Presbyterians and American Culture: A History

by Bradley J. Longfield

This book provides a history of Presbyterians in American culture from the early eighteenth to the late twentieth century. Longfield assesses both the theological and cultural development of American Presbyterianism, with particular focus on the mainline tradition that is expressed most prominently in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He explores how Presbyterian churches--and individuals rooted in those churches--influenced and were influenced by the values, attitudes, perspectives, beliefs, and ideals assumed by Americans in the course of American history. The book will serve as an important introduction to Presbyterian history that will interest historians, students, and church leaders alike.

Genres: Church History, History

278 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 15, 2013

Reviews

[Alex McEwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Bradley J. Longfield’s “Presbyterians and American Culture: A History” reads like Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall” dressed in a Genevan gown and reciting the Shorter Catechism. This work traces the rise of American Presbyterianism, its ascent to prominence in the American social context, and its eventual decline in social and political influence. It follows in the tradition of other historical works on American Presbyterianism like “Reformed and Evangelical” and “For a Continuing Church”, but unlike those, Longfield’s focus is primarily on the PCUSA and the liberal Presbyterian denominations.

The tone of the book is somber. Longfield clearly cares deeply about the Reformed Church, particularly in the context of the PCUSA, yet he observes it tearing itself apart from within and seems powerless to stop the bleeding. The book is structured into seven alliterated chapters that examine American Presbyterianism during different epochs of American history, with special attention to the liberal factions in each period.

This work is valuable for several reasons. Firstly, it serves as a call to prayer for our Presbyterian brothers and sisters in the more liberal denominations. Throughout, Longfield charts the theological decline of the denomination. He documents how anti-confessionalism led to theological plurality, Unitarianism, and eventually universalism. Egalitarianism and later LGBTQ+ acceptance found their way into the church, and while Longfield writes from within the PCUSA, you can sense his deep concern about where the line will ultimately be drawn. One cannot help but empathize with his position. At the 2024 General Assembly, the PCUSA approved an overture to the presbyteries mandating that incoming ministers support LGBTQ+ issues. For context, the PCUSA doesn’t require any subscription to the Westminster Standards, and several years ago, PCUSA TE John Shuck wrote a series of articles about how he was a PCUSA minister in good standing who didn’t believe in God. Yet now, the denomination plans to require adherence to these new positions. The PCUSA will not hold subscriptionism on any of their theological doctrines, but will hold it on a political one. Longfield meticulously tracks how Charles Finney dismissed the standards as a “Paper Pope,” and how that mindset has devolved to the present situation.

Secondly, the book sheds light on aspects of Presbyterian history that are often overlooked. While most denominations eventually develop political arms, Scottish Presbyterianism was born into a political movement, and in America, Presbyterianism has always been political. Longfield shows how Presbyterians were so influential that the Federal government’s structure mirrors the Presbyterian form of church government. He also highlights how, up until the early 20th century, Presbyterians held significant sway in American political movements. The book offers a thorough examination of figures like Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, and Woodrow Wilson, who play roles in political history but are not always discussed in church history. I appreciated this exploration of important historical moments that are not necessarily well remembered. Longfield also does an excellent job of analyzing how Presbyterians lost their cultural prominence throughout the 20th century.

I’m glad to have read this book. As always, WJK has produced a beautiful edition, with a lovely typeface, excellent paperweight suitable for note taking, and generous margins. I finished it in a single sitting because I couldn’t put it down. It was like watching the Titanic sink in real time and I couldn’t look away. Yet it was also an incredibly humbling read, and I find myself far more sympathetic to the PCUSA today than I was when I started the book last night. If you do pick up this work, I highly recommend also listening to Longfield’s keynote address at the Theology Matters convention. It provides valuable context that makes this book even more approachable.

Let this work stand as a warning to theologically conservative Presbyterians. Let it be a monument to where Presbyterians have come from. And let it serve as a call to prayer and theological retrieval for liberal Presbyterians. May the God of the universe be glorified in the work of the Church. Amen.

[Sean McGowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful overview.

[Mitchell Traver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this one was pretty dry and the overall presentation was bland. A selective chronology of Presbyterianism in America from the Revolution through the turn of the 21st century (but mostly until about 1970/1980). Lots of significant information in here. Thus, the book is quite helpful for interested readers! But the writing style, and strangely the brevity of a subject that I think needs more than 200 pages, made this one more of a reference work for me. Worthwhile, nonetheless.

[Matthew Garringer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive, engaging account of the formation of the mainline Presbyterian church as we see it today. The last two chapters of this book read almost as a cautionary tale of what happens when a church body unmoors itself from essential, scriptural doctrines in an effort to assimilate to the culture. This was especially prevalent in the 19th-20th centuries as mainline churches went leftward, yet we are seeing this today as many evangelical churches lurch to the right as they chase after culture rather than scripture.

As a Presbyterian, I would love nothing more than a unified body of confessional, biblically oriented, and compassionate Presbyterians that care and influence American culture rather than the opposite. Yet due to a myriad of cultural divisions, and never ending divisions regarding interpretation of scripture, this probably will never happen before Jesus returns.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bradley J. Longfield is one of the greatest Presbyterian historians to ever live. He is the author of many Landmark books detailing Presbyterianism and America and abroad. In his newest work Presbyterians and American culture: a history, Longfield delves into Presbyterianism in its earliest American roots.
Now this book is lightweight just shy of 260 pages, and is not deal with all of Presbyterianism in early America yet Longfield is able to weave a narrative of the early establishment of Presbyterianism in America in a manner that most of the laity is able to read and understand. Presbyterian Church History is a long and complicated history in the United States of America. Yet if one wishes to delve into this one will come away with a greater appreciation for the church denomination they are in and will be able to in the past so that they will not repeat the same mistakes which their forebears made.
While there is a lot to praise about this book due to Longfield’s dedication, in this work, to the history of his denomination, the PCUSA, other areas of Presbyterianism in America have been largely ignored. Specifically that of the associated Reformed Presbyterian Church which have its roots in America prior to that of the forefather of the main line Presbyterian Church. Wallace does not negate the book it does leave one longing for a deeper work on Presbyterianism in the history of American culture. With this caveat I do recommend this book to those who would like to know about early Presbyterian history as well as the events leading up to the many divisions of Presbyterianism which are country now supports.
This book was provided to me free of charge from Westminster John Knox Press in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.

