Making History Today: Heretics

Much has been written about the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy that consumed the “Northern” Presbyterian Church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The 19th century produced new ways of studying Scripture, using linguistic research as well as other ways of exploring the background of the biblical narrative. This challenged the traditional understanding  of Scripture as being literal and “inerrant” and led not only to controversy and heresy trials, but schisms in the Presbyterian church. The trial of Charles Augustus Briggs, professor of Old Testament at Union Theological Seminary in New York City (then a Presbyterian seminary) in 1893 revolved around, among other things, his questioning the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. That year the General Assembly suspended Briggs from ministry. One of the results was that Union Seminary withdrew its affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and became independent. Briggs remained on its faculty. 

The controversy continued throughout the first three decades of the 20th century with fundamentalists lining up behind J. Gresham Machen at Princeton Seminary and modernists lining up behind Henry Sloan Coffin at Union Seminary and such luminaries as Harry Emerson Fosdick. The theory of evolution became a flashpoint which was illustrated most vividly with the 1925 Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee.  Eventually, Machen left Princeton and the Presbyterian church to start Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and formed a new denomination, the Presbyterian Church of America (now called the Orthodox Presbyterian Church). (To see more detailed examination of this controversy in the northern church, see Bradley Longfield’s The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, & Moderates and William Weston’s Presbyterian Pluralism: Competition in a Protestant House.)

In the South the most noteworthy parallel to what was going on in the northern Presbyterian church is best seen in the case of James Woodrow, uncle to the future president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. Called in 1861 to Columbia Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina as professor of Chemistry, Geology, and Natural Philosophy, Woodrow eventually came to accept the theory of evolution. In 1886 he was tried for heresy by Augusta Presbytery. He was exonerated by the presbytery, but the next year that ruling was overturned by the Synod of Georgia. Woodrow was eventually removed from his position at the seminary, but in 1891 he became president of South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina). Interestingly, he remained a minister of good standing in the PCUS, was elected moderator of Augusta Presbytery in 1888 and moderator of the Synod of Georgia in 1901. Throughout this time Woodrow also served as editor of the journal, The Southern Presbyterian. 

Here in the Southwest there were also occasions of charges of heresy, four of which will be mentioned here. At the turn of the 20th century First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth called Dr. William Caldwell, a native of Mississippi, a graduate of Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee (now Rhodes College in Memphis) with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. According to E. T. Thompson’s Presbyterians in the South, Volume Three, p. 303, the Fort Worth Presbytery voted to receive him “by a bare majority.” However, a complaint was lodged because Caldwell “rejected the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, the historicity of the early chapters of Genesis, and the penal substitutionary atonement.” Upon receiving the complaint, the Synod instructed the presbytery to hold a new hearing. While reaffirming his earlier statements and understanding Jonah to be an allegory, Caldwell “stated unequivocally his belief in the miraculous conception of Christ, his divinity, the penal substitutionary sufferings of Christ, justification, sanctification and eternal punishment” (Thompson, p. 304). The examination was sustained by a vote of 14-11. The case went back and forth between presbytery and synod and, eventually going to the General Assembly. Finally, after no charges of heresy were filed, in the fall of 1909 the presbytery reported to the synod that no further action would be taken, and the case ended. 

The organizing pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Texarkana, Arkansas was Rev. Finis Ewing Maddox. Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1870, Maddox attended Southwestern University in Clarksville, Tennessee and later studied at the University of Chicago. He served as pastor in Texarkana from 1905-1908. With names “Finis” and “Ewing” one suspects Maddox may have had Cumberland Presbyterian roots. Ouachita Presbytery charged and convicted him of heresy for his rejection of biblical inerrancy, among other things. Maddox maintained that the presbytery and the larger Presbyterian church was still in the Medieval Age in its understanding of Scripture and that John Calvin himself would have agreed with findings of modern scholarship. Suspended by the presbytery, Maddox left the PCUS and founded First Congregational church in Texarkana. 

The final two examples come from the Mexican-American experience, both of which having to do with relations with the Roman Catholic Church. Jose Angel Hernandez was born in Velardena, Mexico to Refugio and Andrea Hernandez. He and his wife, Guadalupe Grimaldo, seven children, one of whom, Rev. Lydia Hernandez-Trickey, provided this writer with some of what’s in this story. Hernandez attended Austin Seminary from 1923-1926 and again in 1929. He was ordained on October 4, 1931 by the Texas-Mexican Presbytery. He served churches Bay City, Gonzales, Cuero, San Marcos, Victoria, Falfurrias, Weslaco, and New Braunfels. He retired December 31, 1965. According to his daughter, Lydia, while serving the church in San Marcos (1948-1949), Rev. Hernandez was brought up on heresy charges by the Texas-Mexican Presbytery for maintaining a collegial relationship with a fellow local pastor who happened to be Roman Catholic. Details are not available, but Lydia recalls that her father was exonerated. 

The name Jorge Lara-Braud is a familiar one to many in the Southwest. Born in 1931 in Mexicali, Mexico. Educated at the Tex.-Mex. Industrial School in Kingsville, Texas (now Presbyterian Pan American School), Austin College, and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Lara-Braud fulfilled a dream of his by becoming dean of the National Presbyterian Seminary of Mexico in 1962. Two years later he was notified that he was being brought up on three charges of heresy: (1) teaching that the Catholic Church was a Christian church; (2) teaching the equality of laypeople with clergy; and (3) taking students to see plays like A Man for All Seasons “while other professors took students to theatrical performances featuring only biblical characters” (quoted in Dare to Adventure: The Life of Jorge Lara-Braud, p. 76). After a vigorous defense Lara-Braud was exonerated, much to his surprise. Nevertheless, he knew that his days at that seminary had ended. Two days after the trial ended Lara-Braud received an invitation from Dr. David Stitt, president of Austin Seminary, to come and serve as an assistant professor of missions. He accepted Stitt’s invitation. 

One of the “Historic Principles of Church Order” in the Presbyterian Book of Order is “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship” (quote is from the 1788 Form of Government adopted by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and is found in F-3.01 in the Book of Order). Nevertheless, there are certain standards upheld by the church. Grateful for both freedom of conscience and standards of the church, we are indebted to those who risked much – on both sides – for their desire to be faithful to their call to discipleship. 

The Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest exists to “stimulate and encourage interest in the collection, preservation, and presentation of the Presbyterian and Reformed heritage” in the Southwest. If you are not a participating member of the Society and would like to become one, the annual dues are $20 per individual and $25 per couple. Annual institutional and church membership dues are $100. Checks may be made out to PHSSW and sent to: 

PHSSW – 5525 Traviston Ct., Austin, TX 78738.