Theology Today - Vol 47, No. 2 - July 1990 - BOOK REVIEW - Princeton and the Republic, 1768-1822: The Search for a Christian Enlightenment in the Era of Samuel Stanhope Smith

188 - Princeton and the Republic, 1768-1822: The Search for a Christian Enlightenment in the Era of Samuel Stanhope Smith

Princeton and the Republic, 1768-1822:
The Search for a Christian Enlightenment in the
Era of Samuel Stanhope Smith
By Mark A. Noll
Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1989. 340 pp. $35.00.

Mark Noll, Professor of History at Wheaton College and prolific contributor to the study of American religion, has written an excellent account of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) during a crucial half century of its life. Though structured as an institutional narrative, Princeton and the Republic has a much larger story to tell. The book explains how the leaders of the college sought to blend Calvinist orthodoxy, a moderate form of the Enlightenment (the so-called Scottish common sense philosophy), and republicanism into a vision for Princeton and the nation. Moreover, the Princetonians assumed that this synthesis would promote an harmonious social order in which they would play a leading role.

The cunning of history subtly altered the dream. Under John Witherspoon, called from Scotland to assume the presidency of the college in 1768, the vision seemed attainable. Witherspoon asserted the compatibility of Princeton's varied commitments more than be analyzed them; but the ease with which he successfully played the roles of active educator, Presbyterian churchman, and revolutionary statesman seemed to ratify the coherence of the vision. To Samuel Stanhope Smith, his successor in the presidency from 1794 to 1812, fell the lot of explicating the vision more clearly-and also the task of coping with its internal tensions. Although Smith cogently articulated the principles of "a republican Christian Enlightenment," events in the young republic and in the college made the ideal problematic. During his tenure, national political harmony gave way to factionalism. The Federalists with whom the Princetonians identified lost power. The triumph of the Jeffersonian party suggested to many Princetonians that America was losing the self-discipline necessary for an ordered republicanism to endure-a threat made more ominous by the growth of religious "infidelity" in America and by the specter of a democratic revolution run amok in France. At the same time, Americans were moving westward to unsettled regions lacking an adequate supply of Presbyterian ministers. The College of New Jersey, characterized by Stanhope Smith's urbane confidence in Enlightened principles, appeared to some incapable of meeting the challenges of the hour. The percentage of Princeton students entering the ministry, having already declined in the Witherspoon era, fell even further under Smith. What's worse, the spirit of democracy run wild seemed to invade the college itself and culminated in a major student riot in 1807. In this setting, a group of trustees launched a simultaneous movement to replace its administration and to

190 - Princeton and the Republic, 1768-1822: The Search for a Christian Enlightenment in the Era of Samuel Stanhope Smith

create a theological seminary. In 1812, the movement triumphed with the inauguration of a new regime at the college and with the formation of Princeton Seminary. Though formally separate, both institutions shared many ties. Ashbel Green, the new president of the college, also chaired the Board of Directors of the Seminary. While neither the college nor the Seminary repudiated the earlier commitment to the Enlightenment, to republicanism, and to public harmony, they sought to further those goals more indirectly. They emphasized distinctly religious means, such as the promotion of revivals, the mobilization of voluntary societies, and the training of ministers.

Noll's account has several major virtues. First, it makes clear that the real intellectual genius of the early Princeton years was Smith, not Witherspoon. Second, it sheds new light on the beginnings of separate theological education in America, especially the founding of Princeton Seminary. (Persons interested in pursuing this aspect of Noll's work would, however, be well advised to supplement his book by also reading Lefferts Loetscher's Facing the Enlightenment and Pietism: Archibald Alexander and the Founding of Princeton Theological Seminary.) Third, Noll has demonstrated the extraordinary power of the American Revolution to dominate and reorient the thinking of Protestant Americans. The Revolution unleashed a transforming radicalism, an upsurge of democratic sentiments, going far beyond the intent of many of its leaders. Although the Princetonians were ardent republicans of a classical sort, they were also a largely elite group who felt much discomfort with the turn republican ideals took in the early nineteenth century. Yet they had no choice but to define themselves against the democratic tide, and they provided an interesting counterpoint to what Nathan Hatch in a recent book has called The Democratization of American Christianity. In short, Mark Noll has not only made a significant contribution to our knowledge of Princeton but also has deepened our understanding of the cultural and religious life of the early republic.

James H. Moorhead
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, New Jersey