B. B. Warfield
Principal of Princeton Theological Seminary | |
---|---|
In office 1886–1902 | |
Preceded by | Archibald Alexander Hodge |
Succeeded by | Francis Landey Patton as first president |
Personal details | |
Born | Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield November 5, 1851 Princeton Seminary |
Part of a series on |
Calvinism |
---|
Calvinism portal |
Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (November 5, 1851 – February 16, 1921) was an American professor of
Biography
Warfield was born near
Education
Like many children born into a wealthy family, Warfield's childhood education was private. Warfield entered
Ministry
For a short time in 1876 he preached in Presbyterian churches in
In 1881 Warfield wrote a joint article with
Marriage
In August 1876 Warfield married Annie Pierce Kinkead. Soon afterward they visited Germany as Warfield was studying at Leipzig. During their time there, the two were overcome by a fierce thunderstorm. The experience of the storm was so shattering that Kinkead never fully recovered and remained a functional invalid for the rest of her life.[2] Warfield continued to care for her until her death in 1915, managing to fit his work as a theologian with his role as caregiver. They had no children.
Princeton and death
In 1887 Warfield was appointed to the
He died in Princeton, New Jersey on February 16, 1921.[3]
Views
Bible
During his tenure, his primary thrust (and that of the seminary) was an authoritative view of the Bible. This view was held in contrast to the
Warfield believed that
Much of Warfield's work centered upon the Bible's "
After comparing
Studies in religious experience
Warfield was a conservative critic of much religious
Calvinism
Underpinning much of Warfield's theology was his adherence to Calvinism as espoused by the Westminster Confession of Faith. It is sometimes forgotten that, in his battles against modernism on the one hand, and against revivalism on the other, he was simply expressing the Calvinist faith when applied to certain situations.
It was Warfield's belief that the 16th century Reformers, as well as the 17th century Confessional writers, were merely summarizing the content and application of Scripture. New revelations, whether from the minds of celebrated scholars or popular revivalists, were therefore inconsistent with these confessional statements (and therefore inconsistent with Scripture). Throughout his ministry, Warfield contended that modern world events and thinking could never render such confessions obsolete. Such an attitude still prevails today in many
Calvinism is just religion in its purity. We have only, therefore, to conceive of religion in its purity, and that is Calvinism.
— Selected Shorter Writings, vol. I, p. 389.
Evolution
Warfield's views on evolution have been a source of dispute. Scholars
Warfield studied and wrote about Charles Darwin's religious views. In an article on Darwin's religious life, he concluded that Darwin's doctrine of evolution directly expelled Darwin's Christian belief. Warfield writes, "Thus the doctrine of evolution once heartily adopted by him (Darwin) gradually undermined his faith, until he cast off the whole Christianity as an unproven delusion."[6] Warfield did not believe that evolution required such a rejection of faith. His 1889 review of The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin included this statement: "There have been many evolutionists who have been and have remained theists and Christians."[7]
In his 1915 article Calvin's Doctrine of Creation, Warfield wrote "It should scarcely be passed without remark that Calvin's doctrine of creation is, if we have understood it aright, for all except the souls of men, an evolutionary one. The 'indigested mass,' including the 'promise and potency' of all that was yet to be, was called into being by the simple fiat of God. But all that has come into being since- except the souls of men alone – has arisen as a modification of this original world-stuff by means of the interaction of its intrinsic forces. Not these forces apart from God, of course…"[8] And further more he says, "What concerns us here is that he [Calvin] ascribed the entire series of modifications by which the primal 'indigested mass,' called 'heaven and earth,' has passed into the form of the ordered world which we see, including the origination of all forms of life, vegetable and animal alike, inclusive doubtless of the bodily form of man, to the second causes as their proximate account. And this, we say, is a very pure evolutionary scheme."[8]
Warfield also points out that, "Calvin doubtless had no theory whatsoever of evolution; but he teaches a doctrine of evolution."[9] In that same article, Warfield adds a significant footnote: "H. Bavinck in the first of his Stone Lectures ('The Philosophy of Revelation,' 1909, pp. 9–10) remarks: 'The idea of a development is not a production of modern times. It was already familiar to Greek philosophy. More particularly Aristotle raised it to the rank of the leading principle of his entire system by significant distinction between potentia and actus... This idea of development aroused no objection whatsoever in Christian theology and philosophy. On the contrary, it received extension and enrichment by being linked with the principle of theism.' Calvin accordingly very naturally thought along the lines of a theistic evolutionism."[9]
In a separate reference:
I do not think that there is any general statement in the Bible or any part of the account of creation, either as given in Genesis 1 and 2 or elsewhere alluded to, that need be opposed to evolution.” B.B. Warfield[10]
Church politics
While he was certainly supportive of political moves within various churches to strengthen and push conservative theology, he was never interested in the actual process itself, preferring to use his work at Princeton to influence future generations of Presbyterian ministers.
Race
Warfield came from a family of emancipationists and was himself an outspoken opponent of segregation and racism at Princeton Seminary.[11] This led to Warfield, when he was principal of the seminary, to allow a black student to live in white university halls, an action which was met by opposition from fellow faculty members.[12] Warfield termed segregation a "wicked caste system" and wrote a number of theological treaties and essays to undermine the segregationist position.[13]
Influence and legacy
Along with Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck, Warfield is acknowledged as one of the major influences on the thought of Cornelius Van Til. However, that influence was limited to certain areas. In apologetics, Warfield was a thoroughgoing evidentialist and the most prominent exponent of the Old Princeton school, whereas van Til, who was the most prominent figure in the Dutch wing of presuppositionalist apologetics, absolutely rejected the central tenets of Old Princeton evidentialism and protested violently against the evidentialism of his contemporary J. Oliver Buswell.
