The Modern Era

A Seminar that Examined the Great Awakening of Colonial America

The Course Description

A seminar on the major events in the history and thought of Christianity from the post-Reformation period onwards. The seminar will include such topics as the emergence of Baptists, Revivals and Awakenings, the Age of Enlightenment, the Modern Missions Movement, the rise of Liberal Theology, the emergence of Cults and New Religious Movements, and Christians and Social Action.

This Seminar was led by Dr. Jason Duesing, Dr. Owen Strachan and had Dr. Thomas Kidd participate as a visiting professor.

The Course Objectives

  1. Clearly articulate an advanced understanding of various aspects of the history and theology of the Christian Church in the Modern Era.
  2. Demonstrate competence in historical and theological research skills. 
  3. Clearly define and evaluate various methods of biblical interpretation used in the history and thought of the Christian church in the Modern Era.
  4. Demonstrate competence in applying the lessons of the modern period of Christian history to modern issues in Christian ministry and contemporary culture.

Reading for the Seminar

1.     Early Modern Era History and Historical Theology

Holifield, E. Brooks. Theology in America: Christian Thought from the Age of the
Puritans to the Civil War. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780300107654. 640 pages. 

Frey, Slvia R. and Betty Wood. Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830. The University of North Carolina Press, 1998. ISBN: 780807846810. 304 pages.

Kidd, Thomas S. The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America. Yale University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780300158465. 416 pages.

2.      Jonathan Edwards

Edwards, Jonathan. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2: Religious Affections. Yale University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780300158410. 536 pages.

Edwards, Jonathan. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 8: Ethical Writings. Yale University Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780300040203. 808 pages. 

Read only: The End for Which God Created the World and Charity and Its Fruits. 

            [OR]

Edwards, Jonathan and John Piper. God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards (With the Complete Text of The End for Which God Created the World). Crossway, 2006. ISBN:9781581347456. 272 pages

Edwards, Jonathan and Lee Strobel. Charity and Its Fruits: Living in the Light of God’s Love. Crossway, 2012. ISBN:9781433529702. 352 pages.

Strachan, Owen and Douglas Sweeney, The Essential Jonathan Edwards: An Introduction to the Life and Teaching of America’s Greatest Theologian. ISBN: 78080241821X. 448 pages.

3.      Later Modern Era History and Historical Theology

Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism and American Culture. Second Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195300475. 468 pages.

Strachan, Owen. Awakening the Evangelical Mind. Zondervan, 2015. ISBN: 9780310520795. 240 pages.

  1. Modern Era Primary Sources

Yeager, Jonathan M. Early Evangelicalism: A Reader. Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780199916979. 424 pages

For the following primary sources, students are to locate their own copies of these selection via the MBTS library or online sources. As long as the original text is used, the specific edition does not matter.

Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics. I/1 §4. “The Word of God in its Threefold Form.” 36 pages.

Chesterton, G. K. Orthodoxy. 1908. 175 pages.

Fosdick, Harry Emerson. “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” 1922. 10 pages. 

Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. 1952. 225 pages.

Machen, J. Gresham. Christianity and Liberalism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1923. 175 pages.

Schleiermacher, Friedrich. On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. 1799. “First Speech: Defence;” “Second Speech: The Nature of Religion” 118 pages.

von Harnack, Adolf. What is Christianity? “I. The Gospel: Preliminary and (i) The Leading Features of Jesus’ Message.” 77 pages.

Warfield, B.B. Revelation and Inspiration. 1932. Vol. 1 “The Real Problem of Inspiration.” 57 pages.

Paper submitted for the Seminar on the influence of John Owen on C.H. Spurgeon’s views of the atoning work of Jesus Christ.