From The Journal of Presbyterian History, Volume 82, No. 1, Spring 2004

In 1967, the United Presbyterian Church adopted the Book of Confessions. The action was a milestone in American Presbyterian history. Previously the majority of American Presbyterians had only one set of confessional documents—the Westminster Confession and catechisms drafted in the 1640s. After the adoption of the Book of Confessions, the United Presbyterians had multiple confessions reflecting more of the breadth of the Reformed tradition. They also now had as a part of the Book of Confessions a new, contemporary statement of faith, “The Confession of 1967.” At the center of the change was Edward A. Dowey, Jr., who chaired the special committee that compiled the Book of Confessions and that drafted the “The Confession of 1967.” John Wilkinson examines the steps by which the new confession emerged and assesses Dowey’s role in the process. We also reprint Dowey’s article on creedal revision that originally appeared in Presbyterian Life in 1965. It is with sadness that the editors note the death of Edward A. Dowey, Jr., in 2003, and we dedicate this issue to his memory.

Francis Pickens Miller was a twentieth-century Presbyterian whose multiple careers are chronicled by Jeanne Torrence Finley and Richard B. Faris. An ecumenist, he worked for the YMCA and the World Student Christian Federation. He was also a lay theologian who co-authored The Church Against the World (1935), a significant manifestation of the new mood of Christian realism in mainstream Protestant thought in the 1930s. He helped found the journal Christianity and Crisis and was an early proponent of U.S. involvement in the struggle against Nazi Germany. After serving in military intelligence during World War II, he returned home to Virginia to run twice for office against the political machine of Senator Harry F. Byrd, to support racial desegregation, and to work for the reunification of the northern and southern branches of the Presbyterian Church. The theological vision that inspired Miller’s many endeavors is the central theme of Finley and Faris.

There was a time when historians treated theology in America as if it deserved, at best, a brief glance. Two major works appearing in the last year and a half—Mark A. Noll’s America’s God (2002) and E. Brooks Holifield’s Theology in America (2003)—have demonstrated how passé that view is. Despite their differences of interpretation, both authors show, among many other things, how central debates over Calvinist theology were in the pre-Civil War period. James H. Moorhead offers an extended review essay of the contributions of these two major works.

In this issue are historical sketches: one by Harold F. Smith on Parkville College’s role in the resettlement of American Japanese students during World War II and the other by R. James Henderson on the two Elias Boudinots who appear in Presbyterian history. For stated clerks, we offer information on the steps to be taken for the preservation of records when a church is to be dissolved. Also included is news from the annual meeting of the Committee of the Presbyterian Historical Society at Philadelphia, October 30 through November 1, 2003.