Warfield's influence on contemporary evangelicalism can be seen in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.[citation needed]
Writings
Books
- Dr. Edwin A. Abbott on the Genuineness of Second Peter (1883)
- Some Difficult Passages in the First Chapter of 2 Corinthians (1886)
- The Canon of the New Testament: How and When Formed (1892)
- The Witness of the Stars (1893)
- Number in Scripture (1894, 1921 4th revised edition)
- The Right of Systematic Theology (1897)
- Acts and Pastoral Epistles Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, Vol. 26 of The Temple Bible (1902)
- The Power of God Unto Salvation (1903)
- The Lord of Glory : A Study of the Designations of Our Lord in the New Testament with Especial Reference to His Deity, (1907)
- The Westminster Assembly and its Work (1908)
- Commentary on Revelation (1909, revised and corrected)
- The Religious Life of Theological Students (1911)
- Concerning Schmiedel's "Pillar-passages." (1913)
- The Plan of Salvation (1915)
- The Bible, The Book of Mankind (1915)
- Faith and Life (1916)
- The Saviour of the World (1916)
- Counterfeit Miracles (1918)
- Are They Few That Be Saved? (1918)
- The Divine Origin of the Bible
- Biblical Doctrines
- Augustine and the Pelagian Controversy
- Studies in Theology
- The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible
- The Making of the Westminster Confession
- The Emotional Life of Our Lord
- The Person of Christ According to the New Testament
- An Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament
- Posthumous works
- Perfectionism: Articles reprinted from periodicals, etc. edited by Caspar Wistar Hodge(1931)
- Calvin and Calvinism (1931)
- The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, edited by Samuel G. Craig ; with an introduction by Cornelius Van Til. (1948)
- Biblical and Theological Studies, edited by Samuel G. Craig (1952)
Essays and sermons (external links)
- Site dedicated to the life and writings of B. B. Warfield
- The Leading of the Spirit
- The Rights of Criticism and of the Church
- What is Calvinism?
- A Brief and Untechnical Statement of the Reformed Faith
- Calvinism - The Meaning And Uses of the Term
- The Theology of John Calvin
- Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy: The Origin & Nature of Pelagianism
- Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy: The Theology of Grace
- Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy: The External History of the Pelagian Controversy
- Inspiration (of Scripture)
- The Formation of the Canon of the New Testament
- God-Inspired Scripture
- Calvin and the Bible
- Calvin and the Reformation
- John Calvin The Theologian
- Election
- Some Thoughts on Predestination
- The Plan of Salvation (Part I) (Part II) (Part III) (Part IV) (Part V)
- Photographs of B.B. Warfield's grave at Princeton Cemetery.
- Darwin's Arguments Against Christianity And Religion by Benjamin B. Warfield
References and notes
- ^ For example, see J Gresham Machen as quoted in Noll 1983, p. 16: "It seemed to me, that the old Princeton – a great institution it was – died when Warfield was carried out.”
- ^ "Annie Pierce Kinkead, Mrs. BB Warfield", Credo, 2013-04-24.
- ^ "Dr. B B. Warfield Dead" (PDF). The New York Times. February 18, 1921. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
Professor of Theology at Princeton.
- S2CID 6096236.
- ^ Zaspel, Fred (July 2010). "B. B. Warfield on Creation and Evolution". Themelios. 35 (2).
- ^ Briggs, Charles Augustus; Hodge, Archibald Alexander; Patton, Francis Landrey; Warfield, Benjamin Breckinridge (1988). "Charles Darwin's Religious Life: A Sketch in Spiritual Biography". The Presbyterian Review. 9: 569–601.
- ^ Mark Noll. 1983. The Princeton Theology. Baker Book House; Grand Rapids. page 293.
- ^ a b Noll 1983, p. 297.
- ^ a b Noll, Mark (1983), The Princeton Theology, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, p. 298.
- ISBN 0-74595116-3. The author, Mr. Alexander, does not provide a citation for the Warfield quote, but it comes from his class lecture on evolution prepared in 1888 and he used that for the remainder of his years teaching that course, at least until the early 1900s.
- ^ Zaspel, Fred. G (2018). "Reversing the Gospel: Warfield on Race and Racism". Themelios. 43 (1).
- JSTOR 3169907.
- ^ Warfield, Benjamin. B (2001). Selected Shorter Writings, ed. John E. Meeter, 2 vols. Philipsburg NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed. pp. 2:736–737.
Further reading
- Cousar, R. W., Benjamin Warfield: His Christology and Soteriology, PhD thesis, Edinburgh University, 1954.
- Livingstone, David N. and Mark A. Noll, "B.B. Warfield (1851–1921): A Biblical Inerrantist as Evolutionist," Isis, 91:2 (June 2000), 283-294
- McClanahan, James S., Benjamin B. Warfield: Historian of Doctrine in Defense of Orthodoxy, 1881–1921, PhD thesis, Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1988.
- Riddlebarger, Kim. The Lion of Princeton: B.B. Warfield as Apologist and Theologian, Lexham Press (2015), ISBN 1-57799588-0
- Warfield Commemoration Issue, 1921–1971, The Banner of Truth, no. 89 (Feb. 1971).
- Zaspel, Fred G., The Theology of B.B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary, Crossway (2 Sept 2010), ISBN 1-43351395-1.
External links
- Works by or about B. B. Warfield at Internet Archive
- Works by B. B. Warfield at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)