Thoughtful Christianity

Alvah Hovey and the Problem of Authority within the Context of Nineteenth-Century Northern Baptists

Matthew C. Shrader

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781725289246
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Kirchengeschichte

Baptists in the nineteenth century grew from a small, struggling denomination to the second-largest Protestant denomination in America. They constructed conventions, schools, churches, and benevolent works. American Baptists transformed from cultural outsiders to insiders. Despite this growth in size, organization, and influence, there is surprisingly few attempts to understand them historically. This is even more true for Northern Baptists as opposed to their Southern counterparts, despite the fact that Northern Baptists, in many respects, were the theological leaders of the denomination. This raises questions about what their theology was, what it was rooted in, and how well it could handle the surplus of challenges that nineteenth-century religion threw at it. Chief among these were the challenges toward biblical and theological authority. Perhaps the brightest star of the Northern Baptist constellation, and doubtless the most well-connected, was Alvah Hovey from Newton Theological Institute in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. This book, the first book-length treatment of this Baptist giant since Hovey's son published a biography in 1929, chronicles Hovey's life and career focusing on how he coped with the challenges of biblical criticism and a rapidly changing theological context. Hovey produced a theology he understood as thoughtful Christianity.

1

Introduction

“No one can be familiar with modern discussions about the possibility of knowing God or about the immanence of God—in a word, about thorough-going agnosticism, monism, or idealism—without seeing that these discussions reach to the very heart of religion and morality, or without desiring to contribute something, if possible, to a clear understanding of the truth by thoughtful Christians.”1

The modern discussions to which the above epigraph refers reach further back than the 1892 date when it was penned and could be broadened beyond just knowledge of God to a host of theological, scientific, and social issues. Alec Vidler remarks, “In the nineteenth century there were developments in the natural and mechanical sciences, in the structure of society, and in the study of history, not least of the history which the Bible purports to be occupied, that were revolutionary in their consequences.”2 Theology in the wake of these progressions had to decide if it should follow suit and reconstruct itself according to the predominant trends. “As a result,” states James Livingston, “theology faced a choice of either adjusting itself to the advances in modern science and philosophy and, in so doing, risking accommodation to secularization, or resisting all influences from culture and becoming largely reactionary and ineffectual in meeting the challenges of life in the modern world.”3 As Sydney Ahlstrom succinctly summarizes: “The nineteenth century threw down a veritable gauntlet for the Church.”4

Though historians recognize the importance of the nineteenth century for American religious history, there are still significant historiographical gaps. Writing in 2002 Mark Noll recognized one when he noted that, “The history of the Baptists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is a subject as scandalously neglected as had been, until very recently, the history of early American Methodism.”5 With the American revolution and the subsequent disestablishment of state-sponsored religion in the United States, the character of American theology faced a unique set of circumstances. It is generally understood that American theology influenced and was influenced by American culture. In particular, historians recognize that there was a growing change in religious authority away from institutional or creedal sources toward autonomy. The later nineteenth century saw further challenges face American religion, thus compounding the situation. A conundrum of American Baptist history is the lack of attention despite explosive growth and their centrality to the changing religious scene in the early republic. At the start of the nineteenth century Baptists were a small, struggling denomination. But by 1850 Baptists were the second most numerous of Protestant denominations in America at 750,000 adherents, a number which increased to 4.5 million by 1900.6

Though some has been done to fill Noll’s lacuna, Northern Baptists have received significantly less historical attention than their Southern counterparts.7 A few major Northern figures from the latter part of the eighteenth century and the earlier part of the nineteenth century have been explored, such as Isaac Backus (1724–1806), John Leland (1754–1841), and Francis Wayland (1796–1865).8 Likewise, some historians have studied figures from the latter part of the nineteenth century and earlier part of the twentieth century, such as Augustus Hopkins Strong (1836–1921),9 Adoniram Judson Gordon (1836–1895),10 and Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918).11 Yet, this leaves understudied a significant theological development in the middle part of the century—specifically, the founding of Northern Baptist seminaries (beginning in 1825) and the early theology they produced (the first theology textbook produced was in the 1860s). These early seminary theologians have been almost entirely neglected save for mention in larger historical surveys, a few essays, and a handful of dissertations. The early Baptist seminary professors provide an opportunity to look into the character of Baptist seminary theology during an important and understudied time. What kind of theology was taught in the early Baptist seminaries (having been founded in the context of a unique antebellum American theological scene) and how that theology was fit for the coming challenges of the later nineteenth century (particularly biblical criticism and the proliferation of theological liberalism) have not been adequately addressed.

The story of American Baptist higher education begins in the eighteenth century with the College of Rhode Island (1765), later to become Brown University.12 Baptists continued to develop their theological education in a variety of forms, such as L & T (literary and theological) training schools and manual labor schools.13 It was not until 1825 that Baptists began their first exclusively theological, graduate-level school, Newton Theological Institute, which was eventually joined by five other Baptist seminaries in the nineteenth century.14 And, it was not until after the Civil War that the theologians of these Baptist seminaries began to publish in earnest.

When considering specific theologians, the figure of Alvah Hovey (1820–1903) of Newton Theological Institute occupies an interesting place in this story. This is because of his individual significance and because his career spans from antebellum America to the twentieth century (1849–1903). In a summary essay in a volume on Baptist theolog...