Gresham Machen studied Liberal Theology

 

 

Professor Gresham Machen, who established Westminster Theological Seminary, studied under the prominent liberal theologian Professor Johann Hermann( 1846-1922) at the University of Marburg in Germany.

 

Herrmann was a liberal theologian deeply influenced by the philosophies of Immanuel Kant and Albrecht Ritschl. He understood God as the power of goodness for ethical realization and considered Jesus an exemplary man grounded in ethics.

 

Hermann argued for the existence of God using a dialectical method, synthesizing opposing statements such as affirmation and negation, doctrine and criticism, yes and no, unveiling and concealing, objectivity and subjectivity, to arrive at a comprehensive proposition, i.e., the comprehensive proposition about God. He claimed that the religious experience of God occurs within the individual.

 

Among those who studied in Herrmann's theology classroom were Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and Grace M. Jantzen. Barth later rejected Herrmann's liberal theology. Jantzen authored "Christianity and Liberalism" (1923), arguing that Christianity and liberal theology differed.

 

Machen's willingness to confront and engage in theological debates and conflicts with liberal theologians at Princeton Theological Seminary is due to his studies under a liberal theologian.