Making History Today: The Presbyterian Outlook

(Note: While the Presbyterian Outlook is an independent and national publication, some of its editors do have connections to the Southwest, namely, to Texas.) 

In 2019 The Presbyterian Outlook celebrated its 200th anniversary. Initially published as The Missionary and then in the 1930s as The Presbyterian of the South, this journal became The Presbyterian Outlook in 1943 when Ernest Trice Thompson, the editor, and Aubrey Brown, the new managing editor, collaborated to change the name. That’s not the only change that came when Thompson, a native of Texarkana, Texas and professor of church history at Union Seminary in Richmond, and Brown, a native of Hillsboro, Texas and a Union Seminary graduate, took over the Outlook. 

Up to then this independent journal reflected the Southern Presbyterian Church’s (PCUS) tendency toward what Thompson called “the spirituality of the church,” rarely addressing issues confronting the larger public. In the 1930s when the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy was still aflame and when Thompson began serving as editor of the Outlook, he attacked this doctrine and, as a result, was brought up on charges of heresy for favoring higher criticism. He was acquitted. Both Thompson and Brown had moved away from biblical literalism and the strict Calvinism of traditional southern Presbyterian teaching. Both were influenced by such luminaries as Walter Rauschenbusch and Harry Emerson Fosdick, both of whom understood the need for the church to address issues facing society. 

In an address given on the occasion of The Outlooks’s 200th anniversary Dr. Brian Blount, at the time president of Union Seminary-Richmond, remarked that Thompson and Brown not only changed the journal’s name, but they “pressed forward with an inclusive, prophetic agenda that included themes such as: reunion with other Presbyterian denominations, embracing the equality of women and men in church leadership, and integration of people of color.” 

Later in the same address Blount noted the importance of truth-telling regardless of the consequences: “(I)f someone does not incarnate the the truth, then non-truth wins…. (I)f someone does not flesh out the light, then darkness wins…. When truth abdicates, non-truth floods in. When light leaves, darkness dominates. The Outlook, at its best, has provided a place for truth, provided flesh for light, in honest exchange of different perspectives….” 

Aubrey Brown edited the Outlook until he retired at the end of 1978. Thompson retired from both teaching at Union Seminary and editing and contributing to the Outlook in 1964. The journal has seen several editors since then including George Laird Hunt, Robert Bullock (another native Texas and graduate of Austin College and Austin Seminary), Jack Haberer, among others. Today the Outlook’s editor is Teri McDowell Ott. There is an online edition as well as a traditional hard copy. It is filled with news of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and, as an independent journal, is a rich resource for the church today. 

As that important journal continues to make history today, this column will close with  two quotes cited by Brian Blount in his 200th anniversary address. The first is by former Outlook editor Robert Bullock: “In the midst of the Presbyterian family, we are attempting here at the Outlook to be a channel, to be a bridge, to be a means for Presbyterians of diverse views to come to know and to appreciate one another as sisters and brothers in Christ, who despite all their differences are drawn together in a common witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and who can stand joyfully around the table of our Lord.” 

The second quote is by Tom Currie (full disclosure: this writer’s brother): “We are called to confess our faith as the truth, the quite public truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. The implications of this truth for social and political questions will, we think, always be a matter of debate. But we are not called to turn away from that debate so much as we are called to ‘speak the truth in love’ (Ephesians 4:15), that is, to enter that debate precisely as a redemptive community, not as a special interest.” 

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.