The Mercersburg Theology and the Quest for Reformed Catholicity

"For an increasing number of Protestants, the dismemberment of Protestantism is a scandal, an oozing wound in the body of Christ, leaving behind a twisted Christ as painful to behold as the Isenheim altarpiece. But what is a Protestant to do? The Reformation was itself a rent in the vesture of Christ, so how can Protestants object to the tin-pot Luthers and Machens who faithfully keep up the Reformation tradition of fissure and fragmentation? . . . We need an American Reformation that recovers the original catholic vision of Protestantism, and in pursuing this, American Protestants do well to take a page from early twentieth-century Catholics and embark on a program of ressourcement, and to this program Littlejohn's book is a valuable contribution . . . Here he explains the Mercersburg Theology fairly and thoroughly, and shows how Mercersburg interacts not only with nineteenth-century Reformed theology but with the developments in Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches over the past two centuries. Above all, Littlejohn is deeply conscious that historical theology is never an end in itself, never an exercise in mere antiquarianism. We remember so that we can know how to go forward, and we seek to recover lost resources so that we can pave a fresh future. [Littlejohn] demonstrates how Mercersburg, and especially Nevin, can assist in forming an American Protestant churchliness."

--from the foreword by Peter J. Leithart.



"Deeply sympathetic to the Mercersburg theologians, Nevin and Schaff, Littlejohn presents a plea for Reformed theology to take Church, sacraments, and apostolic succession seriously as divine means of salvation. By linking Mercersburg to the Oxford Movement, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Catholic movement of nouvelle theologie, this book contributes toward a renewal of Reformed theology. Littlejohn's ressourcement of the Mercersburg Theology is courageous and stands as a model of solid ecumenical theology."

--Hans Boersma, author of Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross and Nouvelle Theologie & Sacramental Ontology



"Littlejohn has joined a growing number of fine scholars who have recently discovered the Mercersburg movement. Long overdue, research into this unsung and brilliant faculty of philosophers, theologians, church historians, and pastors has begun to reveal one of America's most accomplished yet neglected schools of thought. With his focus on John W. Nevin, the school's theologian, Littlejohn's contribution is most welcome for the new and relatively untreated areas he opened up, namely Mercersburg and the Oxford movement and Mercersburg and Eastern Orthodoxy. His fresh insights give us new avenues of thought and provide provocative reflection on an already extremely provocative nineteenth-century theological movement."

--Linden J. DeBie

author of Speculative Theology and Common-Sense Religion: Mercersburg and the Conservative Roots of American Religion (Pickwick, 2009)