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The Problem of a History of Nineteenth-Century Theology: A Response

Claude Welch's two-volume work, Protestant Thought in the Nineteenth Century, has justifiably received much praise since the publication of the first volume almost twenty years ago. Peter Hodgson, referring to the first volume, hailed it as "the first truly significant history of nineteenthcentury Protestant thought in the English language."James Duke, reviewing the second volume, declared: "It is as broad and balanced and reliable a survey as the present generation will likely see. It is also a daring historiographical venture, an attempt to remap last century's theology."' Others as well have applauded it; most acknowledge it as the standard work on the subject. The work is indeed a most significant contribution to understanding the rich period that is the nineteenth century. The work stands out from older works on the subject, such as Karl Barth's and Hugh Ross Machintosh's, by attempting more than a merely national history, but it also stands out from more recent works, such as Ninian Smart's threevolume Nineteenth Century Religious Thought in the West (Cambridge, 1985), by its cohesiveness. Welch's volumes tell a rich, interesting, and coherent story of Protestant theology. And Welch tells the story without succumbing to the temptation either to speak only of the theological giants or merely to report the interpretations of others. Instead, Welch has organized his volumes according to significant themes, and he introduces individual Protestant thinkers, great and not so great, as is appropriate to the theme being considered. This approach facilitates a common history, rather than a national history of the period. The possibility of theology and the possibility of christology are the ordering themes for volume 1 (1799-1870), whereas the theme of Christianity and culture provides the structure for volume 2 (1870-1914). Although some have criticized Welch's identification of key themes and the concomitant periodization (three periods: 1799-1835, 1835-70, 1870-1914), I find both, especially the former, defensible and helpful. Welch himself admits that his identification of themes and his periodization would be problematic if rigidly applied. They are not. And although Welch's, like any