Defending the Faith, by D. G. Hart

A book on the origins of the OPC (Orthodox Presbyterian Church, founded 1936) may seem like a strange enough pick for Spring Break reading (and I know this review is a little delayed), but especially for someone who has just passed her first year in the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) the appeal of such a history book may be hard to see. Yet Defending the Faith's front cover, with an imposing black-and-white portrait of a pensive man in suit and tie at least invited a flip to the back cover of the book, which proclaims itself "a readable and compelling narrative about a fascinating individual."

That individual, J. Gresham Machen, was at the forefront of the crisis for conservative Protestantism in America around the time of World War I. After returning from the front as a YMCA volunteer in France, the Southern gentleman and quirky-but-loved Princeton Seminary professor faced quite a different battle within his denomination, the Presbyterian Church in the USA. Machen was joined by the most unlikely allies--e.g., secular journalist H. L. Mencken, known at least for a certain smart remark about the Puritans--in declaring alien the religion of liberals, who denied the necessity of affirming miracles like the virgin birth, resurrection, and other historical facts central to the message of the gospel. Moderate churches that tolerated ministers who espoused such views or did not actively oppose the modernist influences on historical doctrine also came under Machen and his Princeton allies' criticism.

The controversy itself is not the only focus of Hart's book. Among the topics for which I created an index inside the cover of my copy are Princeton scholarship and higher criticism, anti-intellectualism (causes; the rise of; and church unity), the Church's social responsibility, and the exclusivity of the Church and religious diversity. Hart handles these and other issues, all more or less crucial to the dire state in which the Church found itself, with the restrained congeniality of someone sympathetic to his biographical subject as well as with the multi-faceted perceptiveness of an honest historian. I heartily recommend Defending the Faith as a clear, interesting, and highly relevant study of the interaction of the Church with the world, her own people, and the doctrine according to which she deals with both.

Further reading:
Christianity and Liberalism, J. Gresham Machen
Fighting the Good Fight: A Brief History of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, D.G. Hart and John Muether
Lest We Forget: A Personal Reflection on the Formation of the OPC, Robert Churchill