John Gresham Machen was born on July 28, 1881 in Baltimore, Maryland to Arthur Webster Machen and Mary Jones Gresham. His father was a lawyer in Baltimore and his parents were married at the ages of 45 and 24. Arthur was an Episcopalian, while his wife, Mary, was a Presbyterian - this resulted in the upbringing of John in The Westminster Shorter Catechism. The family attended Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, and John's upbringing was considered to be highly privileged, for he attended a private college and received a classical education, including Latin, Greek, and the piano.
Portrait of J. Gresham Machen
In 1898 at the age of 17, John began his studies at Johns Hopkins University for his undergraduates degree. While there he majored in the classics after having received a scholarship for his sufficient performance. John was a brilliant scholar, and in 1901 he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society after graduation; he was an active member in Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. In 1902, John pursued a career in theology at Princeton Seminary while simultaneously studying a Master of Arts in Philosophy at Princeton University. In 1905 Machen pursued theological studies in Germany for a year where he first encountered German liberalism taught by his Professor, Wilhelm Herrmann. Regardless to this new exposure, he rejected the movement, and embraced the Conservative Reformed theology even more firmly than before. In 1906 he rejoined Princeton Seminary as an instructor in New Testament. He was ordained in 1914, under the influence of Francis Patton, and became the assistant professor of New Testament the next year.
Durning World War I, Machen served in France with the YMCA rather than participating "conventionally". He was extremely involved in volunteer work, and though never a participant in combat, he witnessed first hand the devastation of modern warfare. After returning from the war, Machen continued his work as a New Testament scholar at Princeton.
Machen's Christianity and Liberalism
Perhaps his best known scholarly work is The Origin of Paul's Religion, written in 1921. The book successfully attempted to critique the Modernist belief that Paul's religion was entirely different than the religion of Jesus and was based primarily off of Greek philosophy. Another of Machen's books that also criticized theological modernism was Christianity and Liberalism, written in 1923. Here he compared Protestant Christianity to the rising popularity of Modernists. In this work he concluded that "the chief modern rival of Christianity is Liberalism." In What is Faith?, Machen attempted to anchor the faith in the historical fact of Christ's atonement, thus emptying the Bible and creeds of all definitive meaning. These major publications, along with various others, placed Machen firmly within the theological camp of the Presbyterian Church.
Though an outstanding conservative apologist and theologian at Princeton, Machen left the school because of Modernism. He was offered the presidency of several schools, but denied each one. In 1929 along with some other colleagues, Machen founded Westminster Theological Seminary in Philedelphia to continue reformed orthodox theology. In 1933 he went on to found The Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, due to his concerns about liberalism tolerated by Presbyterians on the mission field. This caused major controversy and was deemed unconstitutional. Machen was charged with insubordination, tried, and found guilty. When Machen and seven other clergy refused to succumb to the ultimatum of breaking their links, they were suspended from the Presbyterian ministry. This led to Machen's ultimate withdrawal from the Northern Presbyterian Church, and he came to form what would later be known as the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Machen was extremely suspicious of mixing religion with politics. He was even more concerned about the corrupting influence of politics on Christianity, and saw the social gospel as a terrible warning. He was a strong opponent to school prayer and the reading of the Bible in class - he believed Christians should run their own schools. He opposed any extension of state power and opposed the establishment of a federal Department of Education.
Machen died in 1937 at the age of 55. In December of 1936 he had developed pleurisy in North Dakota, and was hospitalized after Christmas for pneumonia - only to die on January 1st. Just before his death, he dictated a telegram reading, "I'm so thankful for active obedience of Christ. No hope without it." He is buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, where his tombstone reads, "Faithful Unto Death" in Greek.
J. Gresham Machen
John Gresham Machen was born on July 28, 1881 in Baltimore, Maryland to Arthur Webster Machen and Mary Jones Gresham. His father was a lawyer in Baltimore and his parents were married at the ages of 45 and 24. Arthur was an Episcopalian, while his wife, Mary, was a Presbyterian - this resulted in the upbringing of John in The Westminster Shorter Catechism. The family attended Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, and John's upbringing was considered to be highly privileged, for he attended a private college and received a classical education, including Latin, Greek, and the piano.
In 1898 at the age of 17, John began his studies at Johns Hopkins University for his undergraduates degree. While there he majored in the classics after having received a scholarship for his sufficient performance. John was a brilliant scholar, and in 1901 he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society after graduation; he was an active member in Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. In 1902, John pursued a career in theology at Princeton Seminary while simultaneously studying a Master of Arts in Philosophy at Princeton University. In 1905 Machen pursued theological studies in Germany for a year where he first encountered German liberalism taught by his Professor, Wilhelm Herrmann. Regardless to this new exposure, he rejected the movement, and embraced the Conservative Reformed theology even more firmly than before. In 1906 he rejoined Princeton Seminary as an instructor in New Testament. He was ordained in 1914, under the influence of Francis Patton, and became the assistant professor of New Testament the next year.
Durning World War I, Machen served in France with the YMCA rather than participating "conventionally". He was extremely involved in volunteer work, and though never a participant in combat, he witnessed first hand the devastation of modern warfare. After returning from the war, Machen continued his work as a New Testament scholar at Princeton.
Perhaps his best known scholarly work is The Origin of Paul's Religion, written in 1921. The book successfully attempted to critique the Modernist belief that Paul's religion was entirely different than the religion of Jesus and was based primarily off of Greek philosophy. Another of Machen's books that also criticized theological modernism was Christianity and Liberalism, written in 1923. Here he compared Protestant Christianity to the rising popularity of Modernists. In this work he concluded that "the chief modern rival of Christianity is Liberalism." In What is Faith?, Machen attempted to anchor the faith in the historical fact of Christ's atonement, thus emptying the Bible and creeds of all definitive meaning. These major publications, along with various others, placed Machen firmly within the theological camp of the Presbyterian Church.
Though an outstanding conservative apologist and theologian at Princeton, Machen left the school because of Modernism. He was offered the presidency of several schools, but denied each one. In 1929 along with some other colleagues, Machen founded Westminster Theological Seminary in Philedelphia to continue reformed orthodox theology. In 1933 he went on to found The Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, due to his concerns about liberalism tolerated by Presbyterians on the mission field. This caused major controversy and was deemed unconstitutional. Machen was charged with insubordination, tried, and found guilty. When Machen and seven other clergy refused to succumb to the ultimatum of breaking their links, they were suspended from the Presbyterian ministry. This led to Machen's ultimate withdrawal from the Northern Presbyterian Church, and he came to form what would later be known as the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Machen was extremely suspicious of mixing religion with politics. He was even more concerned about the corrupting influence of politics on Christianity, and saw the social gospel as a terrible warning. He was a strong opponent to school prayer and the reading of the Bible in class - he believed Christians should run their own schools. He opposed any extension of state power and opposed the establishment of a federal Department of Education.
Machen died in 1937 at the age of 55. In December of 1936 he had developed pleurisy in North Dakota, and was hospitalized after Christmas for pneumonia - only to die on January 1st. Just before his death, he dictated a telegram reading, "I'm so thankful for active obedience of Christ. No hope without it." He is buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, where his tombstone reads, "Faithful Unto Death" in Greek.
References
Portrait of J. Gresham Machen