John Williamson Nevin: American Theologian

by Richard E. Wentz

This study of the life and thought of John Williamson Nevin (1803-1886) offers a revised interpretation of an important nineteenth-century religious thinker. Along with the historian Phillip Schaff, Nevin was a leading exponent of what became known as the Mercersburg Movement, named for the college and theological seminary of the German Reformed Church located in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. The story is a neglected aspect of American studies.

Wentz provides a kind of post-modern perspective on Nevin, presenting him as a distinctively American thinker, rather than as a reactionary romantic. Although influenced by German philosophy, historical studies, and theology, Nevin's thought was a profound response to the American public context of his day. He was, in many respects, a public theologian, judging the prevailing development of American Christianity as a new religion that was fashioning its own disintegration and that of American culture at large. Nevin's reinterpretation of catholicity in the American context opened the way for a radical understanding of religion and of American public life.

Genres: Theology

Hardcover

First published March 13, 1997

Reviews

[Dan Glover · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoughtful study of an under-appreciated theologian. Sometimes the author projects too much of his own perspective onto Nevin, but this was still helpful. Needs to be balanced with other studies such as William Evans' book here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
and Brad Littlejohn's book here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
See also this book, which doesn't quite do Nevin full justice either, taking Nevin in the opposite direction to Wentz's book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd say it is unsatisfying, but its full of gems. Nevin is SUCH a fascinating guy -- high ecclesiology, antipathy to revivalism and pietism, high sacramentology, Reformed theology, and ecumenicity. He was an Old School Presbyterian before migrating to the German Reformed, and was the one who filled in for Hodge at Princeton in the 1820s when Hodge went to study in Europe two years. Schaff is not nearly as interesting as Nevin, to me.

Wentz seems less of an evangelical or confessionalist than Nevin (see p. 96). At one point he gushes that de Chardin and Tillich have shown us that understanding Christ as center does not require a commitment to Christianity as superior religion. Wentz likes Nevin partly because he sees Christianity as 'not an ideology.' He teaches religion at Arizona State (don't discount ASU, Heiko Oberman was there for years).

Still: concise (just 147 pp.). Lots of good historical narrative. Unpreteniously, simple but smart writing style. It will be difficult for anyone without a background in Reformed theology.

Some nuggets: pp. 76-77 -- Nevin's postmil sensibilities made him sure the Church would not be absorbed into the state but the state will 'vanish away into the Church.' Got that one wrong.

Nevin's ministry had a strong hint of futility. Nevin's brilliant, Biblical, ecumenical efforts at liturgical renewal were met by either suspicion or yawns. Wertz editorializes about the efforts of contemporary Nevins: "In the liturgical renewal movements of the mid-20th century that have affected the worship life of mainstream traditions such as Presbyterians, Methodists, and UCC, the people (laity) have maintained a stoical toleration They have continued to look at liturgical matters as, at best, cornments that preface the delivery of the sermon." (p. 127). And "what does the average American care about Te Deum, litany, lessons and collects, and creed? Even if it be true, as Nevin assumed, that the people could possibly find themselves properly in these symbolic realities, they are not likely to be interestd in the experiment." (p. 134).

Nevin's work on the Heidleberg Catechism sounds fascinating. I definitely plan on getting a copy of that. His Mystical Presence, of course, is a classic.

Wentz does a great job of showing Nevin's strong case for the value of catechesis.

I was fascinated by Nevin's critique of nationalism. Every bit as sophisticated as Hodge's (and Lincoln's).

If Wertz's conclusion does not get you to buy either his book or the Hart one you have no soul: "The worship of American churches is found wanting because it gives no evidence of the sacramental character of the mystical presence of Christ. It focuses instead on private experience, private judgment, and bibliocism. The radical catholicity of the Incarnation is sacramental and liturgical......... the heart of that challenge [against American religious thought of his day] beats with concern for the community of faith, for the body that represents the presence of a new creation in the midst of the old." (p. 147).