The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion, 1805 - 1900

by Gary J. Dorrien

In this first of a three-volume, comprehensive series, Gary Dorrien mixes theological analysis with historical and biographical detail to present the first comprehensive interpretation of American theological liberalism. Arguing that the indigenous roots of American liberal theology existed before the rise of Darwinism, Dorrien maintains that this tradition took shape in the nineteenth century and was motivated by a desire to map a progressive "third way" between authority-based orthodoxies and atheistic rationalism. Dorrien characterizes American liberal theology by its openness to historical criticism and evolutionary theory, its commitment to the authority of individual reason and experience, its conception of Christianity as an ethical way of life, and its commitment to make Christianity credible and socially relevant to modern people.

Genres: Theology, History, Religion, Christianity, Church History, Nonfiction, American History

528 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Gary John Dorrien is an American social ethicist and theologian. He is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York and Professor of Religion at Columbia University, both in New York City, and the author of 18 books on ethics, social theory, philosophy, theology, politics, and intellectual history.

Prior to joining the faculty at Union and Columbia in 2005, Dorrien taught at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, where he served as Parfet Distinguished Professor and as Dean of Stetson Chapel.

An Episcopal priest, he has taught as the Paul E. Raither Distinguished Scholar at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and as Horace De Y. Lentz Visiting Professor at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorrien's ponderous storytelling underlies impressive research with a conspicuous but unencumbering editorial slant. The writing sometimes feels as if Dorrien thinks the reader already agrees with his personal take, and he's probably right in my case (although I don't know what that take is, yet).

[Doug Adamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorrien is a good writer. His bias towards liberal theology (he thinks it is the best thing that has happened since the Reformation) does come across in how he describes people and events--though not so glaringly that it undermines the truthfulness and usefulness of the book. He traces out the history of the movement by looking at major figures in that movement. He notes both biographical information and the person's theological thought and works. This is the first volume of a three-volume history. On to volume two.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first 110 pages and skimmed the rest. It condenses a massive amount of research and explains liberal Christian ideas (historical criticism, questioning miracles, etc.) clearly, but it's so long!

[Melissa]

Goodreads

[Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in a three-volume series that maps out how American Theology, founded in Puritanism, given over to evangelism, took the transition to Liberal Protestantism (and greater Pluralism). Dorrien mixes theological analysis with historical and biographical detail to chronicle the history of a "third way" between authority-based orthodoxies (traditional Christianity) and atheistic rationalism. It reads in many ways like a mini-biographies overlaid with themes pointing toward Liberal Protestantism. He emphasizes the pulpit as method, or in other words, working through an idea while being responsive to the reactions and excitement of the audience rather than just sermonizing in one direction. He points out that Liberal Protestant-minded teachers were the first to really envision a Christina civilization rather than just a Christian community among a larger, corrupt, depraved civilization. It was an ambitious jump he traces in which Christians felt like they could apply their principles to inform culture, economics, and politics to a Christian ( read ideal ) end.

Moves from Orthodoxy to Liberal Protestantism:
-literalism of the Bible to historical criticism/interpretation explaining the Bible
-substitutionary Atonement to a metaphor of God's mercy/sacrifice
-God as a transcendent other to God as immanent and in-dwelling in Christians
-Dogma and second-hand religion to experiencing God firsthand in life
-infallibility of the Bible emphasized to Jesus' characteristics and emulating them emphasized

Whereas some people (such as Hutchinson) have argued that liberal Protestant Americans were modernists first trying to accommodate Christianity, Dorrien offers a counternarrative that the liberal Protestants were sincere Christians trying to protect/defend their religion from the decay of orthodoxy. (For example: they dismissed the doctrine of the trinity as a creation of the third century--not in the Bible). They felt like they were going back to (becoming closer) to Jesus than the orthodoxy strands of Christianity (whom they viewed as having moved too far away). Liberal Protestantism focuses on being adaptable (pro-evolution and anti-dogmatism), focusing on personal experience, anti-institutional (at the beginning at least), optimistic about humanity, the immanence of God (He's inside us), focused on this world, opposed to Calvinism, and focused on the life of Jesus as the ultimate pattern for Christians. The supernatural is not rejected as much as the creedal readings of the Bible are). The legacy of this movement might be the "I'm spiritual but not religious" saying/trend in America.

