Princeton theologians

The Princeton theology is a tradition of conservative, Christian, Reformed and Presbyterian theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The appellation has special reference to certain theologians, from Archibald Alexander to B.B. Warfield, and their particular blend of teaching, which together with its Old School Presbyterian Calvinist orthodoxy sought to express a warm Evangelicalism and a high standard of scholarship. W. Andrew Hoffecker argues that they strove to "maintain a balance between the intellectual and affective elements in the Christian faith." [W. Andrew Hoffecker, "Piety and the Princeton Theologians" (Nutley: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1981), v.]

By extension, the Princeton theologians include those predecessors of Princeton Theological Seminary who prepared the groundwork of that theological tradition, and the successors who tried, and failed, to preserve the seminary against the inroads of a program to better conform that graduate school to "Broad Evangelicalism", which was imposed upon it through the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

Predecessors

* William Tennent, Sr. (Log College)
* Gilbert Tennent (College of New Jersey)
* William Tennent, Jr. (College of New Jersey)
* Jonathan Edwards (Princeton University)

The Princeton theology

* Archibald Alexander
* Charles Hodge
* A. A. Hodge
* B. B. Warfield

Mark Noll sees the "grand motifs" of the Princeton theology as being

Devotion to the Bible,concern for religious experience, sensitivity to the American experience, and full employment of Presbyterian confessions, seventeenth-century Reformed systematicians, and the Scottish philosophy of Common Sense. [Mark A. Noll, "The Princeton Theology 1812 – 1921" (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001), 13.]

uccessors

* Geerhardus Vos (Princeton)
* J. Gresham Machen (Princeton/Westminster)
* Cornelius Van Til (Princeton/Westminster)
* Oswald T. Allis (Princeton/Westminster)
* Robert Dick Wilson (Princeton/Westminster)
* John Murray (Westminster)

Of these, only Machen and Wilson represented the American Presbyterian tradition that was directly influenced by the Princeton theology. Vos and Van Til were Dutch Reformed. Murray was a Scot, but a student under Machen at Princeton who later followed him to Westminster Theological Seminary. Murray and Van Til were both ministers in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

References