TAYLOR, NATHANIEL WILLIAM
(23 June 1786, New Milford, CT- 10 March 1858, New Haven, Cn. Education: Graduated from Yale College, 1807; studied theology under Timothy Dwight·, New Haven, 1808-12. Career: Minister, First Congregational Church, New Haven, 1812-22; professor of didactic theology, Yale Divinity School, 1822-57.
The nineteenth century, it is generally agreed, was an age when the United States became increasingly optimistic and secular. The new age required a new theology, and Nathaniel William Taylor provided one-the New Haven Theology. Although Taylor claimed that he never really broke with the Westminster Confession, he stressed, as it did not, the role of personal effort in salvation.
Taylor marched into the new age, however, facing backwards. Although he rejected the idea of predestination, his free will was a circumscribed force which he called, in a famous phrase, "a power to the contrary." The world was still a place of sin, and man was born with an inclination towards evil. But, Taylor argued, man was a free moral creature who was depraved or virtuous according to his own choice. "Sin is in the sinning," said Taylor; it is a matter of actual behavior, not an inherent condition.
In a sense "Taylorism" was only the latest chapter in a process of modifying strict Calvinism. Puritans had first introduced the concept of human volition into their theology during the seventeenth century with the doctrine of preparation. But the New Haven Theology played an important role in strengthening Congregationalism during an age of revivalism and democratic reform. Taylor even accepted "self-love" as a desirable human quality. Ideally a preacher would appeal to man's desire for happiness, which would lead, in the regenerate, to a love of God.
Eloquent as both preacher and professor, Taylor provided a view of the religious life that his followers carried across the country in missions, revivals, and benevolent movements. Soon even the awakenings themselves were seen as the results of human effort rather than God's intervention.
Bibliography
A: Concio ad Clerum (New Haven, 1828); Essays on the Means of Regeneration (New Haven, 1829); Noah Porter, ed., Practical Sermons (New York, 1858); Essays ... upon Select Topics in Revealed Theology (New York, 1859); Lectures on the Moral Government of God, 2 vols. (New York. 1859).
B: DAB 18, 338-39; NCAB 7, 187; RHAP, 419-20; SH II, 285; Sidney E. Mead, Nathaniel William Taylor (Chicago, 1942).
The nineteenth century, it is generally agreed, was an age when the United States became increasingly optimistic and secular. The new age required a new theology, and Nathaniel William Taylor provided one-the New Haven Theology. Although Taylor claimed that he never really broke with the Westminster Confession, he stressed, as it did not, the role of personal effort in salvation.
Taylor marched into the new age, however, facing backwards. Although he rejected the idea of predestination, his free will was a circumscribed force which he called, in a famous phrase, "a power to the contrary." The world was still a place of sin, and man was born with an inclination towards evil. But, Taylor argued, man was a free moral creature who was depraved or virtuous according to his own choice. "Sin is in the sinning," said Taylor; it is a matter of actual behavior, not an inherent condition.
In a sense "Taylorism" was only the latest chapter in a process of modifying strict Calvinism. Puritans had first introduced the concept of human volition into their theology during the seventeenth century with the doctrine of preparation. But the New Haven Theology played an important role in strengthening Congregationalism during an age of revivalism and democratic reform. Taylor even accepted "self-love" as a desirable human quality. Ideally a preacher would appeal to man's desire for happiness, which would lead, in the regenerate, to a love of God.
Eloquent as both preacher and professor, Taylor provided a view of the religious life that his followers carried across the country in missions, revivals, and benevolent movements. Soon even the awakenings themselves were seen as the results of human effort rather than God's intervention.
Bibliography
A: Concio ad Clerum (New Haven, 1828); Essays on the Means of Regeneration (New Haven, 1829); Noah Porter, ed., Practical Sermons (New York, 1858); Essays ... upon Select Topics in Revealed Theology (New York, 1859); Lectures on the Moral Government of God, 2 vols. (New York. 1859).
B: DAB 18, 338-39; NCAB 7, 187; RHAP, 419-20; SH II, 285; Sidney E. Mead, Nathaniel William Taylor (Chicago, 1942).