1 - Reflecting on Yesterday, Charting Tomorrow

Reflecting on Yesterday, Charting Tomorrow
By Thomas W. Gillespie

" It is everlastingly true in the world of the spirit that the road to tomorrow leads through yesterday." John A. Mackay, President of Princeton Theological Seminary and the first editor of THEOLOGY TODAY, advanced this conviction in the inaugural issue fifty years ago this month, adding, "Immense apocalyptic power lies dormant in retrospection." On the occasion of this Golden Anniversary issue, what more promising way of commemorating the journal's half-century of publication than reflecting on the journal's yesterdays for the sake of envisioning the tomorrows in its future?

THEOLOGY TODAY was not created de novo. Its predecessor was the Princeton Review, a theological quarterly published continuously under varying titles for over a century. Established by Princeton Seminary in 1825 under the editorial direction of Charles Hodge, the Review set the standards of scholarly religious journalism in the United States throughout the nineteenth century. In 1929, under the financial pressures of the Depression and amid the doctrinal turbulence that buffeted both the Presbyterian Church and Princeton Theological Seminary, the Review suspended publication.

The impetus for reviving a theological journal sponsored by Princeton Seminary came from Mackay. Five years into his presidency, he made this appeal to the Princeton Board of Trustees in May of 1940:

There is a great and growing demand for a theological review that sail deal with issues that confront human thought and life in the light of the everlasting truths of divine revelation. There is a place, at the same time, for a scholarly treatment of all matters relating to our Christian Faith which have a bearing upon the thought and life of the day.

He envisioned a periodical in which theology would enter into critical engagement with the intellectual and moral issues of human life from the perspective provided by its own proper source-the truth of God's self-revealing activity in the world. Such an engagement, Mackay assured his trustees the following year, "would bear in an unmistakable way both the accent of eternity and the accent of contemporary relevance.”

In October of 1942 the Board approved the revival of the theological review with the financial support of the Seminary and also appointed a Board of Managers that met in November 1942 and again in January

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1943. Mackay was elected as Editor, Professor Hugh T. Kerr, Jr. as Associate Editor, Librarian Kenneth S. Gapp as Book Review Editor, and Leonard J. Trinterud as Business Manager. The title THEOLOGY TODAY was selected and a constitution was adopted that specified the aims and policies of the new quarterly. Fifteen months later, the first issue was published and sent to 1,500 initial subscribers.

The inaugural editorial stated and interpreted the four constitutional aims of the new theological journal:

(1)to contribute to the restoration of theology in the world of today as the supreme science, of which both religion and culture stand in need of their renewal

(2)to study the central realities of Christian faith and life and to set forth their meaning in clear and appropriate language

(3)to explore afresh the fountain of truth which resides in that Christian tradition ordinarily called Reformed, and to show the relevancy of that tradition to the contemporary problems of the Church and society

(4)To provide an organ in which Christians whose faith is rooted in the revelation of God in the Bible and in Jesus Christ, and who are engaged in different spheres of activity, may combine their insights into the life of man in the light of God, ¹ with a view to developing a Christian philosophy of life

In historical context, this statement of the aims of THEOLOGY TODAY may also be read as the effort of Mackay to redefine the theological task at Princeton Seminary. "Why," he asks, "should they only appear to possess conviction and authority who belong to an extremist fringe on the religious right or left? Why does not the center become articulate, and move forward with clear eye and passionate heart?" The stated aims of the journal clearly seek to articulate the focus and scope of +theology for the Seminary and for the center of the Church.

For Mackay "dynamic centrism," as he loved to call it, represents not some midpoint of compromise between radical extremes but rather the thrust of forward movement that causes a broadening stream behind it, much like a speedboat creating a wake or a jet plane a vapor trail. The center, when it is dynamic, is inclusive by virtue of its leadership. But then (perhaps even as now) it was dead in the water or unable to get off the ground. Why? "Because those at the center have in these last times largely ceased to understand the faith to which they are heirs, and have come to wear as a conventional badge what they should unfurl as a crusading banner. Theological insight is needed to remedy this situation."

What the founders of THEOLOGY TODAY meant by theology corresponds to their understanding of ecclesial centrism. Theology is extensive in its scope because it is intensive about its object. As the editor of the first edition put it, theology is "earnest thinking about God, carried on in the light of God," and designed to help people "to be like God in their

¹ The phrase "The Life of Man in the Light of God" served for years as the bv-line of the journal until it was reformulated as "Our Life in God's Light" out of respect for increasing sensitivity to gender specific language.

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character and God-centered in their conduct." Theology is "the supreme science" because it deals with "the being, character, and purposes of the One" who determines the ultimate issues of human life. Consequently "Every human problem, whether it be philosophical, ethical, political, economic, social, or cultural, is ultimately also a theological problem."

Thinking about God "in the light of God" entails more than the self-illumination provided by innate enlightenment reason or intuitive romantic experience. Theology has to do with "the central realities of Christian faith and life," with the God who has spoken, who has broken the eternal silence, who has disclosed the meaning of existence, who has manifested the Truth. When and where has all this occurred? "In the words and deeds and personalities that constitute the Christian revelation in the Bible, especially in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God's Son, crucified and risen, and in the life of that Community which God Himself created to be the 'Fellowship of the Spirit,' " Mackay averred, "we have what God has said. These realities will be our special study and concern, to understand them for ourselves and to interpret them to others." Here the realities of faith take precedence over the language of faith. The reality of God, Christ, Spirit evokes "appropriate language" from us as human response to divine revelation. It is not our language that creates the realities of Christian faith.

Long before it became fashionable among Protestants to acknowledge the role of tradition in mediating the meaning of ancient texts for current situations, the founders of THEOLOGY TODAY recognized that no human being occupies a privileged Archimedean point outside the conditions of historical existence. Both they and the Seminary they served stood within the Reformed theological tradition. As a voice of that tradition, therefore, the new journal would be characterized by a hermeneutical honesty that acknowledges, without apologetic embarrassment or imperialist pretensions, its own theological identity and historical location. With that identity and from that location it would seek to interpret "the central realities of Christian faith and life."

Amid the fragmentation of our present intellectual culture, it is refreshing to learn that the aims of THEOLOGY TODAY include the commitment of theology to interdisciplinary conversations. It may be argued that our present epistemological tribalism does not warrant a belief in "Truth with a big T and in the singular" (William James) or permit a quest for anything like "a Christian philosophy of life." Such grand schemes are viewed by many as a form of false consciousness. It may also be argued, however, that "the central realities" with which theology has to do, that focus upon the God "who is Himself the Truth," not only permit but require the faith assumption that interdisciplinary work is possible because the unity of truth about life in this world is ultimately grounded in the oneness of the transcendent God.

The vision of theology that emerges from the stated aims of THEOLOGY TODAY is one of thinking about the reality of God (1) in relation to every dimension of our life, (2) in the light of God, (3) in the context of a

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particular theological tradition, and (4) in conversation with all others who pursue the truth about life in the world from a variety of perspectives.

According to New Testament Professor Ben F. Meyer, our human aims give us our identity. They illuminate our history and are the key to our historic selfhood. Some root their aims in themselves; others in God. For the selfhood of the second type, aims equal vocation, even destiny. ² What is true of human beings may apply equally to human institutions. Their aims determine their identity, their soul, and when grounded in God, their aims equal their calling, their destiny. Perhaps it is in this sense that the road to tomorrow for THEOLOGY TODAY leads through the yesterday of its founding vision.

 Thomas W. Gillespie
Chair, Editorial Council

² Ben F. Meyer, The Aims of Jesus (London: SCM Press, 1979), p. 111.