Machen’s Hope: The Transformation of a Modernist in the New Princeton

by Richard E. Burnett

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2024

Overview

The first critical biography of J. Gresham Machen, examining the full arc of his intellectual career

J. Gresham Machen is known as a conservative hero of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy. But was he always so staunchly antimodernist?

In this sweeping new biography, Richard E. Burnett examines the whole of Machen’s life and career—from his early years at Princeton, to his experience in the First World War, to his founding of Westminster Theological Seminary . Burnett pays special attention to topics that have received little attention from biographers, like Machen’s crisis of faith and his support for historical criticism of Scripture.

Incorporating all of Machen’s major works as well as his previously unpublished private correspondence, Burnett crafts a nuanced narrative of Machen’s intellectual journey from enthusiastic modernist to stalwart conservative. Nuanced and thorough, Machen’s Hope will challenge scholars’ assumptions about Machen and his dynamic era.

Key Features

• Crafts a nuanced narrative of Machen’s intellectual journey from enthusiastic modernist to stalwart conservative
• Challenges scholars’ assumptions about Machen and his dynamic era
• Examines the whole of Machen’s life and career

Contents

• Foreword by Mark A. Noll
• Preface
• 1. The Early Life of J. Gresham Machen
• 2. Student Years in Baltimore and Princeton
• 3. Student Year in Germany, 1905–1906
• 4. Inner Doubts and Vocational Struggles
• 5. The Rise of New Princeton and Decline of Old Princeton
• 6. Awakening to a Tremendous Defection
• 7. Scientific Preparation and Centennial Celebration
• 8. The Road to Ordination
• 9. Wars and Rumors of War
• 10. The Battle Lines at Home and Abroad
• 11. The End and Beginning of War
• 12. Conclusion

Product Details

• Title: Machen’s Hope: The Transformation of a Modernist in the New Princeton
• Author: Richard E. Burnett
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2024
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 620
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Machen, J. Gresham (John Gresham), 1881-1937; Presbyterians › United States--Biography; Theologians › United States--Biography; Modernist-fundamentalist controversy
• ISBNs: 9780802883957, 0802883958
• Resource ID: LLS:MCHNSHPNWPRNCTN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-15T22:08:44Z

About Richard E. Burnett

Professor of Systematic Theology, Erskine Theological Seminary.