CHAPTER
TWO
The Princeton Connection
Outline of the Chapter
1.
Introduction
2.The
Personal Connection
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The
Princetonians
2.3 The
Evangelicals
2.4 The
Outcast
2.5 Conclusion
3.The
Theological Connection
3.1 Introduction
3.2 God
3.3 Heathenism
3.4 Conversion
3.5 Conclusion
4.Conclusion
Introduction
When
the pioneer members of the Laos Mission arrived in Chiang Mai
in the years up to 1880, they stepped into a social and historical
world as unlike the United States as nearly anywhere in the
world. They faced the one central question of how to best communicate
the Christian message in their new situation. In spite of the
cultural gap between themselves and the northern Thai, they
chose to treat the people of northern Siam as if they were essentially
the same as people in the United States. To us, that decision
seems ill conceived. Why did it seem wise and proper to them?
The answer to this question, we proposed in the Introduction,
lies potentially in the system of meanings and doctrines the
missionaries took with them, a system that seems to have been
influenced by and reflected in the Princeton Theology. The question
is, was there a theological and ideological link between Princeton
and Chiang Mai? The records of the Laos Mission, when read in
light of the writings of the Princeton theologians, suggest
that a connection between the seminary and mission did exist.
It was both a personal and a theological connection.
The Personal Connection
Introduction
The link
between the Princeton Theology and the work of the Laos Mission
lay, first, in the missionaries themselves. In the years between
1867 and 1880, there were only
28
nine members of the mission:
three couples, the Rev. Daniel and Sophia McGilvary, the Rev.
Jonathan and Kate Wilson, and Dr. Marion and Sarah Cheek; and
three single individuals, Dr. Charles Vrooman, Edna Cole, and
Mary Campbell. The McGilvarys, originally members of the Siam
Mission, arrived in Chiang Mai in April 1867. The Wilsons, also
members of the Siam Mission, reached the city in February 1868.
Dr. Vrooman, a physician, first entered the city in January
1872, and his replacement, Dr. Cheek landed in Chiang Mai in
March 1875. Cheek returned to Bangkok the following year to
marry Sarah Bradley, Sophia McGilvary's stepsister, and the
couple returned to Chiang Mai sometime in 1876, the exact date
not being recorded. The last two missionaries to arrive in this
period, Cole and Campbell, reached Chiang Mai in April 1879.
These nine individuals represent three general theological orientations.
McGilvary and Wilson were Princetonians; Cheek was at least
partially one as well. All five women in the mission have clear
links to orthodox evangelicalism and there is some evidence
to suggest a direct Old School Presbyterian connection. It is
not correct, however, to term them "Princetonians."
Vrooman, as we will see shortly, stood alone and on the outside.
The Princetonians
The Laos
Mission was not merely a collection of nine undifferentiated
individuals, and the influence of the Princeton Theology cannot
be measured by simply counting heads. Some heads mattered more
than others. As Table 2.1 (below) indicates, only the McGilvarys
and the Wilsons served the mission in its pioneer era for an
appreciable length of time and in any case Daniel McGilvary
stood well above his colleagues in prestige and influence. His
vision, initiative, and persistence played a large role in the
creation of the mission in the first place, and as will be seen
he set the tone for and initiated much of its program. His clear
roots in Princeton count for a great deal in establishing that
theology's theological and ideological impact on the Laos Mission.
Wilson just as clearly occupied the number two position in the
mission, and although he did not possess McGilvary's leadership
skills he was no less of a "Princeton man" for that.
These Princeton connections, in and of themselves, suggest that
the Princeton Theology played a potentially important role in
mission life. McGilvary's Old School and Princeton credentials
are particularly important for an added reason. His correspondence
with the Board contains occasional comments on the theological
orthodoxy of his colleagues, orthodoxy meaning a theology compatible
with Princeton. Leaving Wilson aside for the moment, we turn
here to a brief theological biography of Daniel McGilvary (1828-1911).
McGilvary's
Old School credentials are impressive. He was raised in a North
Carolinian hotbed of conservative, Old School, Scottish immigrant
Presbyterianism and into a pious family and a solid, Scottish
congregation, the Buffalo Church. As a child, his days were
filled with the exercises of Presbyterian piety and the lessons
of a Presbyterian
29
education; by the age of
ten or so he had memorized all 107 questions and answers of
the Shorter Catechism, no mean feat for someone much older than
ten. The tiny library that he read at home contained religious
books and periodicals that were mostly published in Philadelphia.
He witnessed, year after year, the impressive sacred rites and
social camaraderie of the "Buffalo Communion," a carryover
from Scotland and Ulster of a communion ritual of an intensely
evangelical brand of Presbyterianism. The event lasted for at
least four days or more at a time and was attended by celebrants
coming from up to forty miles away. Before becoming a missionary,
McGilvary served as a local church elder, attended Princeton
Seminary, and briefly served two Old School Presbyterian congregations
as a pastor.
