Old-New School refers to an historical division within US Presbyterianism, occurring in 1837.
Read
New Horizons article, and here's a quote:
Quote:
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Today the term Old School Presbyterian has a variety of meanings, but at the time of the division of 1837 it reflected the effort of American Presbyterians to resist being absorbed into the general mainstream of generic American Protestantism. Contemporary Presbyterians may think that being Old School involves certain views on creation, Scripture, sabbatarianism, or worship, but during the middle decades of the nineteenth century, as the Western Memorial indicated, it stood for Presbyterianism that was self-conscious about Calvinism and Presbyterian church polity. In fact, Old School Presbyterianism was opposed to New School Presbyterian views and impulses as much as it was committed to definite views of soteriology and ecclesiology.
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Actually, while frequently in modern arguments certain "issues" do come up (as mentioned above), the basic concerns of modern "Old Schoolers" remains the same: Confessional identity and theology. The modern "issues" are nothing really but an urgent concern that the Confessional stance is being struck at by those who want the identity, but do not wish to be bound to explicit Confessional theology on those issues. Trust me, when the argument leaves the "lesser" issues of Creation and Sabbath and Worship, the next items on the revisionist agenda will be Justification, Election, and Covenant.
Or are we there already?
Frankly, I prefer
endless wrangling over "in the space of six days" Creation language.
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Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI
Made both Lord and Christ--Jesus, the Destroyer
Acts 2:36 - 1 Cor. 10:9-10 & 15:22-26 - Hebrews 2:9-15 - 1 John 3:8 - James 4:12
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