[Brian Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first volume of a three volume history of American liberal theology written from a largely sympathetic perspective. It is well-written and is a good introduction to liberal thought as it developed in the nineteenth century.

Take aways:
Though liberal theology existed in the form of Unitarianism in the early days of the republic, Unitarian influence was curtailed by being ejected from the Congregational churches and segregated in its own denomination. This combined with revivals in the early nineteenth century prevented antebellum America from embracing liberalism.

Liberalism gained in influence after the Civil War by taking over existing denominations and denominational institutions. Liberals were able to do this by disguising their liberalism until they were in positions of power and by winning the tolerance of some evangelical Christians within the denomination. Liberals succeeded most quickly in denominations that eschewed creeds.

The early liberals were often personally pious and were concerned that atheism would triumph if Christianity did not adapt to become more palatable to the zeitgeist. Personal piety and good intentions does not necessarily result true Christian belief.

Fundamental to liberalism was the idea that human reason is the standard by which divine revelation is measured. If the Trinity does not appear reasonable, then it must be rejected; if eternal punishment or penal substitutionary atonement does not seem moral, then it must be rejected. This was often combined with a racist view of culture and a Whiggish interpretation of history: modern white culture was the standard of reason and morality by which Scripture was measured.

[Daniel Hummel · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone identifying more with the more orthodox wing of Dorrien's history, I can still acknowledge good scholarship when I see it. The biographical and intellectual sketches of Bushnell, Gladden, Henry Ward Beecher, and Charles Briggs in here are some of the best and most helpful I've read. Dorrien also excellently traces the influences from German criticism and theology into the American seen.

It is clear Dorrien sympathizes with his subjects, but he limits the explicit endorsements to the intro and conclusion. In between we are treated to deep and comprehensive recountings of the Transcendentalism split, Bushnell's theology, heresy trials and the rise of the Social Gospel movement. Where Dorrien sees heroic "mediation" between orthodoxy and atheism, I tend to see the seeds of rampant accommodationism. Perhaps Briggs's late life regrets over Union Theological Seminary's too-liberal-for-him turn (ironically initially inspired by him) crystallizes my feelings.

As a note, I coupled this with James Turner's Without God, Without Creed: The Origins of Unbelief in America, which gives a declensionist rather than triumphalist take on the same theological trends. Anyway, I look forward to volume II.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Changed how I think about religion, both personally and academically. It amazed me to read such poignant accounts of people who held to their convictions of truth against overwhelming opposition from proponents of orthodoxy and tradition. One of the most challenging books I've ever read, but still (and partially as a result of its difficulty) one of the most rewarding.

[Pamela]

or Gura, American Transcendentalism

[Sarah]

It would probably benefit me to read a solid, sympathetic history of liberal theology sometime.

[Gregory Pelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a challenging book. Not for its topic -which Dorrien has clearly researched extensively and well. But one would REALLY need to be interested in the topic to take on the dense academic language and sentence structure. (It would be helpful for the general reader to have a good theological/historical dictionary at hand.) I wonder for whom Dorrien was writing? If it is for anyone outside a Ph.D. program in religious history, it is not obvious.

I also found there were a few digressions that I found more salacious (affairs, and other such) than forwarding a thesis. Although these details might humanize the figures, I did not find that they connected to the theologies that were being formed. I wonder why they were included.

My petty complaints and struggles aside, the work is impressive in its scope. Recommended to anyone who is willing to slog through the academic language, it offers a grounding in liberal theology in America that would be difficult to find elsewhere.

On to Volume II! The Making of American Liberal Theology: Idealism, Realism, and Modernity 1900-1950