Old School–New School controversy: Difference between revisions

Throughout the 18th century, [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] ideas of the power of reason and free will became widespread among Congregationalist ministers, putting those ministers and their congregations in tension with more traditionalist, [[Calvinist]] parties.<ref name=Dorrien>{{cite book|last1=Dorrien|first1=Gary|title=The Making of American Liberal Theology|date=2001|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|location=Louisville, Ky.|isbn=9780664223540|page=195|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kbJzVH7DOc4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Gary+J.+Dorrien%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiA16eTipfKAhVLFT4KHTvZDroQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=age%20of%20enlightenment&f=false|accessdate=7 January 2016}}</ref>{{rp|1–4}} When the [[Harvard Divinity School]] [[Hollis Chair of Divinity|Hollis Professor of Divinity]] [[David Tappan]] died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, the overseer of the college [[Jedidiah Morse]] demanded that orthodox men be elected.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Balmer|first1=Randall|title=The Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism|date=2001|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|location=Louisville, KY|isbn=9780664224097|page=393|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=syUupeVJOz4C&pg=PA393&lpg=PA393&dq=jedidiah+morse+and+harvard&source=bl&ots=AKKCdW7umf&sig=FcsTWPQ9J6mkjqXOKw4qsz4_L0M&hl=en&ei=wftdTdaAIcv2gAen9qTVDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CDwQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q&f=false|accessdate=7 January 2016}}</ref> Nevertheless, after much struggle the Unitarian [[Henry Ware (Unitarian)|Henry Ware]] was elected in 1805, which signaled the changing of the tide from the dominance of traditional, [[Calvinist]] ideas at Harvard to the dominance, of liberal, [[Arminianism|Arminian]] ideas (defined by traditionalists as [[Unitarian-Universalism|Unitarian]] ideas).<ref name=Dorrien/>{{rp|4–5}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Field|first1=Peter S.|title=Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Making of a Democratic Intellectual|date=2003|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|location=Lewiston, NY|isbn=9780847688425|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HXHbEWJacwwC|accessdate=7 January 2016|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|24}} The appointment of Ware, with the election of the liberal [[Samuel Webber]] to the presidency of Harvard two years later, led Jedidiah Morse and other conservatives to found the [[Andover Theological Seminary]] as an orthodox, trinitarian alternative to the Harvard Divinity School.<ref name=Dorrien/>{{rp|4–5}}

In the 1820s, [[Nathaniel William Taylor]], (appointed Professor of Didactic Theology at [[Yale Divinity School]] in 1822), was the leading figure behind a smaller strand of Edwardsian Calvinism which came to be called [[New England theology|"the New Haven theology"]]. Taylor developed Edwardsian Calvinism further, interpreting regeneration in ways he thought consistent with Edwards and his New England followers and appropriate for the work of revivalism, and used his influence to publicly support the revivalist movement and defend its beliefs and practices against opponents. The Old School rejected this idea as heresy, suspicious as they were of all New School revivalism.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Samuel S. Hill|author2=Charles H. Lippy|author3=Charles Reagan Wilson|title=Encyclopedia Of Religion In The South|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yx2EarrpKGUC&pg=PA573|date=30 October 2005|publisher=Mercer University Press|page=573|isbn=9780865547582}}</ref>

This 1837 event left two separate organizations, the Old School Presbyterians, and the New School Presbyterians. Generally speaking, the Old School was attractive to the more recent [[Scotch-Irish American|Scotch Irish]] element, while the New School appealed to more established [[Yankee]]s (who by agreement became Presbyterians instead of Congregationalists when they left New England).<ref>{{cite book|author1=Randall Herbert Balmer|author2=John R. Fitzmier|title=The Presbyterians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BQpN_G2h4TEC&pg=PA66|year=1993|publisher=Greenwood|pages=66–67|isbn=9780313260841}}</ref>

Schools associated with the Old School included [[Princeton Divinity School]] and [[Andover Theological Seminary]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dorrien|first1=Gary|title=The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion 1805 - 1900 Volume 1|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|location=Louisville & London|isbn=0-664-22354-0|pages=114–118|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L50mveyi6WoC&lpg=PA114&ots=mtWIt8LAyX&dq=New%20Divinity%20%22new%20school%22&pg=PA114#v=onepage&q=New%20Divinity%20%22new%20school%22&f=false|accessdate=6 October 2016|year=2001}}</ref>

* {{Citation|last= Longfield |first= Bradley J. | title = Presbyterians and American Culture: A History | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wDdybyrOc-IC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false |year= 2013 | publisher= Westminster Johh Knox Press | location = Louisville, Kentucky | accessdate = 2015-11-04|isbn= 9780664231569 }}.

* {{Citation| last = Thompson | first = Robert Ellis | title = A History of the Presbyterian Churches in the United States |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Bas8AAAAYAAJ&dq=A+History+of+the+Presbyterian+Churches+in+the+United+States&source=gbs_navlinks_s | year = 1895 | publisher = The Christian Literature Company | location =}}.