The New International Encyclopædia/Princeton Theological Seminary

PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. One of the oldest Protestant schools of theology in America. In 1809 the proposal to found a theological seminary for the Presbyterian Church was introduced before the General Assembly in the form of an overture from the Presbytery of Philadelphia. In 1812 the General Assembly fixed the location of the seminary temporarily at Princeton. The first session began on August 12, 1812, with three students in attendance, and in 1822 an act was passed incorporating the institution under the name of the Trustees of the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church. During its existence over 5000 students have been matriculated, coming from nearly every State of the Union and from foreign countries. The curriculum as at present organized embraces eight departments of study. The teaching force consists of ten professors and seven instructors. The biblical criticism of Princeton is conservative. The theology taught is the type of Calvinism set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, interpreted in the light of the classical literature of the English Puritan, Swiss, and Dutch theologians who wrote after the Synod of Dort. The representative publications of the seminary are the essays in the old Princeton Review, written by its professors, and in the Presbyterian and Reformed Review and the current Princeton Theological Review; together with the writings of Archibald and Joseph Addison Alexander, especially the commentaries of the latter on the Psalms and the Prophecies of Isaiah; the works of Samuel Miller, chiefly in ecclesiastical history; the three volumes of Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge; and the critical works of William Henry Green on the various Pentateuchal questions. The seminary had in 1903 a library of 70,600 volumes, and 30,000 pamphlets, grounds and buildings valued at $526,150, an endowment of $1,423,333. and a gross income of $70,557. Its total attendance was 172 including 15 graduates and 8 special students.