Charles Hodge

A commanding presence in his day, Charles Hodge, a Princeton Seminary professor for over a half century (1822–1878), has suffered unusual posthumous neglect. He has become, Paul C. Gutjahr remarks, “a largely forgotten and forgettable figure” (p. 378). Given that “few Americans can match the depth, breadth, and longevity of Hodge’s theological influence,” it is striking that Gutjahr’s biography is only Hodge’s second, and the first hardly counts, having been written by his son only two years after Hodge’s death (p. 5). Thus Gutjahr’s subtitle poses a problem: “America” has in important ways failed to embrace this “guardian of orthodoxy.” Gutjahr only provides a partial answer to this problem, for despite his suggestive titling the Hodge he portrays is the guardian of Reformed (or Calvinist) theological orthodoxy rather than of an American faith. Hodge was self-consciously heir to and abettor of a tradition that prized doctrinal purity and precision within ecclesial bounds. Thus his primary field of labor was the American church—particularly its Presbyterian branch—and he rarely thought of orthodoxy in other terms, especially national ones. From Gutjahr’s short epilogue one might surmise that his use of “American Orthodoxy” points to Hodge’s important influence on a doctrinal strain in later American fundamentalism and evangelicalism. But the biography does not, on the whole, bring this influence into focus. Instead, Gutjahr addresses the problem of Hodge and America by his critically appreciative reading of Hodge’s conservative character and disposition

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