Bücher von John Williamson Nevin

These essays by John Nevin, theologian of Mercersburg Theology, are united by two primary themes: Part 1 documents Nevin's noteworthy and innovative application of idealist philosophy to Reformed theology in antebellum America. American Christians largely rejected any inherited philosophical discipline or categories, claiming the right to invent moral and religious reality without attention to Christian tradition. The paradoxical result was authoritarian rationalism: religious doctrines imitated scientific reasoning (""common-sense"" philosophy) but were imposed by ecclesiastical fiat. In contrast, Nevin summoned his fellow theologians to pay fresh attention to the Idea: the rational unpacking of transcendent truths in being, moral right, and revelation. Part 2 then documents his criticism of the predominant Christian alternatives in the mid-nineteenth century. Such alternatives were deeply flawed, Nevin thought, as they necessitated that supernatural reality be experienced through an external authority demanding assent and obedience--the pope, a body of bishops, an authoritative Bible. But for Nevin, ""supernature"" is Jesus Christ himself who generates and sustains the reality of which the church speaks. Thus the highest Idea was Jesus Christ, now incarnate in the history and sacramental and liturgical life of the church.

The Mystical Presence (1846), John Williamson Nevin's magnum opus, was an attempt to combat the sectarianism and subjectivism of nineteenth-century American religion by recovering the robust sacramental and incarnational theology of the Protestant Reformation, enriched with the categories of German idealism. In it, he makes the historical case for the spiritual real presence as the authentic Reformed doctrine of the Eucharist, and explains the theological and philosophical context that render the doctrine intelligible. The 1850 article ""The Doctrine of the Reformed Church on the Lord's Supper"" represents his response to his arch critic, Charles Hodge of Princeton Seminary, providing what is still considered a definitive historical treatment of Reformed eucharistic theology. Both texts demonstrate Nevin's immense erudition and theological creativity, contributing to our understanding not only of Reformed theology, but also of the unique milieu of nineteenth-century American religion. The present critical edition carefully preserves the original text, while providing extensive introductions, annotations, and bibliography to orient the modern reader and facilitate further scholarship. The Mercersburg Theology Study Series is an attempt to make available for the first time--in attractive, readable, and scholarly modern editions--the key writings of the nineteenth-century movement known as the Mercersburg Theology. An ambitious multi-year project, this aims to make an important contribution to the academic community and to the broader reading public, who may at last be properly introduced to this unique blend of American and European, Reformed and Catholic theology.

The Incarnate Word contains a selection of the key writings on the doctrines of Christology produced by the theologians of Mercersburg Seminary during the middle of the nineteenth century. Despite the seminary's small stature and marginal position within American religious life, these texts represent some of the most profound wrestlings with the doctrine of the person of Christ that appeared in antebellum America, engaging the latest in German theological scholarship as well as the riches of the Christian tradition. As such, they command more than mere historical interest, providing rich conversation partners for contemporary debates in Reformed Christology, and anticipating the insights of such key twentieth-century theologians as T. F. Torrance. The present critical edition carefully preserves the original texts, while providing extensive introductions, annotations, and bibliography to orient the modern reader and facilitate further scholarship.The Mercersburg Theology Study Series is an attempt to make available for the first time, in attractive, readable, and scholarly modern editions, the key writings of the nineteenth-century movement known as the Mercersburg Theology. An ambitious multi-year project, this aims to make an important contribution to the scholarly community and to the broader reading public, who can at last be properly introduced to this unique blend of American and European, Reformed and catholic theology.