Between the Times

Between the Times: the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Transition, 1945-1990 by D.G. Hart. Willow Grove: The Committee for the Historian of the OPC, 2011, xii + 340 pages, cloth.

D.G. Hart concludes his history of the OPC's middle years (i.e. the time between the operatic intensity of our denomination's founding and the solipsistically fascinating contemporary period) this way:

The history and identity of the OPC are bound up with each other; they cannot be separated. The OPC's history looks different from that of other Presbyterian churches because of its understanding of Reformed Christianity. At the same time, Orthodox Presbyterianism arose from specific struggles and traditions within Presbyterianism in the United States. When the OPC has been most aware of its history she has been most keen to preserve her Reformed heritage, and when she has been most zealous for what Machen called the grandeur of the Reformed faith she has been most attentive to her history. If the OPC is going to maintain her strengths as a Reformed communion, or if her officers and members decide to refashion or modify her identity, they will need first to consider the church's past. Without that history Orthodox Presbyterianism makes no sense.

That's an admirable defense of his book, and the very reason for which I read it. Indeed, as an immigrant into the OPC by virtue of my ordination to the ministry of Word and sacrament, I've long believed that familiarity with our communion's peculiar history is the only thing which might enable one to begin comprehending what matters to us and why.

In practice, that may mean that Between the Times is only for a select audience consisting of OPC historiphiles and anthropologists such as myself. The production of the Trinity Hymnal and Sunday School curricula does not, sadly, make for a riveting read. On the other hand, Hart demonstrates the close connection between home and foreign missions in the OPC's early decades, along with the reality that many pastors were, in practice, as much Church planters as anything else. This helps expand the portrait of parish life which one might otherwise assume to be fairly constricted.

The relationship between the denomination and Westminster Theological Seminary evolved and was strained to the breaking point during this period. I would have preferred an even more in-depth exploration of the Shepherd controversy. About fifteen years ago, its sequel erupted over the doctrine of justification. Sadly (in my opinion), the General Assembly report which was to settle the matter dealt only with doctrinal matters and ignored the history and the personalities involved. The intensity of the debate is explicable only when sociological and historical, over doctrinal, matters are considered. We really need George Marsden to write a history of the entire affair comparable to his "Perspective on the Division of 1937" (found in Pressing Toward the Mark).

Between the Times may not be a popular history, but is indispensable reading for anyone who would serve in ordained office in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, particularly at the presbytery or General Assembly levels.