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The Theological Discussion Group and Its Impact on American and Ecumenical Theology, 1920–1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Heather A. Warren
Affiliation:
Ms. Warren is assistant professor of religious studies in the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Extract

Discussion about theological developments in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s has focused on the influence of European “crisis theology” and Reinhold Niebuhr. This approach, however, has overlooked the cooperative work carried out by the theologians and churchmen who pushed American Protestant thought towards neo-orthodoxy. At the core of this movement stood a group of young theologians who shared a generational identity, having known each other as student leaders in the YMCA, Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions (SVM), and the World's Student Christian Federation (WSCF). Among them were men and women who later held academic positions at America's most prestigious Protestant seminaries: Henry P. Van Dusen, John C. Bennett, the Niebuhr brothers, Walter M. Horton, Edwin E. Aubrey, Georgia Harkness, Robert L. Calhoun, John Mackay, Samuel McCrea Cavert, and the layman Francis P. Miller.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1993

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