From Old Princeton to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

By Matthew Barrett–

“Of Scots and Hibernians we have about a dozen, several being Glasgow graduates; also a Baptist preacher, and wife, from Charleston. Last year there were five or six Baptists, all most promising young men.” These are the words of J. W. Alexander, describing the new crop at Princeton Theological Seminary. But who is this “Baptist preacher” he mentions? It is none other than James P. Boyce (1827-1888), later to become the great founder and president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Boyce attended Princeton and learned greatly from Archibald Alexander in pastoral and polemical theology. And while this young twenty-three year old student learned preaching from Archibald (and his son, J. W. Alexander), it would be Charles Hodge who taught him systematic theology. Hodge was Boyce’s favorite professor. Alexander passed down Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology to Hodge and in turn Hodge passed down Turretin’s Institutes to Boyce. However, even when Boyce was a student, Hodge was developing his own notes that would later become his Systematic Theology. Years later, Boyce’s notes would prove foundational as he developed his own lectures, mirroring Hodge both in method and content, though unafraid to differ from his master where he deemed necessary.

Boyce loved learning from Hodge, first and foremost because Hodge exalted the God of Scripture. Broadus writes of Boyce’s experience, “It was a great privilege to be directed and upborne by such a teacher in studying that exalted system of Pauline truth which is technically called Calvinism, which compels an earnest student to profound thinking, and, when pursued with a combination of systematic thought and fervent experience, makes him at home among the most inspiring and ennobling views of God and of the universe he has made.”

But Hodge did not leave Boyce with mere abstract loci. Rather, the love of Christ, said Hodge in his 1850 message on 2 Corinthians 5:14, is to constrain us. “No man becomes great,” said Hodge, “or successful, who has not one object, and one constraining motive.” The “love of Christ” is the “constraining motive” and the “glory of Christ” the “one object.” Boyce took Hodge’s words to heart, letting them seep into the very core of his soul, and then pour out onto his own Baptist students.

What Boyce teaches us is that behind every man of God there is a teacher, someone who has been influential in the most significant way. After all, what would Elisha have been without Elijah? What would Joshua have been without Moses? And what would Timothy have been with Paul? The point is: God has placed teachers in our life to instruct us in the ways of the Lord. And as Hebrews makes so plain, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 11-12).

With Boyce, that teacher was Hodge. The “exalted system of Pauline truth which is technically called Calvinism,” so ingrained in Old Princeton men like Hodge, and later B. B. Warfield and J. Gresham Machen, infiltrated Boyce’s theology and consequently, Southern Seminary today stands in debt to Old Princeton. The lesson in all of this must be to guard the deposit of the gospel by sitting at the feet of those who teach the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3).

Matthew Barrett (Ph.D., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at California Baptist University (OPS). He is also the founder and executive editor of Credo Magazine. Barrett has contributed book reviews and articles to various academic journals, and he is the editor of Whomever He Wills: A Surprising Display of Sovereign Mercy, as well as the author of several other forthcoming books.

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Each of us are indebted to those theologians of ages past who have gone before us, heralding the gospel, and even fighting to their last breath to keep the God of that gospel high and lifted up. It is hard to think of a group of men more worthy of this praise than those of the Old Princeton heritage. Men like Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, B. B. Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, and many others, stand in this rich heritage, men who defended the faith once for all delivered to the saints against the ever-growing threat of liberalism around them.

Since this year marks the 200^th anniversary of Old Princeton (1812-2012), it is fitting that we devote ourselves to remembering and imitating these great theologians of yesterday, not because they are great in and of themselves, but because their example points us to the great and mighty God we worship. And who better to introduce us to these Old Princetonians than James M. Garretson writing on Archibald Alexander, W. Andrew Hoffecker making our acquaintance with Charles Hodge, Fred Zaspel reminding us of B. B. Warfield, and D. G. Hart increasing our love for J. Gresham Machen? Not to mention a very in-depth interview with Paul Helseth on Old Princton and the debate over “right reason.”  May these articles and interviews inspire us so that in our own day we might experience a revival of this rich orthodoxy that has stood the test of time.