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Chapter 16: later theology
American theology since the
Civil War represents an age of transition, of much fortunate silence, of expectant waiting, as on a threshold.
But there are one or two sturdy souls, like
William G. T. Shedd (1820-94) and
Charles Hodge (1797-1878), who gathered up the olden time with a disdain of the new. Yet perhaps disdain is scarcely the word to associate with
Charles Hodge.
His three huge volumes on
Systematic theology (1873) are found now mostly in public libraries and in the attic chambers of aging parsons.
Theology is out of vogue, and his volumes represent a system which is less and less widely held as the years go by. But
Charles Hodge had a genuine religious experience.
Disdain certainly fades from the lips of any tolerant modern man as he browses in these books.
The table of contents is schematical, wooden.
The first volume, after an introduction, deals with ‘Theology Proper,’ the second volume is devoted to ‘Anthropology,’ and the third is divided between ‘Soteriology’ and ‘Eschatology.’
But though ‘Evolution’ is in the air—and indeed in the first Volume—there is no apologetic explanation of the division.
Hodge is not ashamed of the tenets of past ages.
He does not write for the public but to the public.
But he writes with transparent sincerity.
There is no evasion.
There is neither condescension nor cringing.
There is nothing left at loose ends.
There is no sparing of thought.
His weighty opponents are fairly treated and his words are devoid of sarcasm—the weapon of conscious and obtrusive superiority.
He does not pretend to understand God nor those who seem to him to claim that they do. He only claims to apprehend the Word of God.
In his introduction he reaches, on what he regards as rational
