Hodge, Charles

▪ American scholar

born Dec. 27, 1797, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.

died June 19, 1878, Princeton, N.J.

      conservative American biblical scholar and a leader of the “Princeton School” of Reformed, or Calvinist, theology.

      Hodge graduated from Princeton University in 1815. He became professor of biblical literature at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1822 and professor of theology in 1840. From 1826 to 1828 he traveled in Europe, where he met the prominent theologians of the day, though he remained firmly resistant to newer trends of thought. Hodge continued to teach at the seminary until his retirement in 1877. In 1846 he served for one year as moderator of the “Old School” Presbyterian Church. This body, like the “Princeton School” of orthodox Calvinist theology, in which Hodge was a major figure, stressed the verbal infallibility of the Bible and asserted other generally conservative views.

      Hodge constructed an influential Systematic Theology, 3 vol. (1871–73), and wrote numerous biblical commentaries. For 46 years he edited the Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, a journal that he founded in 1825 and to which he contributed nearly 150 articles.

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