Table 2.1
Years of Missionary Service in the Laos Mission, 1867-1880
| Name |
Chiang Mai |
Furlough |
Chiang Mai |
Total in Chiang Mai |
| D. McGilvary |
1867-1873 |
1873-1875 |
1874-1880 |
11 |
| S. McGilvary |
1867-1873 |
1873-1875 |
1875-1879 |
10 |
| J. Wilson |
1868-1876 |
1876-1879 |
1879-1880 |
9 |
| K. Wilson |
1868-1876 |
1876-1877 |
— |
8 |
| Vrooman |
1872-1873 |
— |
— |
1 |
| M. Cheek |
1875-1880 |
— |
— |
5 |
| S. Cheek |
1876-1880 |
— |
— |
4 |
| Campbell |
1879-1880 |
— |
— |
1 |
| Cole |
1879-1880 |
— |
— |
1 |
Sources: BFM and Eakin Papers biographical
files
The records
of the Laos Mission demonstrate that Princeton significantly
influenced McGilvary's thinking, he valued the theology he learned
there, and he cherished his memories of his seminary professors.
The evidence is as follows:
[1] During
his examination for licensure before Orange Presbytery, McGilvary
responded to one question by quoting fully and correctly two
answers to questions in the Shorter Catechism, and one of his
examiners remarked that he was "right on the Catechism."
McGilvary comments, "In those days to be 'right on the
Catechism' would atone for many failures in Hodge or Turretin."
The phrase "Hodge or Turretin," is significant;
McGilvary, Half Century, 20-3. For comments on Old School
Presbyterianism in North Carolina, see Guion Griffis Johnson,
Ante-Bellum North Carolina: A Social History (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina, 1937), 36-41, 353. For a description
of McGilvary's Highlander cultural and ecclesiastical heritage
in North Carolina, see Cornelia Hudson, [Life of Daniel McGilvary],
unpublished typescript, n.d., 1-7. For a history of his home church,
see W. L. Lacy, "Buffalo Church: Centennial Address 1897,"
typescript copy, n.d.; For the history of one of the congregations
he served as pastor, see John K. Roberts, History of Union
Presbyterian Church (Carthage, North Carolina: Kelly
Printing Co., 1910), esp. 16-7. And for a helpful description
of the origins and importance of Scottish communion celebrations
in the United States, see Schmidt, Holy Fairs, esp. 55ff,
65-6.
McGilvary, Half
Century, 21-2.
30
Charles Hodge was the dean
of the Princeton theologians. Francis Turretin (1623-1687) represented
the culmination of the continental Reformed confessionalism,
and his ponderous Latin work on systematic theology was Princeton
Seminary's standard text in theology for some sixty years. Both
McGilvary and Wilson had to master its contents in order to
graduate. Only a Presbyterian already somewhat familiar with
Princeton would make a passing comment like this one.
[2] When
it came time for McGilvary to choose a seminary to attend, he
selected Princeton, because of the good reputation of Drs. Hodge
and Alexander.
[3] During
the trip out to Siam in 1858, McGilvary and Wilson had occasion
to counsel a young sailor troubled by his lack of faith. They
gave him a copy of Flavel's Christ Knocking at the Door
because they knew that Dr. Archibald Alexander, the founding
father of Princeton Seminary, as a troubled young man had found
deep meaning in this sermon. John Flavel (1630?-1691) was an
English Presbyterian Puritan who had been widely read by colonial
Presbyterians, and McGilvary remembered correctly that Flavel's
sermon had brought comfort and joy to Alexander.
The presence of this small book in Wilson or McGilvary's baggage
plus McGilvary's knowledge of Alexander's religious experience
suggest a comfortable familiarity with things Princeton as well
as Presbyterian.
[4] Soon
after his arrival in Chiang Mai, McGilvary forwarded a brief
article entitled, "Brethren, Pray for us," to the
Foreign Missionary. In that article, he quotes his
former professor at Princeton, J. Addison Alexander, to the
effect that Paul's injunction to the Thessalonian Christians
to pray for him (I Thessalonians 5:25) almost amounts to a commandment.
In this one instance, at least, McGilvary made a direct connection
between what he learned at Princeton and his prayerful behavior
as a missionary.
[5] In
an 1872 letter to the Board, McGilvary responded to the news
that it might not continue to send the Princeton Review
out to the mission with the statement that he "would not
like to forfeit the pleasure of its perusal."
The Princeton Review was a key forum for the dissemination
of the Princeton Theology, edited by Charles Hodge himself.
McGilvary, apparently, enjoyed reading it regularly.
[6] In
1874, McGilvary visited the Orthodox Congregational Theological
Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, and commented favorably on
the fact that the professors were "all Orthodox men to
the handle." He singled out one of them for special comment,
writ-
McGilvary, Half Century, 33. The Alexander referred to
here could be either Archibald Alexander, who had just recently
died (1851) or J. Addison Alexander, his son and a member of the
seminary faculty at the time McGilvary applied to study there.
McGilvary, letter
dated 31 May 1858, NCP 1, 35 (28 August 1858): 1. Concerning
Flavel's influence on Alexander, see Loetscher, Facing the
Enlightenment, 22.
McGilvary, undated
