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A review by josiahdegraaf
Seeking a Better Country: 300 Years of American Presbyterianism by John R. Muether, D.G. Hart
5.0
This was a really good book that went through the full history of American Presbyterianism without (to my knowledge) falling to one of the twin errors of over-glamorizing or over-vilifying the movement, instead striking a really helpful balance that portrayed both Presbyterian's strengths and weaknesses over the centuries. As someone who was not terribly familiar with the history of the Presbyterian church in America before reading this book, this book did a great job of illuminating the basic conflicts, tensions, and divisions that has led to the state of American Presbyterianism as it is today. I would have preferred to have seen more of the history of the Americanized versions of Irish and Scottish Presbyterianism instead of just the distinctly American form of Presbyterian in this book, but understand why space limitations kept that from happening.
As any good history book does, this book has led me to draw a couple applications from the history described to the time that we now live in today. J. Gresham Machen's heroic and stalwart defense of historic Christianity against the perversions of theological liberalism was one poignant example that profited me when reading of him. In addition to this, I also benefited from the realization through this book that just because a debate over theological matters can get really messy and ugly at times, that doesn't mean that it is not a battle worth arguing. Even when one side is defending the Truth, when the other side is defending a lie, the battle will get ugly. But that's no occasion to shirk away from it.
In conclusion, this book did what a good history book is supposed to do. It explained the history well and, to what I can perceive, fairly; and also provided me with a lot of good historical events to take personal applications from, as well as providing me with the ability to better understand the state of the Presbyterian Church today. As Hart and Muether pointed out, "trying to define Presbyterianism as a body of ideas or a set of practices without reference to history is like trying to explain baseball to someone who has never seen a double play or a sacrifice fly," and, "Presbyterianism understood apart from history is an abstraction bordering on fantasy." Indeed it is. And the time spent learning about this history of Presbyterianism has therefore been very well spent.
Rating: 4.5 Stars (Excellent).
As any good history book does, this book has led me to draw a couple applications from the history described to the time that we now live in today. J. Gresham Machen's heroic and stalwart defense of historic Christianity against the perversions of theological liberalism was one poignant example that profited me when reading of him. In addition to this, I also benefited from the realization through this book that just because a debate over theological matters can get really messy and ugly at times, that doesn't mean that it is not a battle worth arguing. Even when one side is defending the Truth, when the other side is defending a lie, the battle will get ugly. But that's no occasion to shirk away from it.
In conclusion, this book did what a good history book is supposed to do. It explained the history well and, to what I can perceive, fairly; and also provided me with a lot of good historical events to take personal applications from, as well as providing me with the ability to better understand the state of the Presbyterian Church today. As Hart and Muether pointed out, "trying to define Presbyterianism as a body of ideas or a set of practices without reference to history is like trying to explain baseball to someone who has never seen a double play or a sacrifice fly," and, "Presbyterianism understood apart from history is an abstraction bordering on fantasy." Indeed it is. And the time spent learning about this history of Presbyterianism has therefore been very well spent.
Rating: 4.5 Stars (Excellent).