{"id":19,"date":"2014-06-11T22:07:20","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T22:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gajunkie.info\/blog\/?p=19"},"modified":"2014-06-11T22:07:20","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T22:07:20","slug":"a-brief-comment-on-presbyterian-history-regarding-the-princetons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19","title":{"rendered":"A Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/font><\/font>
The political news of the day is the upset primary victory of Dave Brat over Eric Cantor, the US House of Representatives majority Leader, i.e. the second highest leadership position for the Republicans in the House.<\/p>\n

I am not going to wade into the politics of that race, but something else, something Presbyterian caught my eye.<\/p>\n

Professor Dave Brat has an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary<\/a>. Yup, it looks like another alum of that venerable institution might be going into government service. You can check out his academic credentials on his faculty web page<\/a> at Randolph-Macon College<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking at his faculty web page it would suggest that he has a Reformed background, having also attended Hope College<\/a> in Holland, Michigan.<\/p>\n

Now, I am not saying that Dr. Brat was ever Presbyterian, let alone PC(USA), but there is a connection. And his campaign bio<\/a> lists him and his family attending a local Roman Catholic parish.<\/p>\n

It is interesting that his campaign bio has gotten a few people worked up because in it, and elsewhere, he talks about getting an M.Div. from “Princeton.” without being any more specific. This apparently has most people thinking PU, leading that institution to need to clarify when asked by the media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

OK, enough about politics and on to what really got my attention.<\/p>\n

What I found most interesting is that the Princeton University spokesperson, Martin Mbugua, made this comment (as quoted on the Washington Post live blog<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Mbugua said people occasionally \u201cmake an association between the
\ninstitutions here in Princeton, an incorrect association.\u201d The two
\nindependent institutions simply \u201chappen to be in the same town,\u201d Mbugua
\nsaid.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

May I take exception to his comment? I will grant you they are two independent institutions but it is not by pure chance they are in the same town. At least to me, to say that there is no association between them ignores the fact that they were both established by early American Presbyterians, that the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) was founded to train ministers and most of its early presidents were Presbyterian ministers. Further, Princeton Theological Seminary was founded as a spin-off from the College to provide a more extensive theological training and the first Principal of the Seminary, Archibald Alexander, came over from the College to head up the seminary. While the college and the seminary may not have always had similar viewpoints, I think it is fair to say that the seminary is a younger sibling of the college.<\/p>\n

If you want to take it a step further up to the present day the University’s Wikipedia page <\/a>notes that “Today, Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary maintain
\nseparate institutions with ties that include services such as
\ncross-registration and mutual library access.”<\/p>\n

While the two schools grew apart during the Civil War and the Fundamentalist\/Modernist controversy, it is worthwhile to note that at their root they come from the same stock.<\/p>\n

OK, history distraction over – back to the GA’s.<\/p>\n

P.S. Waiting to see if David Brat does win the fall election if that might get him distinguished alumni recognition at the seminary. His name has already been added to the Notable Alumni section<\/a> of the Wikipedia page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The political news of the day is the upset primary victory of Dave Brat over Eric Cantor, the US House of Representatives majority Leader, i.e. the second highest leadership position […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,25,5,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-history","category-pcusa","category-seminary"],"yoast_head":"\nA Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons - The GA Junkie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons - The GA Junkie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The political news of the day is the upset primary victory of Dave Brat over Eric Cantor, the US House of Representatives majority Leader, i.e. the second highest leadership position […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The GA Junkie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-11T22:07:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"A Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-11T22:07:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19\"},\"wordCount\":549,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"commentary\",\"History\",\"PC(USA)\",\"seminary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19\",\"name\":\"A Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons - The GA Junkie\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-11T22:07:20+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/\",\"name\":\"The GA Junkie\",\"description\":\"The Politics of Presbyterianism\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"GA Junkie\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Cross-Square.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Cross-Square.jpg\",\"width\":1,\"height\":1,\"caption\":\"GA Junkie\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/ga_junkie\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons - The GA Junkie","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons - The GA Junkie","og_description":"The political news of the day is the upset primary victory of Dave Brat over Eric Cantor, the US House of Representatives majority Leader, i.e. the second highest leadership position […]","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19","og_site_name":"The GA Junkie","article_published_time":"2014-06-11T22:07:20+00:00","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"A Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons","datePublished":"2014-06-11T22:07:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19"},"wordCount":549,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["commentary","History","PC(USA)","seminary"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19","url":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19","name":"A Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons - The GA Junkie","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-11T22:07:20+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=19#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Brief Comment On Presbyterian History Regarding The Princetons"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/","name":"The GA Junkie","description":"The Politics of Presbyterianism","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization","name":"GA Junkie","url":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Cross-Square.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Cross-Square.jpg","width":1,"height":1,"caption":"GA Junkie"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/ga_junkie"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}