Ahoy, Cap'n Ahab!

Billy Bones reportin' fer dooty, sir. Just read the latest issue of the Jolly Roger (v2/issue 2) and very much appreciated your thoughts on Princeton's past.

In order to understand to what extent academia has fallen from its former state, Princeton is probably a good case study. You may know that one of Princeton's early presidents was the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, a Presbyterian minister, theologian, and scholar who is still widely regarded as one of the greatest theological minds in history as well as one of the greatest scholars this country has produced; most theologians rank him with Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in terms of his brilliance. Princeton's divinity school was once a bastion of Reformed, Calvinist theology and the envy of the world. However, this was not to continue indefinitely.

In the latter half of the 19th century, Princeton's faculty fell under the spell of liberal, modernist influences in the church, just as was happening in the U.S. Presbyterian denomination at large (but the corruption always begins in the divinity schools and spreads from there). Presbyterians in the early part of the 20th century drafted and affirmed the Auburn Confession, which did away with the conditions for ordination that required pastors to affirm many of the essentials of historic, orthodox Christianity in order to be considered for pastoral or missionary work.

However, a small group of Princeton faculty, led by Dr. J. Gresham Machen, rejected the creeping modernism of the Auburn Confession. To counter the liberal influence of the PCUSA's Board of Foreign Missions, Machen founded his own Indepent Board of Foreign Missions. For this, he was excommunicated from the Presbyterian Church (think about this: Machen was excommunicated from his own denomination because he dared to stand up for what Christians had believed for almost 2000 years). It was then that some of the Divinity School faculty joined him in forming Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, which thrives to this day. In addition, he was influential in the establishment of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, one of several conservative evangelical Presbyterian bodies in the U.S. The OPC and Westminster Seminary are doing well, and what is happening to the PCUSA? Like many mainline Protestant denominations that have embraced modernism, it's dying a slow and painful death.

So what's my point? Basically, that Princeton itself may be a lost cause, but I'm an optimist. As you guys work hard to spread the word about what's going on at Princeton, people will eventually get the message and send their kids and their dollars elsewhere. Then perhaps the other universities will sit up and take notice.

Gotta run...Keep up the good work, keep the guns primed, and FULL SAIL INTO THE BATTLE!

Billy Bones