Tuesday, April 22, 2025

It is the 22nd of April 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Depending on when in the future you are listening to this you may still have the opportunity to go to 1517.org, click on the “celebrating CHA” link and there you can click on a link that gives you a “behind the scenes” video of the making of the Almanac (the link didn’t work for a time if you tried clicking on it before)- I say that because it ties in to today’s show in which I will pull back the curtain just a smidge on the making of this show.

Every once in a while, as is bound to happen with over 2000 episodes, I will be knee deep into reading and taking notes for an upcoming show when I am struck with fear… “Oh no, I think I’ve done this show before!” And now that the 1517 search engine is a beast and can find all my old shows, I am able to confirm my suspicions. But the beauty of a short podcast is that they don’t claim to be exhaustive and many characters can be observed and their stories told and I’ll introduce or reintroduce our man today with a special attention on his role in thinking through the problems of “confessional subscription” (I’ll explain that if it is not a thing in your own tradition).

So, 4 years ago I told the story of Jonathan Dickinson- no, not the adventurer turned mayor of Philadelphia and no, not the founding Father- he was Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, the grandson of this Jonathan Dickinson the man I will call the “patron saint of American moderates” who was born in Hatfield Massachusetts on this, the 22nd of April in 1688.  

The Scottish theologian John Erskine complained that the British Isles in the 18th century had not produced minds as brilliant as those of Jonathan Edwards and Jonathan Dickinson. Edwards might be the most famous American theologian and Philosopher, but you would not be judged if you asked “who?” (Even having heard the show on him 4 years ago). And I will suggest that the very thing that made Dickinson so important is the reason he is often forgotten- he was the consummate moderate. And if you’ve ever been on the internet, you know that moderation- a middle or nuanced position tends not to get clicks and eyeballs.

But it was Dickinson’s moderation that made him so useful in his own time. The Presbyterian church of his day was rocked with schism. The “old lights” and “new lights” fought over the two big issues of the early 1700s- the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening. To what extent could reason be utilized, and then to what extent could emotion and spectacle be employed in the winning and care of souls? 

Dickinson's most popular work was “Familiar Letters to a Gentleman, Upon a Variety of Seasonable and Important Subjects in Religion,” published in 1745, two years before his death, and laying out his thoughts in what was then a novel and readable style.

But it was his role in the Adopting Act of 1729 that is of interest on today’s show. One of the key controversies in the churches of the Reformation involved what is called “confessional subscription,” especially with regard to ordained ministers. The question is: to what extent must one subscribe to (that is, believe and confess) to a confession of faith? The Lutheran church has long been divided over this (is it 100% or nothing? Something in between?) and my Lutheran friends can look at my Presbyterian friends with shock when they learn that Presbyterians who hold to the Westminster Confession of Faith have long had the ability to confess “scruples” or places they choose to part ways with the confession- to argue for an exemption to a clause or statement in the confessions to then be decided upon by the ordaining body if it is ok. Dickinson’s argument was that subscription was to the general system, not every jot and tittle, and if a minister was open about their concerns, an ordaining body had the right to decide if it was disqualifying or not.

Dickinson believed that by doing this not only was he finding middle ground between the groups but that he was also protecting the purity of the ministry and the ultimate authority of Scripture.

While his positions on reason and emotion may have been useful in their day, the Enlightenment and the First Great Awakening would have other notable defenders and thinkers, and his work would fall by the wayside. Sometimes it's the curse of taking a moderate position such as his. But even today, the issue of confessional subscription in many Presbyterian church bodies follows his arguments for a moderate form of confessional subscription allowing for “scruples” and giving authority to an ordaining body to determine a minister's fitness.

His popularity would lead to him being called as the first President of Princeton- but he unfortunately succumbed to smallpox upon taking office in 1747. Born on this, the 22nd of April in 1688 John Dickinson was 59 years old.  

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary for today and Acts 26, here Paul is recounting his encounter with Jesus on the Road to Damascus.

 15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 22nd of April 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows that BTS is “behind the scenes” but wishes it would involve discussion of Jin, or Suga, or J-hope, and the other Korean popstars… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who had to Google the names of the BTS guys and admits to having never knowingly heard a song by them…  Dan van Voorhis   

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.