Nathaniel William Taylor - Life and Ministry

Life and Ministry

Born in 1786 to a rich and religious family in Connecticut, Taylor entered Yale University when only 14 (1800) but could not graduate until 1807 because of an eye problem. While studying there, Taylor was heavily influenced by the revivalist president of Yale, Timothy Dwight (grandson of Jonathan Edwards). In the years after his graduation, Taylor studied theology, worked as Dwight's secretary, and, after ordination, became the minister of the First Church of New Haven in 1812.

While Taylor himself was not an evangelist, his sympathy for revivalism during a time when revivals were breaking out ensured that he had a major influence upon the core beliefs of revivalists and the churches that were created from them.

The Second Great Awakening, despite its scope and power, was opposed by the more established church, especially Episcopalians and "Old Calvinists", but also the growing Unitarian movement. After Taylor had been appointed Professor of Didactic Theology at Yale in 1822, he used his influence to publicly support the revivalist movement and defend its beliefs and practices against opponents.

The result of this was that Taylor repudiated Calvinistic Determinism - the idea that the works of God alone are responsible for all activities in the universe. He did this to preserve the ideal of human freedom, mainly because he believed that determinism contradicted freedom and was thus immoral. Since God could not be immoral, then Determinism could not be possible for a loving, perfect Deity.

The repudiation of determinism was followed by further changes to Calvinistic doctrines such as Revelation, Human Depravity, God's Sovereignty, Christ's Atonement and Regeneration. Both Taylor and Dwight are credited with the creation of "New Haven Theology", which appealed to both Congregationalists and New School Presbyterians and who found traditional Calvinism difficult to embrace.

Naturally, both Taylor and New Haven Theology were vigorously opposed by Old Calvinists, especially Charles Hodge from Princeton Seminary. Taylor's modification of Calvinism not only drew their ire, but prompted many of them to declare that Taylor's system was not Calvinism at all, but Arminian and even Pelagian.