“The impact of Old Princeton continues, however, through the reprinting of many of the books of Alexander, Hodge, Warfield, Machen, and the other Princetonians.  Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology was used as a major text in several American seminaries as late as the 1960s.”

On August 12, 1812, people crowded into the Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey, for the inauguration of Archibald Alexander as the first professor of a new school—a theological seminary.  The sermon of the day was given by Samuel Miller, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of New York City.  Addressing the congregation and especially the one professor and the three students of the new school, Miller said:

Yes, brethren, we have more reason to rejoice, and to [congratulate] one another on the establishment of this seminary than on the achievement of a great national victory [the War of 1812 had started just two months earlier], or [Miller continued] on making a splendid addition to our national territory [nine years earlier in 1803 the Louisiana Purchase more than doubled the size of the United States].  [Dr. Miller continued] [This] is the beginning, as we trust, of an extensive and permanent system, from which blessings may flow to millions while we are sleeping in the dust.

Dr. Miller’s hope and trust were staggering, but not fanciful.  God did bless “the ends of the earth” through the little seminary that began that day in 1812.

My two volumes on the history of Old Princeton Seminary were published in 1994 and 1996.  The first, Faith and Learning, covers the years from the school’s founding in 1812 to 1868, and the second, The Majestic Testimony, from 1869 to 1929, the year the seminary was reorganized by the Presbyterian Church to weaken its conservative stance, maintained faithfully from its beginning 117 years earlier.  Gresham Machen, Robert Dick Wilson, and Cornelius Van Til left to form a new seminary to continue the tradition of Old Princeton.  They were joined the next year by another Princeton teacher, John Murray.  1929 was the watershed year in the history of Princeton Seminary.  It was the end of Old Princeton after more than a hundred years of faithfulness to the scripture and the Reformed faith

The impact of Old Princeton continues, however, through the reprinting of many of the books of Alexander, Hodge, Warfield, Machen, and the other Princetonians.  Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology was used as a major text in several American seminaries as late as the 1960s (including Covenant Theological Seminary when I was a student there) and it is still, it is reported, the primary textbook for theology in the one remaining Protestant seminary in North Korea.

Some of the books from Old Princeton have never been out-of-print, but many are publications of works long unavailable and some are never before published.  Two major collections on Princeton and pastoral theology, edited by James Garrison, and published by Banner of Truth are Princeton and the Work of Christian Ministry and Pastor-Teachers of Old Princeton.

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Old Princeton: Her Pastoral Heart

Old Princeton: Her Missionary Outreach