Elders And Ecclesiology In The Thought Of James Henley Thornwell -- By: Luder G. Whitlock, Jr.

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 37:1 (Fall 1974)
Article: Elders And Ecclesiology In The Thought Of James Henley Thornwell
Author: Luder G. Whitlock, Jr.


Elders And Ecclesiology In The Thought Of James Henley Thornwell

Luder G. Whitlock, Jr.

James Henley Thornwell was a giant among Americans of the nineteenth century and a leading spirit in the organization of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America.1 Although he was highly regarded in the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, becoming the youngest moderator of the General Assembly in the history of that denomination, it was in the Presbyterian churches of the Southern states that he left a definite mark which is apparent in the newly organized National Presbyterian Church and to a degree still present in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.2 H. Sheldon Smith maintains that “it is not too much to say that his theological thought has dominated most of the history of Southern Presbyterianism.”3 Paul L. Garber, who has done a substantial amount of research on Thornwell, writes:

In whatever manner the Southern Presbyterian Church may have departed from the ideals he defined for its establishment in 1861, that denomination remains to an extent the lengthened

shadow of James Henley Thornwell as the Scottish Church is of John Knox.4

Since that influence was experienced the most decidedly in ecclesiology we shall turn to that area, concentrating on Thornwell’s doctrine of the parity of elders as it emerged in the context of ecclesiastical controversy culminating with the famous debate between Thornwell and Charles Hodge at the 1860 General Assembly in Rochester, New York. Throughout this period Thornwell’s great concern was to keep power within the courts of the church and to maintain a balance of power between the clergy and laity, the teaching and ruling elders.

The Old and New School division of 1837 appeared to have a marked influence on Thornwell’s ecclesiology. Old School Presbyterians, of which he was one, considered it necessary to exclude the New School Presbyterians whom they regarded as unpresbyterian in doctrine and practice. Convinced that a failure to implement Presbyterian polity consistently had almost destroyed Presbyterianism through the Plan of Union with the Congregationalists, Thornwell was equally persuaded that unless the principles of Presbyterian government were thoroughly thought out and applied by the Old School men, Presbyterianism would remain in jeopardy. The prolonged debates in the Old School General Assemblies of 1842–1844 regarding church boards, the quorum and ordination issues revealed that an agreement re...

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