Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 65:4 (Dec 2022)
Article: American Christianity And The Classics (1776–1861)
Author: Obbie Tyler Todd

JETS 65:3 (September 2022) p. 773

American Christianity And The Classics (1776–1861)

Obbie Tyler Todd*

^* Obbie Tyler Todd is Pastor of Third Baptist Church of Marion, 1102 E. Boulevard Street, Marion, IL 62959. He is also adjunct professor of theology at Luther Rice College and Seminary, 3038 Evans Mill Road, Stonecrest, GA 30038. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: Historians have long recognized the unique synthesis of Christianity and republicanism that prospered among Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, little attention has been paid to the way Americans justified such a marriage between two seemingly incompatible systems of thought. How did these Christians reconcile their biblical faith with classical literature? Though Mark A. Noll has spent considerable effort explaining the “republican Christian Enlightenment” and “Christian republicanism” that flourished in the Revolutionary era, he has not committed any significant treatment to the complex relationship between Christian and classical literature during this period and beyond. This article seeks to elucidate how this synthesis took place in the Christian republican mind, identifying the four primary ways Americans explained the similarity and compatibility between Christianity and classical thought: (1) historically, (2) conceptually, (3) morally, and (4) supernaturally. Ultimately, the relationship between Christianity and the classics determined the viability of the entire Christian republican project in the early United States.

Key words: American Christianity, classics, classical, republics, republicanism, Greece, Rome

When Princeton theologian Samuel Miller wrote a series of letters to his sons in college in the early 1840s, he offered a trove of fatherly advice on topics ranging from patriotism to dress code to friendship. Miller even taught his sons how to spend money and keep their rooms clean. Like many of his enlightened generation, he also encouraged his children to read often and widely. But Miller commended one subject of study more than the rest. “Whatever may be your contemplated pursuit in life, make a point of gaining as much classic literature as you can,” he nudged. “It will be an ornament and a gratification to you as long as you live. It will enlarge your views, discipline your mind, augment your moral and intellectual power, and prepare you for more extensive and elevated usefulness.”1 As a Presbyterian and professor of ecclesiastical history, Miller realized the importance of historical texts and the mastery of ancient languages. After all, the Bible itself was written in both Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament). According ...