[Caleb Rolling · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful history of presbyterianism in America and its complex and ever changing relationship with the surrounding culture. The bulk of the book is mostly devoted to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the concluding two chapters covering the twentieth century, along with an epilogue addressing the future of presbyterianism and the mainline in the wake of issues pertaining to human sexuality in 2011.
A second edition of the book would be nice after a decade since its publication--with attention to the growth of the PCA, EPC, and ECO in recent decades.

[Daniel Sell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for any Presbyterian. If you are a conservative Presbyterian, this history gives the context of the emergence of Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC). From what I understand, the author, Bradley Longfield, is from the PCUSA. I believe in the epilogue he offers sound advice for correcting the missteps the PCUSA has taken that has resulted in her decline over the years.

[Dale Hagwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book and how well Longfield unpacks the relationship between American Presbyterianism and American culture. Will definitely be among my top recommendations for anyone to read when it comes to Presbyterian history in America.

[Colton Brewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent primer on the subject, though very much an overview rather than focused on minutiae. Clearly written from a mainline point of view.

[Jim Gulley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 'history for history's sake' account of Presbyterianism in America from 1706 to the 1980s.

[Stephen Hiemstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bradley J. Longfield. 2013. Presbyterians and American Culture: A History. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

My first history class in college did not start out well. Not only did my bright young professor from Yale not like my papers, he threatened to fail me if I signed up for the next class in the sequence. My constant questions in class clearly annoyed him. But I took his threat as a challenge and basically sat on his desk until he explained to me why my papers were not up to snuff, so to speak. The problem? I viewed history as chronology (A happened, then B happened, then C happened…) while he saw historical observations providing support for hypothesis testing (A and B happened causing C). We employed different historical methods in our thinking [1].

In his book, Presbyterians and American Culture, Bradley Longfield chronicles (surveys) historical events in the Presbyterian churches in America from the early 1700s through the present decade. By Presbyterians, Longfield means the denominations that today make up the Presbyterian Church (USA). By culture, Longfield follows Clifford Geertz seeing culture as “an historically transmitted patterning of meaning embodied in symbols” including “values, attitudes, perspectives, beliefs, and ideas”. This survey is motivated by a perceived identity crisis among Presbyterians brought about at least in part by how they have attempted to influence culture (xi-xiii).

Longfield is dean and a professor of church history at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (PCUSA) in Dubuque, Iowa. He writes in 7 chapters preceded by an introduction and followed by an Epilogue. The 7 chapters (vii) are:

Growing Together, Falling Apart: The Birth of American Presbyterianism (1-24);
New Church, New Nation (25-52);
A Christian America: Awakenings and Reform (53-90);
Divided Church, Divided Nation (91-116);
Crusading American, Crusading Church (117-148);
War at Home, War Abroad (149-174); and
Contested Boundaries: The Disestablishment of American Presbyterianism (175-200).
The appendix includes a helpful chart showing the relationships and dates of many of the Presbyterian denominations, including the most recent one—the Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO)—which was organized in 2012. There is also a subject matter index.

Once challenge with surveys arises in drawing inferences about general trends and causality. Are the observations presented symptomatic of the times or simply the things that are most easily described? While this question cannot be easily answered, it does point to the usefulness of the survey method—to identify interesting hypotheses worthy of further inquiry.

One such hypothesis concerns the role of confessions in the Presbyterian response to culture. For example, throughout most of the period covered by this study the Westminster Confession united Presbyterians in the Americas. It was written in 1640—just before period studied (3), was adopted early on as the primarily confessional document among Presbyterians (15), was the focus of proposed revisions (126), and remains in the Book of Confessions still in use today. Yet, the attitude about the confession changed dramatically in the 20th century. Serving first as a bulwark against liberalism in the early part of the century (142) and later serving merely as another confessional document, one of many, by the 1970s (196). Freed of its confessional moorings by the end of the century, the current Presbyterian identity crisis could easily be explained by its confessional wanderlust.

Longfield’s survey technique clearly goes beyond describing events easily documented. Of special interest are several sections that he devotes to Presbyterian outreach efforts in the eighteenth and nineteenth century to native Americans. Interestingly, a focus of David Brainard’s evangelism to the Crossweeksung Indians in New Jersey in 1746 included instruction in the Westminister Shorter Catechism (29). Presbyterian efforts to evangelize the Cherokee Indians in 1831 resulted in missionaries in Georgia being arrested because the more general mood of the nation during the Jackson presidency was to relocate the Cherokees to western lands, not to educate and convert them (85).

Longfield’s Presbyterians and American Culture is most useful for seminary students and Presbyterian pastors curious about historical controversies of the Presbyterian Church (USA). In part 2 of this review (on Wednesday March 11; see T2Pneuma.net), I will focus in more depth on a couple of these controversies of current interest.


[1]Once I understood my error, my next paper proved more acceptable and I ended up with an A in his class.