Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield
(November 5, 1851 – February 16, 1921)
Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was
professor of theology at Princeton Seminary from 1887 to 1921. Some conservative Presbyterians consider him to be the last of the great Princeton
theologians before the split in 1929 that formed Westminster Seminary and the
Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Early life
Warfield was born near Lexington, Kentucky on November 5, 1851. His parents were
William and Mary Cabell (Breckinridge) Warfield, originally from Virginia and
quite wealthy. His maternal grandfather was the Presbyterian preacher Robert
Jefferson Breckinridge (1800–1871), the son of John Breckinridge, a former
United States Senator and Attorney General. Warfield's uncle was John C.
Breckinridge, the fourteenth Vice President of the United States, and a
Confederate general in the American Civil War.
Bessie Wallis Warfield (later Wallis Simpson and even later the Duchess of
Windsor), who married King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (and was largely
responsible for his abdication of the throne in 1936), was a distant relative.
Education
Like many children born into a wealthy family, Warfield's childhood education
was private. Warfield entered Princeton University in 1868 and graduated in 1871
with high honors. Although Warfield studied mathematics and science in college,
while traveling in Europe he decided to study theology, surprising even many of
his closest friends. He entered Princeton Seminary in 1873, in order to train
for ministry as a Presbyterian minister. He graduated in 1876.
Ministry
For a short time in 1876 he preached in Presbyterian churches in Concord,
Kentucky and Dayton, Ohio as a "supply pastor" — the latter church calling him
to be their ordained minister (which he politely refused). In late 1876 Warfield
and his new wife moved to Germany where he studied under Ernst Luthardt and
Franz Delitzsch. Warfield was the assistant pastor of First Presbyterian Church
in Baltimore, Maryland for a short time. Then he became an instructor at Western
Theological Seminary, which is now called Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He
was ordained on April 26, 1879.
In 1881 Warfield wrote a joint article with A. A. Hodge on the inspiration of
the Bible. It drew attention because of its scholarly and forceful defense of
the inerrancy of the Bible. In many of his writings, Warfield attempted to
demonstrate that the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy was simply orthodox
Christian teaching, and not merely a concept invented in the nineteenth century.
His passion was to refute the liberal element within Presbyterianism and within
Christianity at large. Throughout his life, he continued to write books and
articles, which are still widely read today.
Marriage
In August 1876 Warfield married Annie Pierce Kinkead. Soon afterward they
visited Germany. During their time there, Annie was struck by lightning and was
permanently paralyzed. Benjamin continued to care for her until her death in
1915, managing to fit his work as a theologian with his role as caregiver. They
had no children. The actual events that led to Annie's paralysis are still
unclear. Some believe that she may have suffered some form of mental or
psychological disability.
Princeton and death
In 1887 Warfield was appointed to the Charles Hodge Chair at Princeton
Theological Seminary, where he succeeded Hodge's son A. A. Hodge. Warfield
remained there until his death. As the last conservative successor to Hodge to
live prior to the re-organization of Princeton Seminary, Warfield is often
regarded[by whom?] as the last of the Princeton theologians. He died on February
16, 1921.[1]
Bible
During his tenure, his primary thrust (and that of the seminary) was an
authoritative view of the Bible. This view was held in contrast to the
emotionalism of the revival movements, the rationalism of higher criticism, and
the heterodox teachings of various New religious movements that were emerging.
The seminary held fast to the Reformed confessional tradition — that is, it
faithfully followed the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Warfield believed that modernist theology was problematic, since it relied upon
the thoughts of the Biblical interpreter rather than upon the divine author of
Scripture. He therefore preached and believed the doctrine of sola scriptura —
that the Bible is God's inspired word and is sufficient for the Christian to
live his or her faith.
Much of Warfield's work centered upon the Bible's "inspiration" by God — that
while the authors of the Bible were men, the ultimate author was God himself.
The growing influence of modernist theology denied that the Bible was inspired,
and alternative theories of the origin of the Christian faith were being
explored.
After comparing grammatical and linguistic styles found within the Bible itself,
modernist scholars suggested that because the human authors had clearly
contributed to the writing of the biblical text, the Bible was written by people
alone, not God. Warfield was a central figure in responding to this line of
thinking by arguing that the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit did not lead
to a form of "mechanical" inspiration (whereby the human authors merely wrote
down what God dictated to them, similar to the story of the Qur'an's
inspiration) but one in which the human author's intellect was fully able to
express itself linguistically, while at the same time being supervised by the
Holy Spirit to ensure its inspiration. This approach is essential to
understanding the view of inspiration held by many Reformed and Evangelical
Christians today.
Studies in religious experience
Warfield was a conservative critic of much religious revivalism that was popular
in America at the time. He believed that the teachings and experience of this
movement were too subjective and therefore too shallow for deep Christian faith.
