The Early Creeds: The Mercersburg Theologians Appropriate the Creedal Heritage
Ebook
Overview
This volume is a collection of essays on the early creeds by John Nevin and Philip Schaff, the two principal representatives of the Mercersburg Theology that was birthed in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania. It also contains a critical response by John Proudfit, a more traditionally scholastic Calvinist. In these essays Nevin and Schaff argued that the early creeds provide an indispensable lens through which the Bible should be interpreted and an essential bond to preserve the unity of the church through the centuries. According to these Mercersburg theologians the liturgical and confessional use of the early creeds is crucial for shaping the identity of Christians and mediating the life of Christ to believers. Nevin and Schaff’s enthusiasm for the creeds was a function of their understanding of Christianity as an evolving tradition, the Christian life as growth in Christ-likeness, the church as the nurturing body of Christ, and the sacraments as conduits of Christ’s vivifying personhood. These convictions stood in sharp contrast to the a-creedal sensibilities of most nineteenth-century American Protestants who emphasized the sufficiency of Scripture alone, the church as a gathered community of like-minded individuals, dramatic conversion experiences, and the direct presence of Christ to the individual soul.
“In these writings, John Williamson Nevin and Philip Schaff
develop their conviction that the foundation of the catholic and
ecumenical Christian tradition is to be found in the Apostles’
Creed, which expresses the transforming presence of the triune God
in the continuing incarnation of the Son of God in the church. The
editors do an exemplary job of placing these texts in their
theological and cultural contexts. These writings are essential for
an understanding of Mercersburg theology.”
—Randall C. Zachman, Professor Emeritus of Reformation Studies,
University of Notre Dame
“Nevin’s and Schaff’s articles championing the early creeds provide
a fascinating window into the entire range of their ‘catholic and
Reformed’ theology. Best of all, their spirited debates with
then-dominant American ‘Puritan’ ‘anti-creed’ Protestant views
anticipate, as the editors rightly note, continuing issues in
contemporary American constructive theology. Brilliantly edited,
with immensely helpful historical footnotes, this volume is a gift
for anyone concerned with recovering the centrality of the early
creeds for Christian confession.”
—David J. Gouwens, Professor Emeritus of Theology, Brite Divinity
School
“In this important volume, Professors Yrigoyen and Barrett
carefully introduce and annotate key writings by Nevin and Schaff.
The Apostles’ Creed emerges here as the hermeneutical lens through
which the Mercersburg theologians read Scripture—anchored in an
understanding of incarnation as the crucial work of Christ (in
contrast to prevailing theories of atonement) and shaped by social
practices and communal language (instead of immediate experience).
Contemporary religious debates will be enhanced through engagement
with these writings.”
—Theodore Louis Trost, Professor of Religious Studies, University
of Alabama
“Church debates are worth revisiting only if something crucial is
at stake. Nevin and Schaff used a debate regarding the creeds to
affirm that Christianity is about the incarnation and new life in
Christ and the Spirit, in contrast to thinking that we believe as
solitary individuals cut off from the community of Christ,
sacraments, and tradition. That makes the book worth reading. The
introductions are an added bonus.”
—Peter Schmiechen, Professor of Theology and President Emeritus,
Lancaster Seminary
“This most welcome addition to The Mercersburg Theology Study
Series brings together for a twenty-first-century audience seminal
and incisive documents from the Mercersburg efforts to appropriate
the great creedal heritage of the church for their own
nineteenth-century context. Lucidly and carefully edited by Charles
Yrigoyen and Lee Barrett, the volume also serves as a fitting
capstone to Yrigoyen’s many significant contributions to
Mercersburg studies. It will be of interest to those concerned with
the perennial questions of religious authority, theological
hermeneutics, and the relationship of the individual and the
corporate in Christianity.”
—William B. Evans, Younts Professor of Bible and Religion, Erskine
College, and author of A Companion to the Mercersburg
Theology
- Title: The Early Creeds: The Mercersburg Theologians Appropriate the Creedal Heritage
- Authors: John Williamson Nevin, Philip Schaff, John Williams Proudfit, Charles Yrigoyen Jr., III Lee C. Barrett
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2020
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781532697937, 1532697937
- Resource ID: LLS:9781532697937
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-10-23T08:50:53Z
Authors:
John Williamson Nevin (1803–1886) was an innovative and
controversial American theologian. Although reared in
Presbyterianism, Nevin became the premier exponent of the
“Mercersburg Theology” of the German Reformed Church. He promoted a
view of Christianity as evolving, focused on the Incarnation, and
centered in the sacraments.
Philip Schaff (1819–1893) was a German emigré who taught theology
and church history at Mercersburg Seminary and Union Theological
Seminary, New York. In the United States he pioneered the study of
the history of Christianity and was a progenitor of the ecumenical
movement.
John Williams Proudfit (1803–1870) was a classicist and ecclesial
historian who taught at New York University and New Brunswick
Seminary. His more bibiliocentric Reformed theology motivated him
to passionately and caustically critique Nevin’s work.
Editors:
Charles Yrigoyen Jr., a prominent pastor, teacher, and scholar, has
written numerous books and articles on the history of Methodism and
on the Mercersburg Theology. He has coedited two volumes of the
highlights of the Mercersburg Theology: Catholic and Reformed:
Selected Theological Writings of John Williamson Nevin, and
Reformed and Catholic: Selected Theological Writings of Philip
Schaff.
Lee C. Barrett is a professor of theology at Lancaster Theological
Seminary. He has authored several books and articles interpreting
the writings of Søren Kierkegaard and is a coeditor of the
Mercersburg Theology Study Series.