BOOK REVIEW:
The Piety of John Witherspoon: Pew, Pulpit and Public Forum. By L. Gordon Tait. Louisville, Kentucky: Geneva Press, 2001. Pp. xxiv+256. ISBN: 0664501338. 

This book is the fruit of the life’s labors of L. Gordon Tait, Mercer Professor of Religious Studies Emeritus at the College of Wooster. It is a study of the understanding of piety in the thought of John Witherspoon, Presbyterian minister, president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) and the only cleric to sign the Declaration of Independence. Other books and dissertations on Witherspoon have dealt with his biography, political theory, and aspects of his theology, but this is the first to focus directly on the place of piety in his thought.

After a biographical introduction the three topics in the subtitle provide the book’s outline. “Piety for Those in the Pew” treats the doctrines Witherspoon understood to be central to a living faith, and the actions that should flow from belief in those doctrines. The doctrines were, in Witherspoon’s own words, “the lost state of man by nature; salvation by the free grace of God; justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ; and sanctification by the effectual operation of the Holy Spirit” (p. 41). The actions included Sabbath keeping, public worship and reception of the sacraments, and private worship.

Witherspoon understood “Piety for Those in the Pulpit” to include a vital faith and broad learning. Tait lays out the marks of living faith in terms of Witherspoon’s own “Popular” party in Scotland, a group who favored confessional orthodoxy. He contrasts these characteristics with Witherspoon’s Scottish opponents, the “Moderate” party, who were less concerned with the doctrine of the Westminster Confession than with the philosophers of their day, and who were taken to be more worldly in their practices. The type of learning Witherspoon favored included ancient and modern languages, moral philosophy, history, and eloquence. This knowledge was to be marshaled to defend the faith against its heterodox opponents.

In “Piety That Makes Politics Possible” Tait notes Witherspoon’s journey into both political activity and political preaching. Once he had come from Scotland to America he willingly brought politics into the pulpit. However he generally restricted this to days of national observance rather than speaking on politics in worship on the Lord’s Day. Tait argues that the theological frame for Witherspoon’s political preaching is his Calvinist doctrine of providence. Witherspoon preached about the role of providence in political and military affairs, and about what the nation needed to do to secure providential blessing. This reader desired to hear more of how Witherspoon’s faith influenced his political views and actions. Tait notes Witherspoon’s active role in government, both in the New Jersey Provincial Congress, the Continental Congress, and later in the New Jersey Legislature, but the reader gets little sense of how Witherspoon’s theology may have shaped his work in these bodies. Tait is more concerned here with the way Witherspoon’s theology impelled him to speak on political topics than he is with the specific contents of his political thought.

The book is well annotated and has a short but useful bibliography.  It is written at a level that will make it useful in college and seminary courses. Tait’s intention seems to have been to write for lay readers as well, however, for he at times draws parallels to such modern writers as Kathleen Norris and Henri Nouwen.

A variety of readers should find Tait’s book of interest. It contributes to our understanding of the history of Presbyterianism in America, and of a particular Reformed theologian in the eighteenth century. Those who wish to explore the lives and teachings of the founders of our nation will find this book useful. It explores a decidedly orthodox Christian civic leader from an age when many better known figures were more drawn to Deism. One gains a clear sense of Witherspoon’s way of thinking about Christian life and Christian ministry, and one comes to understand the faith that lay behind Witherspoon’s Christian political action. Since Witherspoon was an influential man on just these topics, the reader gains insight into 18^th century American culture as well. 

Gary Neal Hansen
Assistant Professor of Church History
University of Dubuque Theological Seminary

PUBLISHED IN THE BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE FOR REFORMED THEOLOGY, SPRING/SUMMER 2003, VOL. 3, #2.