232. D. G. Hart on Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution

In this episode, we welcome back Dr. Darryl Hart to discuss his book Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution. What is Presbyterianism, and “why did Prebyterianism so often emerge as an irritant in British and American Politics between 1630 and 1800?” How did John Calvin, and his Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 1541 come to influence (and be influenced by) a British context – in which debates over Biblical ecclesiology so often involved challenges to both the Crown and bishops. What were the political implications of Presbyterianism? In “the first English installment of the case for Presbyterianism” - who was Thomas Cartwright and what was the nature of some of the debate with future archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift? Taking us into the unity and diversity of Presbyterian emphases and development across the Anglo-American world, we see how the emphasis on the spiritual independence of the church stayed consistent even as support for religious establishment in the Old World gradually shifted in the New World toward a support of “the emerging structures of liberal society”. Moreover, there was an irony in the fight for requiring confessional subscription in American Presbyterianism – as the issue of church authority was a real struggle in the church as a church, even apart from the shifting political ideals. Listen in, as Dr. Hart takes us through the place of Presbyterian Minister John Witherspoon (the only active minister to sign the Declaration of Independence) in the general story of Presbyterianism – as well as how the Presbyterian story was such a “necessary stimulant for the orthodoxy of liberal democracy” in the broader society.

Book: Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution

Other resources by Dr. Hart:

Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America

Also: Hear our interview on this book here

Check out his course for Reformed Forum here

Calvinism: A History

Seeking a Better Country: 300 Years of American Presbyteriansim

The Lost Soul of American Protestantism

Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant

From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism

Other resources:

The Institutes of the Christian Religion; Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 1541 by John Calvin

The Westminster Confession of Faith

The Church of Christ by James Bannerman

The Doctrine of the Spirituality of the Church in the Ecclesiology of Charles Hodge by Alan Strange

“No Faith Worth Defending” by Carl Trueman

The Puritans by David Hall

The Reformation of Rights by John Witte Jr.

Hot Protestants by Michael Winship

How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman

American Heretics: Religious Adversaries of the Liberal Order by Jerome Copulsky

John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic by Jeffry Morrison

Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic by Mark David Hall

The Declaration of Independence in Historical Context by Barry Alan Shain