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A Missionary Theology. Princeton The ological's dominant figure during his 56 years (1822-78) there was Systematic Theologian Charles Hodge. He had a deep interest in mission work; hundreds of seminary graduates were inspired to carry the Gospel overseas as a result of his Sunday-afternoon seminars on the missionary challenge. "At its best," says President McCord, "Princeton's was a missionary theology—a theology that eventuates in action." The seminary survived the faith-shaking fissures that divided Presbyterians during the 19th century, but was nearly torn asunder by a 20th century battle between moderate and ultraconservative theologians. During the '20s, faculty moderates wished to give a hearing to theologians who were not bound to a literal interpretation of the Bible; conservatives, led by Dr. J. Gresham Machen, argued that such deviationist views should not be allowed on campus. Separate services were held by the rival faculty factions, which fought for the allegiance of the student body. Eventually, the Presbyterian General Assembly had to step in to resolve the quarrel, and in 1929, many of the conservatives quit to form the new Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
The man who put Princeton back on the theological map was Scotland-born John Alexander Mackay (rhymes with high), seminary president from 1936 to 1959. Although conservative, he was open to new trends in the church, brought in as lecturers such famed theologians as Emil Brunner of Zurich. "Mackay brought real excitement to the faculty," says Eugene Carson Blake, the Stated Clerk of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Mackay also doubled both the seminary's enrollment and its endowment, started the school's first doctoral program, founded the lively highbrow quarterly, Theology Today.
Calls to Ministry. Mackay's work has been handsomely carried on by President McCord. 42, a jowly Texan who manages to be both a respected theologian and a top-drawer administrator. He himself teaches two courses—and is famed among students for his gestures: "the punt" (cupped hands suggesting firmness) and "peeling the cabbage" (when he appears to chop ideas from his head). He has strengthened an already good faculty by adding such scholars as Old Testament Expert James Barr of the University of Edinburgh and Pastoral Psychologist Seward Hiltner of the University of Chicago, brought in language machines to speed student learning of Hebrew and Greek. Most of the seminary's 445 students are still Presbyterians. McCord is delighted that the majority plan to enter the pastoral ministry rather than seek a career in scholarship. Says he: "I've never seen a stronger motivation to service." Because of its close ties to the Presbyterian Church, Princeton Theological has never had the international impact of such formidable nondenominational institutions as Harvard's Divinity School or Manhattan's Union Theological Seminary.
But the great independent schools, McCord believes, have never been able to affect any single church the way Princeton has.