John Williamson Nevin

[Anglicanorthodoxy]

Who was this guy? Could someone give me an idea of his basic beliefs, and why he was controversial in Reformed circles? How would he differ from people on PB? I see that D. G Hart has written a biography of him called "
John Williamson Nevin: High-Church Calvinist"
I've always thought of myself as sort of a "High-Church Calvinist" I'm Reformed theologically, but also quite high liturgically. Is that what Nevin was, or was he "High-Church" in a different way?

 

[MW]

One distinctive of his sacramentology which is not apparent in Anglican forms is the importation of German neology and his Hegelian view of development and synthesis, which he applied systematically to the church and the sacraments in the same way that Philip Schaff applied it to church history.

 

[yeutter]

Nevin, like Schaff, was a pastor in the Reformed Church US. The Reformed Church U.S. was a body that was made up of predominantly reformed folk of German descent. He used the liturgical forms that were similar to [although translated in English] those used in the Church of Prussia and the Church of Wuerttemberg.

 

[yeutter]

A faithful remnant of the Reformed Church United States continues to this day. For historical reasons they are sometimes referred to as the Eureka Classis of the Reformed Church U.S.

 

[py3ak]

The Germans hired Nevin away from the Presbyterians, and according to James I. Good, Nevin misunderstood the German idealism he was exposed to in his association with Professor Rauch and in his reading along his own lines of Scottish realism. In any case, there was a lot of resistance to what was seen as his liturgical innovation. It also seems to be the case that the more time went by, the less one could speak of Nevin as a "Calvinist" in any meaningful sense.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Nevin contemplated apostatizing to Rome; Nevin is/was big with the Federal Vision guys I think.