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The German Roots of Nineteenth-Century American Theology should be required reading for those with an advanced interest in American church history....It sheds much-needed light on important debates that had a formative impact upon the Reformed theological landscape of nineteenth-century America...[Aubert's] revisionist scholarship deserves not just to be read widely but also celebrated, especially by those who have long suspected that there is something fishy about the standard interpretation of the Princeton Theology."--
Themelios"There is much to commend in this painstakingly researched and carefully written monograph. Dr Aubert s conclusions are well-argued and largely convincing. The book does an excellent job of setting the divergence between Princeton and Mercersburg within a wider, transatlantic context. The nuanced analysis of Charles Hodge is especially welcome and reflects the author s sound comprehension of the theological issues under review...
The German Roots of Nineteenth-Century American Theology is an excellent study which displays both an in-depth knowledge of theology and the religious history of the transatlantic world. It should be eagerly read by all modern religious historians with an interest in the development of Reformed theology in the United States."--
Reviews in History"An excellent historiographical survey in intellectual and transatlantic history, and it will contribute to establishing a fruitful foundation for further studies like it."--
Historia ecclesiastica'[A] learned book."--
Theology Today"This is an extremely interesting and well-researched book...A careful and convincing study...This important volume will nuance how we look at American theologians in the Reformed Protestant tradition."--
Theological Studies"A weighty study...stimulating."--
Reviews in Religion & Theology"With outstanding mastery of German and American sources, Annette Aubert makes a much-welcomed contribution to American religious history. The surprisingly strong connections she documents in this fine book between German and American theologians reveal much about the past while also opening up new doorways for fresh inter-continental research." --Mark A. Noll, author of
America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln"Annette Aubert has written a tremendously engaging work of transatlantic intellectual history. Students of both modern Germany and the United States, historians and theologians, will find much to value in this work." --Thomas Albert Howard, author of
Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University "The Germanization of major elements of nineteenth-century American Christian thought is finally attracting a sizable number of serious scholars. Annette Aubert now joins this group with an erudite study of the role of
Vermittlungstheologie ('mediating theology') on American thought in general and Reformed thought in particular, focusing closely on the atonement theories of Princeton's Charles Hodge and Emanuel Vogel Gerhart of the German Reformed Church. Her work is full of historical insight that should change the way we think about her subjects and their world. It offers a form of Atlantic history seldom seen but sorely needed by those who teach modern American religion." -- Douglas A. Sweeney, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"Beginning with a wide-ranging description of German Protestant thought in the nineteenth-century, Aubert provides a creative interpretation of German influence on Reformed theology in America by gradually narrowing her vision to two theologians- Emanuel Gerhart and Charles Hodge-and showing that although they differed on countless theological matters, they drew heavily from the German conflict between 'mediating' and 'confessional' theologians, an indebtedness clearly visible in their treatment of 'atonement.' This is solid theological and historical analysis, lucid and insightful, detailed but not arcane, deeply researched but never pedantic, measured in its claims but broadly suggestive and rich with implications for a fresh interpretation of nineteenth-century American theology." -- E. Brooks Holifield, Charles Howard Candler Professor of American Church History, Emeritus, Emory University
"Aubert has produced a fine contribution to the transatlantic history of theology, and one that introduces students of American theology to the major ideas of the German mediating theology. We can hope that more scholars follow her lead."--
Journal of Reformed Theology
