One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic
Tome 2
John Nevin’s Writings on Ecclesiology (1851–1858)
By John Williamson Nevin
Edited by Sam Hamstra Jr.
General Editor David W. Layman
One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, Tome 2
John Nevin’s Writings on Ecclesiology (1851–1858)
Mercersburg Theology Study Series 7
Copyright © 2017 Wipf and Stock. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
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paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-1962-5
hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-4603-3
ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-4602-6
Manufactured in the U.S.A. September 19, 2017
Contributors
Sam Hamstra Jr. is the Affiliate Professor of Church History and Worship at Northern Seminary, as well as the Founder and President of ChapterNext, a church consultancy. He is the editor of several studies, most recently The Reformed Pastor: Lectures on Pastoral Theology by John Williamson Nevin, and has authored several works on worship, most recently What’s Love Got to Do With It?: How the Heart of God Shapes Worship.
David W. Layman earned his Ph. D. in Religion from Temple University in 1994. Since then, he has been a lecturer in religious studies and philosophy at schools in south-central Pennsylvania. He is editor for volume 6 of the Mercersburg Theology Study Series, Born of Water and the Spirit: Essays on the Sacraments and Christian Formation.
John Williamson Nevin (1803–86), professor successively at Western Theological Seminary, the Theological Seminary of the German Reformed Church at Mercersburg, and Franklin and Marshall College. He was a leading nineteenth-century theologian and founding editor of Mercersburg Review.
Editorial Approach and Acknowledgments
The purpose of this series is to reprint the key writings of the Mercersburg theologians in a way that is both fully faithful to the original and yet easily accessible to non-specialist modern readers. These twin goals, often in conflict, have determined our editorial approach throughout. We have sought to do justice to both by being very hesitant to make any alterations to the original, but being very free with additions to the original in the form of annotations.
We have decided to leave spelling, capitalization, and emphasis exactly as in the original, except in cases of clear typographical errors, which have been silently corrected. We have, however, taken a few liberties in altering punctuation—primarily comma usage, which is occasionally quite idiosyncratic and awkward in the original texts, but also other punctuation conventions which are nonstandard and potentially confusing today. In several articles the volume editor has added quotation marks to the original author’s quotes as required by modern conventions. We have also adopted standard modern conventions such as the italicization of book titles and foreign-language words. The entirety of the text has been re-typeset and re-formatted to render it as clear and accessible as possible; pagination, of course, has accordingly been changed. Original section headings have been retained; in articles which lacked any section headings in the original, we have added headings of our own in brackets.
Original footnotes are retained, though for ease of typesetting, they have been subsumed within the series of numbered footnotes which includes the annotations we have added to this edition. Our own annotations and additions, which comprise the majority of the footnotes, are wholly enclosed in brackets, whether that be within a footnote that was original, or around an entire footnote when it is one that we have added.
Source citations in the original have been retained in their original form, but where necessary, we have provided expanded citation information in brackets or numerated footnotes, and have sought to direct the reader toward modern editions of these works, where they exist. Where citations are lacking in the original, we have tried as much as possible to provide them in our footnotes.
In the annotations we have added (generally in the footnotes, though very occasionally in the form of brackets in the body text), we have attempted to be comprehensive without becoming cumbersome. In addition to offering citations for works referenced in the original, these additions fall under four further headings:
1. Translation
2. Unfamiliar terms and historical figures
3. Additional source material
4. Commentary
We have attempted to be comprehensive in providing translations of any untranslated foreign-language quotations in these works, and have wherever possible made use of existing translations in standard modern editions, to which the reader is referred.
Additional annotations serve to elucidate any unfamiliar words, concepts, or (especially) historical figures to which the authors refer, and where applicable, to provide references to sources where the reader may pursue further information (for these additional sources, only abbreviated citations are provided in the footnotes; for full bibliographical information, see the bibliography).
Accordingly, we have sought to shed light on the issues under discussion. Although most commentary on the texts has been reserved for the General Introduction and the Editor’s Introductions to each article, further brief commentary on specific points of importance has occasionally been provided in footnotes to facilitate understanding of the significance of the arguments.
We hope that our practice throughout will help bring these remarkable texts to life again for a new century, while also allowing the authors to be heard in their own authentic voices.
Acknowledgments
Volume Editor
As volume editor, I thank Bradford Littlejohn, the founding editor of this series, for the opportunity to edit this volume and, thereby, make a small contribution to the Mercersburg Theology Study Series. I thank David Layman for his excellent work as the general editor of this volume. I thank Charles Hambrick-Stowe for his contribution to this volume (in Tome 1). I also take this opportunity to thank Charles for his positive contribution to my life. While serving as Academic Dean of Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL, Charles hired me to join his teaching team. I thank Patrick Carey of Marquette University. When I informed Patrick that I wanted to focus my doctoral studies on American Protestant ecclesiology, he introduced me to John Nevin; he, then, wisely directed my dissertation—“John Williamson Nevin: The Christian Ministry” (1990). I thank Linden DeBie, editor of the first two volumes in The Mercersburg Theology Study Series, for paving the way for the editors who follow in his impressive wake. I frequently referred to Linden’s first two volumes for editorial guidance and quickly gave up on trying to keep up with the depth and breadth of his editorial comments. I thank Wipf & Stock for its commitment to Mercersburg Theology; this volume marks our third project together on that subject. I thank the Mercersburg Society for its support; I have been a member nearly since its inception and have benefited immensely from The New Mercersburg Review and the society’s annual conferences. Finally, I thank by wife Debbie for her support throughout the project.
General Editor
David Layman thanks Brad Littlejohn for the energy and passion that initiated this project, and for his continued counsel and assistance. He is grateful to