Fides Quaerens Intellectum

My employer has graciously allowed me to use this month exclusively for dissertation writing, a gift for which I am truly grateful.  The title is “Citizen-Formation, the Common Good, and American Higher Education during the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy, 1880-1930,” and in it I explore the ways in which the contours of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s changed–in both overt and subtle ways–the American cultural psychology with respect to role that American colleges and universities have in educating students to become virtuous citizens that contribute to the common good.  All of that is background for today’s post, which is a quote on the connection between faith and public life that I found while doing my research. John Witherspoon was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who became president at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1768 and held that office until his death in 1794.  He also holds the distinction of being the only ordained minister to sign the Declaration of Independence. 

The quote comes from a sermon Witherspoon preached on campus on May 17, 1776, and its title is “The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men.” Chief on his mind at this time in the nation’s history was the Revolution, and as president of the college of New Jersey he felt obligated to exhort the student body with respect to the role of the Christian religion in their lives and its value in sustaining the American republic:

 Suffer me to recommend to you an attention to the public interest of religion, or in other words, zeal for the glory of God and the good of others.  I have already endeavored to exhort sinners to repentance; what I have here in view is to point out to you the concern which every good man out to take in the national character and manners, and the means which he ought to use for promoting public virtue, and bearing down impiety and vice.  This is a matter of the utmost moment, and which ought to be well understood, both in its nature and principles.  Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction.  A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time; but beyond certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual and slavery must ensue.  On the other hand, when the manners of a nation are pure, when true religion and internal principles maintain their vigor, the attempts of the most powerful enemies to oppress them are commonly baffled and disappointed.  This will be found equally certain, whether we consider the great principles of God’s moral government, or the operation and influence of natural causes.  What follows from this?  That he is the best friend to American liberty, who is the most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind.

John Witherspoon, “The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men.”  A sermon delivered at the College of New Jersey at Princeton; May 17, 1776.  In Matthew Rose and Alan R. Crippen, II (eds.), John Witherspoon:  An American Leader (Washington, D.C.:  Family Research Council, 1999):  72.