THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
NEVIN, EDWIN HENRY: Presbyterian; b. at Shippensburg, Cumberland County, Pa., May 9, 1814; d. at Philadelphia July 2, 1889. He was graduated at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., 1833, and at Princeton Theological Seminary, 1836; became pastor at Portsmouth, O., 1837; president of Franklin College, New Athens, O., 1841; pastor at Mount Vernon, O., 1845; of the Plymouth Congregational Church at Cleveland, O., 1851; Lancaster, Pa., 1855; in Philadelphia (First Reformed), 1870; retired from the pastorate 1875, and joined the Central Presbytery of Philadelphia. He is the author of numerous hymns, perhaps the best known being " Always with us, always with us." He was also the author of Man of Faith (Boston, 1858); The City of God (Lancaster, Pa., 1868); The Minister's Handbook (Philadelphia, 1872) ; Thoughts about Christ (1882). He was one of the editors of History of all Religious Denominations (1872).
Bibliography: S. W. Duffield, English Hymns, pp. 28-29, New York, 1886; Julian, Hymnology, p. 799.
NEVIN, JOHN WILLIAMSON: Reformed (German); b. near Strasburg, Pa., Feb. 20, 1803; d. at Lancaster, Pa., June 6, 1886. He graduated from Union College in 1821; and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1826, where he taught Hebrew, 1826-28; he was stated supply at Big Spring, Pa., in 1829; professor of Hebrew and Biblical literature in the Western Theological Seminary, 1829- 1840; then professor of theology at Mercersburg Theological Seminary, 1840-53; president of Marshall College, Mercersburg, Pa., 1841-53; professor of esthetics and history in Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa., 1861-66; and president 1866-76, then professor, at the same college, of mental and moral philosophy, 1868-76. In 1876 he retired to private life at Caernarvon Place, near Lancaster, Pa. He was one of the founders of the Mercersburg Theology (q.v.). He edited the Mer-
cersburg Review, 1849-53, writing the largest part of its contents. He published A Summary of Biblical Antiquities; Compiled for the Use of Sunday School Teachers (Philadelphia, 1828; revised 1830); The Anxious Bench (Chambersburg, Pa., 1843); The Mystical Presence; or a Vindication of the Reformed or Calvinistic Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (Philadelphia, 1846); History and Genius of the Heidelberg Catechism (Chambersburg, 1847); Antichrist; or the Spirit of Sect and Schism (New York, 1848).
Bibliography: T. Appel, Life and Work of John Williamson Nevin, New York, 1890.
NEVIUS, JOHN LIVINGSTON: American missionary; b. near Ovid, Seneca Co., N. Y., Mar. 4, 1829; d. at Chefoo, North China, Oct. 19, 1893. He was educated at Union College, Schenectady, 1845-47, and Princeton Theological Seminary, 1850-53. In the latter year he was ordained, accepted as a missionary by the Presbyterian Board, and assigned to Ningpo, China. He labored at this post 1854-59; at the mission center of Hang-chow, 1859, where he was the first to find a footing; and in 1859-61 sojourned in Japan, preparing a " Compendium of Theology " for Chinese students. On his return he removed to the Shantung district, North China, serving at Tung-chow, 1861-64; and at Chefoo, 1871-93, where at his death he was occupied with a translation of part of the Bible. He wrote China and the Chinese (New York, 1869), and Demon Possession and Allied Themes (1895).
Bibliography: Mrs. H. S. C. Nevius, Life of John Livingston Nevius, New York, 1895.
NEW APOSTOLIC CHURCH. See Miscellaneous Religious Bodies, 20.
NEW CONGREGATIONAL METHODISTS. Methodists, IV., 9.
See
I. Definition and Characterization. II. Preliminary Conditions.
The Period of Settlement in
America, 1620-60 (§ 1). The Period of Decline, 1660-1726 (§ 2). III. The Founders.
1. Jonathan Edwards the Elder. His Fundamental Position (§ 1). His Doctrine of the Will (§ 2). Original Sin and Virtue (§ 3).
NEW ENGLAND THEOLOGY.
2. Edwards' Successors, Bellamy and Hopkins. IV. The Development.
1. The Younger Edwards to Samuel Harris.
Doctrine of the Atonement (§ 1). Regeneration (§ 2).
2. The Great Controversies. The Universalist Controversy
(§ 1). The Unitarian Controversy (§ 2).
The Unitarian Position and the
Answer (§ 3). The Separation of the Unitarians
(§4). V. The Ripened Product. Taylorism (§1). Bushnell, Smith, and Finney
(§2). Edwards Amasa Park (§ 3). Summary of Park's Theology (§ 4). VI. The Collapse of the School.
I. Definition and Characterization: New England theology, in the technical sense of these words, designates a special school of theology which grew up among the Congregationalists of New England, originating in the year 1734, when Jonathan Edwards (q.v.) began his constructive theological work, culminating a little before the Civil War, declining afterwards, and rapidly disappearing after the year 1880. During this period it had become the dominant school among Congregationalists, had led to a division among Presbyterians, resulting in the creation of a new denomination, the New School Presbyterian (1838-69), had founded all the theological seminaries of the Congregationalists and
several of the Presbyterians, had furnished the vital forces from which had sprung the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, had established a series of colleges from Amherst in the East to Pacific University in the West, and led in a great variety of practical efforts for the extension of the kingdom of Christ. It may be formally defined as the Calvinism of Westminister and Dort modified by a more ethical conception of God, by a new emphasis upon the liberty, ability, and responsibility of man, by the restriction of moral quality to action in distinction from nature, and by the theory that the constitutive principle of virtue is benevolence. This article sketches its history genetically, details