Charles Hodge's View Of The Catholic Church

In May of 1819, at the age of twenty two, Charles Hodge was presented with a question that would transform him into a leading figure on moral issues in America, and ultimately the shape the course of theologians in the nineteenth century. After graduating from the Princeton Theological Seminary, Hodge was approached by the President of the Seminary, Archibald Alexander, and asked if he would like to be a professor in the seminary. As you may have presumed, Hodge graciously accepted this offer. In subsequent years, Hodge used his position in the Princeton Theological Seminary as a platform to promote his views and offer varying perspectives on American issues. Unlike many students at the Seminary, Hodge’s views were not simply on theological
This relates back to Hodge’s embracement of the fundamental Scottish philosophies. He believed sense data is directly presented to the mind and that the mind directly perceives this and intuitively judges them to be facts. Furthermore, when data of a moral kind is presented, the mind is assisted by the moral sense to render intuitive judgement about what is good and what is evil. Based on this, Hodge and Alexander believe that the existence of God is understood by all men everywhere, because the mind is so constituted that it cannot help perceiving it as fact and judging it to be real. The main purpose of the mind is to organize these facts by induction until they assume an appropriate pattern. These facts, Hodge argues, are found in the Bible. When God reveals information, it must be taken as fact. Otherwise, if you find something in the Bible that you don’t like, you can immediately play it off as a metaphor. This directly lends itself to the inerrancy of the Bible that the Princeton School
In 1874, Hodge published “What is Darwinism?”. In this book, Hodge boldly claims that Darwinism, was essentially atheism. Hodge proves this in a variety of ways, all of which reflect the Princeton Theology. The first point he makes is that God is a substance and a person. We can address him and therefore he is real. The cornerstone of religion is that God created the universe and is part of our consciousness. Someone who embraces atheism is rejecting this as the truth and therefore rejecting God and religion as a whole. Hodge then asks how Darwin can account for creation of matter on earth? Darwin makes a few key assumptions that Hodge attempts to refute. The existence of matter, the efficiency of physical causes, and the existence of life in the form of one or more primordial germs. Darwin says that from these germs, all living organisms, including man, have descended. He does admit that there is a creator, however, Darwin gives no detail as to who the Creator is or how he relates to the world, further than is implied in the meaning of the word. A central aspect of Darwin’s theory is the use of the word “natural”. This is also a major critique that Hodge focuses on. By using the expression “natural selection”, Hodge claims that Darwin excludes design, or final causes. Instead, this means that life has been brought about by unintelligent physical causes. Hodge believes that because Darwin does not