Hodge and Warfield on Evolution

Evolution. Our reaction to this word may reflect the legacy of one or the other of two orthodox Reformed perspectives on what it is and how we approach it.

Two of the greatest and most influential of American Presbyterian theologians, Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield, weighed in on the new theories being propounded in their day by one Charles Darwin. Both Hodge and Warfield are justly famous for their rigorous commitment to biblical authority and inspiration, the sovereignty and providence of God, and the confessional nature of orthodox Reformed faith and life. Both Hodge and Warfield also represent a high watermark of rigor and scholarship in the Reformed tradition, and both remain directly or indirectly responsible for much of what is taken for granted in American confessional Reformed theology.

But their approaches to Darwin’s new theories were markedly distinct. One understood evolution to be a naturalistic theory of the universe, and the other as a scientific model of natural and biological processes within the scope of divine providence. The importance of noting this distinction of perspectives is significant: the legacy of how Hodge and Warfield understood the nature, and thus the question, of evolution, is tangible in the fact that these two orientations to the topic adopted by these giants of confessional Reformed theology remain the two basic options with us today.

At Greystone, we believe it is important and fruitful to return to and reconsider many apparently familiar questions and topics in Christian theology in order to discover how our framing of a question goes a long way toward determining what answers we admit as possibilities. This is especially important when dealing with certain questions which, for a range of cultural and historical reasons, tend to provoke primarily emotional reactions, making patient study and discourse that much more challenging. Evolution is certainly one such topic, and simply learning how two unassailably orthodox theologians, each with a famously high view of Scripture, perhaps surprisingly framed the evolution question quite differently from each other may enrich our own approach to the question, and perhaps to others like it.

It is our pleasure to introduce you today to Dr. Jason M. Rampelt (M.A.R., Westminster Theological Seminary; Ph.D., University of Cambridge), Greystone Fellow in Christianity and Science, who will lead us through this question of how Hodge and Warfield understood evolution. This talk was originally delivered at a Greystone event in Grove City, Pennsylvania, and those who find it valuable might consider listening to more of Dr. Rampelt’s lectures found at Greystone Connect, such as his full course of lectures on the History of Christianity and Science, and his upcoming full course on Early Modern Natural Philosophy.