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Charles Hodge (1797—1878) was an American Presbyterian theologian and a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary for most of his adult life. As the leading expounder and defender of conservative Calvinistic theology, Hodge was immersed in several Old School-New School controversies that eventually led to the 1837 schism in the Presbyterian Church. Charles Hodge is probably best remembered for his three-volume Systematic Theology (1872—1873), considered one of the most effective nineteenth-century presentations of traditional Calvinism and the teachings of the Westminster Confession. The work strongly emphasizes the Bible’s infallibility, inspiration, and inerrancy.
Charles was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a Scots-Irish physician, Hugh Hodge, and his wife, Mary Blanchard. Although Charles’ father died of yellow fever while Charles was still an infant, the family lived comfortably for a while on income produced through their shipping yard property holdings. Mary, a devoted believer, raised her children in the Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where Ashbel Green was the minister. Eventually, when government embargoes and the War of 1812 ended the family’s livelihood, they fell on hard times.
In 1812, the Hodge family moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where Charles’ mother took in boarders to generate income and provide for her two sons’ education. The boys attended the College of New Jersey (later named Princeton University). The elder brother, Hugh, followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a medical doctor and contributing financially to support the family. A revival spread throughout the college campus in 1814, the year before Charles graduated from Princeton University. The young man confessed his faith publicly and joined the Presbyterian Church in Princeton.
After traveling and studying for a year, Charles Hodge entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1816. He became an ardent student and close friend of Archibald Alexander, the theology professor who profoundly impacted his beliefs. Hodge graduated in 1819 and was licensed for ministry by the Presbytery of Philadelphia that same year.
Hodge joined the staff at Princeton Seminary in 1820 as an instructor of Greek and Hebrew. He was ordained the following year and, in 1822, was elected Professor of Oriental and Biblical Literature at Princeton. He held this post until 1840 when he was transferred to the chair of Exegetical and Didactic Theology. Starting in 1854 and until he died in 1878, Charles Hodge served as a Professor of Exegetical, Didactic, and Polemic Theology.
During his tenure at Princeton, Charles Hodge established The Biblical Repertory, later known as The Princeton Review. He edited this prestigious and scholarly journal for nearly five decades, contributing hundreds of articles on theology, biblical criticism, psychology, philosophy, spirituality, politics, science, social issues such as abolition, church government, church history, and ecclesiastical affairs. He also added insightful and intellectual commentary to theological discussions and debates with some of the brightest minds across Europe and the United States.
To expand his biblical and theological scholarship, Hodge completed two years (1826—28) of study in France and Germany, becoming one of America’s most respected Bible scholars and theologians. Despite being bedridden with rheumatism during most of the 1830s, Hodge continued to write and teach.
Charles Hodge wrote biblical commentaries on Romans (1836), Ephesians (1856), 1 Corinthians (1859), and 2 Corinthians (1857). He argued against the theory of evolution and natural selection in What Is Darwinism? (1873) and published The Way of Life (1841), a layman’s theology for the American Sunday School Union. Hodge’s defining work was his Systematic Theology (1872—1873), which is still in print today.
Although Hodge was passionately conservative in his defense of traditional Calvinism, he remained moderate in many areas of American religion and culture. He disagreed with the zealots of the temperance movement who deemed all use of alcohol to be sinful. He also did not side with radical abolitionists who wished to ban slaveholders from attending Christian churches. Instead, Hodge believed that enslaved people ought to be gradually emancipated. Since the Bible does not condemn slavery outright, Hodge could not consider all forms of the institution to be inherently sinful. However, he did assert that slavery in America had failed the biblical benchmark and was indeed evil and abusive and needed to be done away with.
Charles Hodge met his wife, Sarah Bache, in 1813 when her family of four siblings and her widowed mother became boarders in his home. Sarah, a great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin, was only fourteen at the time. After nine years of friendship and courtship, they were married in 1822. The couple had eight children who lived past infancy. Two of their sons, Casper Wistar and Archibald Alexander Hodge, later joined their father on the faculty of Princeton as educators. After twenty-seven years of marriage, Sarah died in 1849. Charles remarried in 1852 to Mary Hunter Stockton, a navy lieutenant’s widow.
Historians characterize Charles Hodge as a man of intense personal devotion and rigorous scholarship. In his fifty-five years in the classrooms of Princeton Theological Seminary, he strongly influenced the lives of some three thousand students. Most of the works he wrote continue to be used more than a century after his death.
Reflect on a few quotes from Charles Hodge:
“To be in Christ is the source of the Christian life; to be like Christ is the sum of his excellence; to be with Christ is the fullness of his joy.” (Commentary on Romans)
“No one book of scripture can be understood by itself, any more than any one part of a tree or member of the body can be understood without reference to the whole of which it is a part.” (Systematic Theology)
“Sanctification is not a work of nature, but a work of grace. It is a transformation of character effected not by moral influences, but supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.” (Systematic Theology)