His book Counterfeit Miracles advocated cessationism over and against miracles
after the time of the Apostles. Such attacks did not go unnoticed, and even
today Warfield is criticized by proponents of revivalism in the Pentecostal and
Charismatic movements. For example, Jack Deere wrote Surprised by the Power of
the Spirit with the intention of refuting Counterfeit Miracles. Warfield's book
was published before the worldwide spread of Pentecostalism and addressed the
issue of false claims to the possession of miraculous gifts under the headings,
"Patristic and Mediǣval Marvels", "Roman Catholic Miracles", "Irvingite Gifts",
"Faith-Healing" and "Mind-Cure".
His book Perfectionism is a detailed critique of what he saw as false theories
of sanctification. It includes an analysis of the Higher Life movement and the
Keswick movement, as well as a rebuttal of earlier schools of thought, such as
that of Asa Mahan and Oberlin College, and in particular the theology of Charles
Grandison Finney.
Calvinism
Underpinning much of Warfield's theology was his adherence to Calvinism as
espoused by the Westminster Confession of Faith. It is sometimes forgotten that,
in his battles against modernism on the one hand, and against revivalism on the
other, he was simply expressing the Reformed faith when applied to certain
situations.
It was Warfield's belief that the 16th century Reformers, as well as the 17th
century Confessional writers, were merely summarizing the content and
application of scripture. New revelations, whether from the minds of celebrated
scholars or popular revivalists, were therefore inconsistent with these
confessional statements (and therefore inconsistent with Scripture). Throughout
his ministry, Warfield contended that modern world events and thinking could
never render such confessions obsolete. Such an attitude still prevails today in
many Reformed churches and Christians who embrace Calvinism.
Calvinism is just religion in its purity. We have only, therefore, to conceive
of religion in its purity, and that is Calvinism. (Selected Shorter Writings, I,
p. 389)
Evolution
“I do not think that there is any general statement in the Bible or any part of
the account of creation, either as given in Genesis 1 and 2 or elsewhere alluded
to, that need be opposed to evolution.” B. B. Warfield[2][3]
Warfield's view of evolution may appear unusual for a conservative of his day.
He was willing to accept that Darwin's theory might be true, but believed that
God guided the process of evolution, and was as such an evolutionary
creationist. His avid interest in amateur science was shared by many Victorian
clerics and Warfield's views were not atypical.[2]
Dr. Alexander neglects to provide the source of the above quote in his book, but
it comes from Warfield's class lecture on evolution prepared in 1888 and that
content was used for the remainder of his years teaching that course, at least
until the early 1900s. However, this brief quotation is not enough by itself to
represent Warfield rightly. The whole force of that lecture is to say that
evolution is unproved and that it would be rash to accept it as proven. A more
complete text for the quote is as follows:
"I do not think that there is any general statement in the Bible or any part of
the account of creation, either as given in Genesis 1 and 2 or elsewhere alluded
to, that need be opposed to evolution. The sole passage which appears to bar the
way is the very detailed account of the creation of Eve ... We may as well admit
that the account of the creation of Eve is a very serious bar in the way of a
doctrine of creation by evolution."
Dr. Warfield also said in the same lecture that evolution could not account for
the origin of the human soul. In short, he held a rather agnostic position in
regard to evolution. He specifically disallowed it as a sufficient explanation,
but he allowed the theoretical possibility of it. He insisted that it had not
been proven and that it would be ill-advised to accept it as such. He also said
on several occasions that Scripture could allow it, and if it is proven at some
point it would pose no problem to the Christian. But he had his doubts. In
consideration of Warfield's views on the subject, it is important not to
evaluate him anachronistically. He cannot be classed as comparable to today's
creationists, but neither should he be considered a theistic evolutionist.
Church politics
Unlike his contemporaries at Princeton, and perhaps due to his invalid wife,
Warfield never cared much for churchmanship. While he was certainly supportive
of political moves within various churches to strengthen and push conservative
theology, he was never interested in the actual process itself, preferring to
use his work at Princeton to influence future generations of Presbyterian
ministers.
Influence and legacy
Along with Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck, Warfield is acknowledged as one of
the major influences on the thought of Cornelius Van Til. However, that
influence was limited to certain areas. In apologetics, Warfield was a
thoroughgoing evidentialist and the most prominent exponent of the Old Princeton
school, whereas van Til, who was the most prominent figure in the Dutch wing of
presuppositionalist apologetics, absolutely rejected the central tenets of Old
Princeton evidentialism and protested violently against the evidentialism of his
contemporary J. Oliver Buswell.
Warfield's influence on contemporary evangelicalism can be seen in the Chicago
Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.