Biblical Scholar

A Modernist Champion.

Charles Augustus Briggs was a Presbyterian minister and seminary professor who was among the first Americans to master historical-critical approaches to Scripture. He placed himself at the center of the struggles that led to the polarization of mainline and fundamentalist Protestants. His 1893 trial for heresy, perhaps the most celebrated in the history of the United States, revealed the depth of division between liberals and conservatives in the nation's dominant Protestant religious tradition. For almost four decades Briggs was an Old Testament scholar of international stature and an intellectual leader at Union Theological Seminary, the leading center of liberal scholarship.

Education.

The son of a barrel maker, Briggs was born in New York City on 15 January 1841. He graduated from the University of Virginia, where he was converted during a college revival and decided to enter the Presbyterian ministry. He was...