03_modern_0207_oldPrinceton

The old Princetonians, including Archibald Alexander and Charles Hodge, defended the Protestant view of inspiration. Hodge used contemporary philosophies like Francis Bacon's scientific method and Thomas Reid's common-sense realism in his theology. He derived his doctrine of inspiration from the Bible and Protestant tradition. Charles Hodge later wrote against Darwin's theory of evolution and the Catholic Church's claims. His son, A. A. Hodge, and colleague B. B. Warfield wrote an article in 1881 defending the inspiration of every word in the Bible. Warfield became the greatest of the old Princetonians in articulating a systematic theology of scripture. Let's say a word about the old Princetonians more generally before we zoom in on B. B. Warfield. Archibald Alexander, a contemporary of Schleiermacher, founded Princeton in the early 1800s. He defended the Protestant view of inspiration, but his protégé, Charles Hodge, wrote extensively on the doctrine of scripture and specifically dealt with Schleiermacher. Because he believed so strongly in inspiration, this allowed him to extend two contemporary philosophies of his day to his method of theology. These were, one, the scientific method of Francis Bacon, and two, a type of epistemology called common-sense realism associated with the Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid. As a result, his hermeneutic was extremely hopeful on the ability to construct meaningful, truthful propositions from a scientific study of the scriptures. But do notice that these contemporary philosophies were not how he derived his doctrine of inspiration, rather he derived that from the Bible's own testimony and from the earlier Protestant tradition. It was his doctrine of scripture that enabled him to extend and use those contemporary philosophies. When Charles Hodge was about six years old, in 1859, Darwin's Origin of Species was published, and ten years after that, the Catholic Church's Vatican I declared that the Pope speaks infallibly when he speaks ex cathedra. So at the end of his life, Charles Hodge wrote against both of those. He pointed out the problem of having two sources of authority, one the Church, one the Bible, and he counted a lot more of the Catholic claims about scripture. He also defended inerrancy against evolution, but he was old at this point. So it was in that context that Charles Hodge's son, A. A. Hodge, and A. A. Hodge's younger colleague, Benjamin B. Warfield, penned a really cool article in 1881 defending the full inspiration of every word in the Bible. B.B. Warfield himself would go on to become the greatest of the old Princetonians in terms of articulating a full systematic theology of the doctrine of scripture. So let's spend a minute looking at some of his contributions before we go on to look at Barth.