Reason and Faith at Early Princeton ─ Piety and the Knowledge of God

Teaching piety and the highest good have been goals from the beginning of the Academy. Princeton University and Theological Seminary had their start in these same ideas. This book explores the concepts of reason and faith at early Princeton by examining how this institution was shaped by a pursuit of piety and the knowledge of God. Princeton University (originally the College of New Jersey) emerged out of the First Great Awakening and its commitment to teaching 'vital piety.' Reason, as the faculty by which humans understand, was affirmed and developed in the pursuit of the knowledge of God. Faith, as belief in what is not seen, was affirmed against the challenges of Deism and Naturalism. No other institution at the time combined reason, faith, and historic Christianity in this way. The implication is that early Princeton represents a high-water mark in education worthy of our consideration.

Owen Anderson is the William E. Simon Research Fellow in Religion and Public Life at Princeton University, USA (2013-2014) and an associate professor at Arizona State University, USA. His past books include Reason and Faith in the Theology of Charles Hodge and The Natural Moral Law: The Good After Modernity.