But at the turn of the century, the theological world of Princeton was dominated by the brilliant scholarship of Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield. Warfield was a native of Kentucky, who came to academic prominence while a young professor of New Testament at Western Theological Seminary. In 1887 he was called to Princeton to succeed A.A. Hodge in the department of Systematic Theology (in a memorable quip, 'B.B' succeeded 'A.A.').
Warfield had been brought up in a pious home, and professed faith at the age of 16. He studied at Princeton College, excelling in maths and physics before turning his studies towards the ministry. His academic brilliance led him eventually to succeed at Hodges, and he was a pillar of the Princeton community from 1887 until his death in 1921.
By any standards, Warfield's literary output was remarkable. In a lecture delivered in 1982, Professor Hugh T. Kerr (who himself had been the B.B. Warfield Professor of Theology at Princeton for 25 years) described his work in these words: 'We are talking about a theological authorship on the order of Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and Barth'.
That is no exaggeration. Warfield's longer writings fill ten large volumes, his shorter writings are published in two, and many of his critical articles and incidental pieces of writing still lie in the journals in which they were originally published. Professor Kerr calculated that Warfield had written 780 book reviews, of which about half were substantial critical pieces.
But the scholarship, for Warfield, was never an end in itself. In his 1903 address to incoming students, published as 'Spiritual Culture in the Theological Seminary', Warfield urged theological students to 'take every item of your seminary work as a religious duty… do all your work religiously, that is, with a religious end in view, in a religious spirit, and with the religious side of it dominant in your mind'. It was in this spirit that Warfield pursued all his theological work, with the result that F.T. McGill could say of Warfield that 'this man stands out in my mind as the most Christ-like man I have ever known'.
Yet, for all his greatness, there has been little critical reflection from within the Reformed community on Warfield's contribution and legacy. The 150th anniversary of his birth in 2001 passed almost unnoticed, except in Italy, where a conference on Warfield was held. Apart from some doctoral dissertations, there is little out there which could serve as an introduction to Warfield.
This has been rectified, thankfully, with the recent publication of a collection of essays on Warfield's life and thought. Although it lacks a biographical chapter, that will be made up for when a biography of Warfield appears in the series on American Reformed Biographies. Instead, this volume looks at influences on Warfield's life, as well as the dominant features of his thought.
The opening chapter looks at the 'Breckinridge' in Warfield's name. He inherited his middle name from his maternal side of the family. His grandfather, Robert Breckinridge, was a man of great theological promise, although in the ecclesiastical struggles of the early 19th century, he clashed with Charles Hodge on certain issues. It is an interesting quirk of history that Warfield should, in the light of these theological controversies, succeed to Hodge's chair at Princeton.
Two themes which are prominent in the collection are studies of Warfield's view of reason and Warfield's view of Scripture. Warfield was no intellectualist who believed that it was possible to reason men into the kingdom. He believed that the Spirit alone could do such persuading, but he also knew that the Spirit does not give faith without persuading sinners of the grounds on which they must believe. It was not mere rationalism that drove his apologetics, but an emphasis on the noetic effects of sin along with the need of the Holy Spirit to bring moral suasion to bear on the life of the mind.
On the doctrine of Scripture, Warfield was clear. His theology was driven by the dogmatics of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and a high view of Scriptural inspiration and inerrancy consequently drove all his theology. A chapter by Moises Silva shows how Old Princeton and, subsequently, Westminster Seminary in its best years defended the faith by careful exegesis. Commitment to an inerrant Bible was fundamental to the Princetonian worldview.
Two chapters are devoted to the theme of Warfield's writings on racial segregation and tension in early 20th century America. It is the one flaw in the writings of Thornwell and Dabney that, their high view of Scripture notwithstanding, they should defend the social conventions on slavery which were prominent at the time.
In two hard-hitting and far-reaching articles – one aptly entitled 'Drawing the Colour Line' – Warfield challenged that consensus. He thereby showed that theology ought to critique sociology, and his view on the equality of the races was nothing if not biblical. In his history of Princeton Seminary, David Calhoun quotes one of Warfield's poetic compositions entitled, 'Wanted: A Samaritan':
Prone in the road, he lay
Wounded and sore bested;
Priests, Levites passed that way,
And turned aside the head.
They were not hardened men
In human service slack;
His need was great: but then,
His face, you see, was black.
It is a powerful statement, which sets Warfield apart from the giants of the South.
An essay by Stephen Nichols on Warfield and controversy, together with two chapters on Warfield's interest in the case against C.A. Briggs of Union Seminary, New York, show Warfield's valiance in defending truth against error. These studies are interesting in their own right, but are the more relevant for their references to parallels with current controversies, such as Peter Enns' view of Scripture, and N.T. Wright's view of Paul.
I hope this collection of essays will encourage more people to read Warfield. As far as my heroes are concerned, he is up there with the top ten, still worth reading, and still worth emulating, if only to show that godliness and scholarship need not be strangers.
G.L.W. Johnson (ed), B.B. Warfield: Essays on His Life and Thought, P&R Publishing, 2007

iaind@backfreechurch.co.uk