums of money while millions of laborers, The late nineteenth century witnessed a many of them women and children, worked revolution in social, religious, and intellec- sixty and seventy hours a week for minimum tual arenas that transformed the face of wages. The economic revolution contrib- America. Darwin’s evolutionary hypothesis uted to equally revolutionary social transfor- challenged the biblical account of creation mation. By 1920 America, which at the and the traditional understanding of the provi- close of the Civil War had been an over- dence of God. The rise of historical criticism whelmingly rural nation, had become a pre- led to the questioning of the Mosaic author- dominantly urban country, with over half of ship of the Pentateuch, the dating of Daniel, all Americans living in cities. Pittsburgh, and the historical accuracy of significant Chicago, and New York skyrocketed in popu- portions of the Bible.1 Likewise, the rise of lation in the closing decades of the nine- the social sciences, such as anthropology, teenth century as the sense of accountability sociology, and comparative religions, ques- and community in rural America gave way tioned dearly held notions about absolute to the heterogeneity and anonymity of the truth. In 1918 Henry Adams summarized the city.4 vast changes in the intellectual world, claim- The rise of the metropolis was spurred ing, “In essentials like religion, ethics, phi- not simply by migration from the country to losophy; in history, literature and art; in the the city but also by rapid immigration from Dr. Longfield is Dean and Professor of Church History at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa. Journal of Presbyterian History 78:1 (Spring 2000) 36 Journal of Presbyterian History abroad in the years after Appomattox. By tations of the faith, others developed more 1900 foreign immigrants and their children conservative responses. The publication of a comprised over one-third of America’s popu- series of booklets entitled The Fundamentals lation. After the turn of the century, the pace from 1910 to 1915 embodied this conserva- of immigration climbed even higher as tive movement. Financed by California oil people from southern and eastern Europe magnates Lyman and Milton Stewart, the spilled onto America’s shores. Different lan- essays addressed such topics as scriptural guages, religions, and features distinguished authority, sin, salvation, the virgin birth, this wave of immigrants from the mass of missions, and Sabbatarianism. The works, Americans and accelerated nativist trends.5 which included articles by Robert Speer and Industrialization, urbanization, and im- Charles Erdman, two Presbyterians who migration combined with changes in the would play a major role in the Presbyterian intellectual world to encourage the secular- conflicts of the 1920s, were more important ization of American culture. Though the for their symbolic value than their construc- major Protestant denominations tripled in tive contributions.8 As historian George membership from 1860 to 1900 (from five to Marsden has argued, when the term funda- sixteen million), religion was having a smaller mentalism was coined in 1920, “it called to and smaller impact on large arenas of Ameri- mind the broad, united front of the kind of can life. Outings, ball games, and Sunday opposition to modernism that characterized theater inspired an increasing apathy to at- these widely known, if little studied, vol- tendance at Sunday worship. Likewise, the umes.”9 advent of the Sunday newspaper, growing In the Presbyterian Church, developments use of a seven-day work week, a rise in travel in the late nineteenth century set the stage by rail on Sunday, and the establishment of for the conflicts that would wrack the church country clubs all demonstrated a move away in the 1920s and ’30s. As higher critical from traditional Protestant values.6 views of the scriptures threatened the tradi- In response to these changes the New tional Presbyterian notion of the Bible as the Theology, later known as liberalism or mod- infallible rule of faith and practice, Presbyte- ernism, was born. Drawing on the earlier rians, especially at Princeton Seminary, re- traditions of Transcendentalism, Unitarian- sponded with a doctrine of scriptural iner- ism, and the evangelicalism of Horace rancy. The Princeton Theology, grounded in Bushnell, the New Theology sought to rec- the philosophy of Scottish Common Sense oncile the old faith with the results of higher Realism and the theology of the Westminster criticism and evolutionary thought. Popu- Confession, held that the Bible was truthful larized by the likes of Henry Ward Beecher in all it reported. As Archibald Alexander and systematized by William Newton Clarke Hodge and Benjamin B. Warfield articu- and William Adams Brown, liberalism, by lated this view, “the Scriptures not only 1900, had become a major force in Ameri- contain, but ARE THE WORD OF GOD, and can mainline Protestantism. Liberalism, while hence that all their elements and all their a diverse movement, came to emphasize the affirmations are absolutely errorless, and immanence of God, the goodness of human- binding the faith and obedience of men.”10 ity, a moral interpretation of the atonement, While many Presbyterians agreed whole- and the importance of experience and ethics heartedly with Hodge and Warfield, others, in religion. Since evolution was equated most notably Charles A. Briggs of Union with progress in the liberal worldview, liber- Seminary in New York, looked on this doc- als had an optimistic view of history and trine of inerrancy with disbelief. Charles looked for the advent of the Kingdom of God Briggs was, in the late nineteenth century, on earth.7 the foremost biblical scholar in the nation. In While some Christians tried to make the 1880s he had cooperated with A. A. peace with modernity through liberal adap- Hodge to edit the Presbyterian Review but The Fundamentalist-Modernist Conflict 37 editorial disagreements finally led to the port from these former members of the journal’s demise.11 Tensions between Briggs Cumberland communion.18 and the Princeton theologians came to a Finally, in 1910 and 1916 the General head in 1891 when Briggs, upon his induc- Assembly of the church, distressed by the tion into the chair of Biblical studies at liberal theological tendencies of some min- Union, delivered an inaugural address that isterial candidates, declared that all candi- claimed that “there are errors in the Scrip- dates for ordination ought to be able to tures that no one has been able to explain affirm the inerrancy of scripture and the away.” He went on to deny the Mosaic virgin birth, substitutionary atonement, authorship of the Pentateuch and the unitary miracle-working power, and bodily resur- authorship of the book of Isaiah.12 rection of Christ.19 While supporters insisted In response, a number of presbyteries that these doctrines (known as the “five overtured the General Assembly to address fundamentals”) did not exhaust the Reformed Briggs’s heretical statements and the Assem- system of doctrine, they did give conserva- bly vetoed Briggs’s appointment to Union tives a quick means to test the orthodoxy of Seminary.13 The 1892 General Assembly, in candidates as they sought ordination. a statement that came to be known as the By the second decade of the century, Portland Deliverance, specifically endorsed then, the Presbyterian Church found itself the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. Finally, in poised on the brink of major conflict. Liber- 1893 the General Assembly suspended Briggs als and conservatives had been sparring for from the Presbyterian ministry for propagat- years and conservatives had won major vic- ing “views, doctrines, and teachings” con- tories in the expulsions of Charles Briggs and trary to the doctrine of Holy Scripture and in Henry Preserved Smith, and the adoption of violation of his ordination vows.14 Lane Semi- the Portland Deliverance and the five funda- nary Professor Henry Preserved Smith also mentals. On the other side, liberals had been lost his ministerial status for defending Briggs emboldened by the Cumberland reunion and his view of Scripture. In no uncertain and were becoming increasingly assertive in terms the Presbyterian Church had placed their demands. In the years before World itself on the side of biblical inerrancy.15 As War I theological moderates in the church William Weston recently concluded, “the helped keep the peace. But the cultural crisis 1890s [were] a very successful decade for that swept the nation in the wake of World the conservatives.”16 War I brought these tensions to a boil.

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