Few professors have shaped as many generations of pastors as Charles Hodge. For more than half a century he taught the same courses in the same classroom at Princeton, training thousands of Presbyterian ministers who would carry his theology to churches around the world.
Born in Philadelphia in 1797, Hodge lost his father while still an infant, a victim of the yellow fever that had ravaged the city. Raised by his mother and relatives in the Presbyterian faith, he studied at Princeton’s College and Seminary, where he would find his life’s calling.
He married Sarah Bache, great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin, in 1822, the same year he took up the chair of biblical literature at Princeton. They had eight children; two of them, Archibald Alexander and Caspar Wistar, would follow their father as professors at the same seminary.
Between 1826 and 1828 he studied in Germany under scholars such as Tholuck and Gesenius, bringing exegetical rigor to American theology without abandoning Reformed orthodoxy. Back at Princeton, he founded the journal Biblical Repertory, later renamed the Princeton Review, which he edited for 46 years and in which he published nearly 150 articles.
His greatest work, the three-volume Systematic Theology, published between 1871 and 1873, became a reference for conservative Presbyterianism, systematizing Reformed doctrine with pedagogical clarity. He also wrote biblical commentaries and works of popular instruction, such as The Way of Life, which was distributed by the thousands.
His legacy, however, carries a serious stain: Hodge argued, on biblical grounds, that slavery was not in itself sinful, though he condemned the abuses of the slave laws of the American South. This position, which he held even after the Civil War, set him apart from evangelicals of his day who already recognized the evil of slavery.
Hodge also confronted emerging Darwinism in What Is Darwinism?, published in 1874, arguing that the theory, by denying purpose in creation, amounted to atheism. Until the end of his life, he taught the epistles of Paul to thousands of students over 56 years of teaching at Princeton.
He died in Princeton in 1878, leaving behind a theological tradition known as Princeton Theology. His commitment to faithfulness to Scripture and doctrinal clarity still guides Reformed seminaries and the training of pastors for missions around the world.
