The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience: A Case Study of Thought and Theology in Nineteenth-Century America (review)

book reviews343 of accountability on the whole nation. Those historians who see the issue in terms of a capitalist North and a "quasi feudal" South ignore the fact that for all his cultural parochialism, Garrison's attack transcended the limitations of section and class. In a letter to a Boston doughface, he wrote that "for thirty-two years after the Declaration of Independence . . . New-England capital, New-England ships, and New-England men were actively engaged in the foreign slave trade. He catalogued the "villages . . . fired . . . natives . . . murdered . . . victims . . . kidnapped . . . many . . . suffocated in die holds . . . and thrown to the sharks . . . many . . . plundered and debased all their days." All this, Garrison charged, was accomplished by New England men and measures. For he recognized the thread that bound together the lords of the loom and the lords of the lash. Vincent A. Carrafiello University of Connecticut The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience: A Case Study of Thought and Theology in Nineteenth-Century America. By George M. Marsden. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1970. Pp. xiii, 278. $10.00.) Since Perry Miller charted die course, scholars such as William G. McLoughlin , Timothy L. Smitii, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown have shown the formidable impact of evangelicalism on nineteentii-century American culture. Professor Marsden is anotiier strong voice in die revisionist camp. In a book tiiat is rooted solidly in primary sources (mainly theological treatises) and written widi sophistication and verve, Marsden traces the intellectual and tiieological history of the New School Presbyterian denomination throughout its lifetime in die middle third of die last century. But this is much more than denominational history. It is an analysis of the evangelical mind in die context of the theological, intellectual, social, political, and institutional developments of die era, especially the rise of German theology, Scottish "Common-Sense" philosophy , the "benevolent empire" of moral stewardship, die antislavery crusade, and die Civil War. The New School Presbyterians, according to die audior, admirably represented American Calvinism in its years of declining influence by attempting to guide evangelicals between die twin shoals of revivalistic ultraism and secular democratic humanism. The New School Presbyterians were a positive influence in their time, standing near the center of the American religious spectrum with a balanced emphasis on piety, revivalism , "united front" benevolence, and moral reforms of abolition and prohibition. The New School represented die activist strain of Protestantism with its distinctive neo-Calvinist tiieology forged in die milieu of reform and revival and a crusading entiiusiasm tiiat aimed to save die nation from apostasy and corruption. 344CIVIL WAR HISTORY The Civil War marked die turning point for the fledging denomination. It vindicated their initial antislavery ideals, provided a common cause tiiat led to renewed fellowship and eventual reunification in 1869 with the Old School group, and most importantly strengthened their longtime implicit identification of Protestantism with patriotic nationalism to the point tiiat American evangelicals equated God and country. During the war, nationalism, covenantal theology, New School reform, and millennialism coincided to such a degree that the Flag and the Cross came "to be borne on the same flagstaff" (p. 204). The end result was tragedy for American Christianity. From its initial stance as the Church militant, resolutely challenging a secular nation and calling for repentance , Christianity became little more than an American culture religion. "Rather than remaining a force for revolution, evangelical Protestantism, now firmly institutionalized, was fast becoming synonymous with the middle class status quo" (p. 241). Given this generally gloomy picture, Marsden's overall conclusion, that the New School movement was a "constructive and progressive" force with "marked success in shaping American culture at large," is unconvincing (p. 219). Unwittingly, perhaps, he touched on the gist of the problem when he lauded die New School for meeting the cultural and scientific challenge of the age "without losing its own respectability" (p. 249, italics added). "Respectability" advanced the Presbyterians to center stage in American culture and religious life but only at the immeasurable cost of surrendering to an American culture religion of Common Sense humanism, Victorian moralism, unblushing patriotism, a flaccid activism, and aversion to theological debate (p. 244). Also instructive on this point is the failure of...