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Yale’s Nathaniel William Taylor was the most controversial Edwardsian theologian of his era. He scandalized the country with his recontextualization of Edwards’s views of original sin, freedom of will, and regeneration. His New Haven Theology split the ranks of Connecticut Congregationalists, inciting strong reaction from conservatives led by Taylor’s rival, Bennet Tyler. It also yielded a schism in the Presbyterian Church. This chapter explains and assesses the nature of the controversy sparked by Taylor’s teaching, focusing closely on the debate between Taylorites and Tylerites (who founded a Pastoral Union, a Christian periodical, and a seminary in opposition to Taylor and Yale Divinity School). Revising older views of this dispute, which saw Taylor as a symbol of the decline of Edwardsian theology in America, the chapter interprets Taylor and the contest over Edwards as a sign of the vitality of Edwardsian divinity to the time of the Civil War.

The historic Calvinist churches that still enjoyed significant leadership in American public life thoroughly incorporated common sense and republican emphases into their theology. In general, these theologians condemned the revolutions in France and were suspicious of the “infidel” Thomas Jefferson and his friend James Madison. American Calvinists were, however, not unified; their disputes grew from the different approaches they took to the problems of religious organization and national civilization posed by the new American nation.

Chapter twenty-two addresses the key doctrine of imputation in terms of the Princeton faculty and their disputes over the doctrine with both Nathaniel Taylor (and his New Haven Theology) at Yale and Moses Stuart at Andover. Princeton’s view stood against the rising popularity of the New Haven Theology and its influence on the revivalist theology found in the Second Great Awakening.

Chapter Fourteen surveys the diverse theological landscape of the New England in the period after the American Revolution. Special attention is paid to the developing theologies of Harvard, Yale and Andover. Calvinism was fracturing during this time, and Hodge while traveling to Boston with his friend Benjamin Wisner met many of the important theologians involved in debates surrounding these breaks. He was particularly impressed by Moses Stuart of Andover.

Chapter fifty-three examines Hodge’s opposition to the reunion of the Old and New Schools of Presbyterianism just a few years later. Henry Boyton Smith of Union Seminary led the New School movement for reunion. Hodge wished such a reunion to come, but only when it was based on theological agreements that he did not believe yet existed. He feared that a premature reunion would simply set the stage for a re-enactment of the Schism of 1837.