Charles R. Erdman

This article is about the Princeton Seminary professor. For his son, the Princeton, New Jersey mayor, see Charles R. Erdman, Jr..

Charles Rosenbury Erdman, Sr. (1866-1960) was an American Presbyterian minister and professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Early life and education

Erdman was born on July 20 1866 in Fayetteville, New York to William J. Erdman, a leader in the premilennialist and holiness movements of the late nineteenth century.^[1] He earned his B.A. (1886) from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and went on to study at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1887 to 1891. Erdman was ordained on May 8 1891 in the Presbytery of Philadelphia North, PCUSA.^[2]

Career

Erdman served as pastor of Overbrook Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1891 to 1897, and then at First Presbyterian Church in Germantown from 1897 to 1906. He joined the faculty at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1905, where he served as professor of practical theology until his retirement in 1936. During that time, Erdman was elected the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1925, and also served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey from 1924 to 1934.^[2]

Erdman was a major voice for tolerance toward deviation from the Westminster Standards, in opposition to J. Gresham Machen, which led to the reorganization of the seminary and some faculty breaking off from Princeton to form Westminster Theological Seminary in 1929.^[3]

Death

Erdman died in 1960 and is buried in the Princeton Cemetery of the Nassau Presbyterian Church.^[4]

Selected publications

Erdman was the author of over thirty popular biblical commentaries and books of pastoral theology. Two of his essays entitled "The Coming of Christ" and "The Church and Socialism" were included in The Fundamentals.

• "Modern Spiritual Movements" in Biblical and theological studies, Princeton Theological Seminary, ed. (1912)
• The Gospel of Mark: an exposition (1917)
• The General epistles: an exposition (1918) ISBN 1103512706
• The Acts: An Exposition (1919) ISBN 1103776223
• The Gospel of Matthew: an exposition (1920) ISBN 0801034027
• The Gospel of Luke: an exposition (1921) ISBN 1406892629
• The Gospel of John: an exposition (1922) ISBN 1458877876
• The Return of Christ (1922)
• Within the Gateways of the Far East: A Record of Recent Travel (1922) ISBN 1103877119
• The First epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: an exposition (1928) ISBN 0801033942
• The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians: an exposition (1931) ISBN
• The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon: an exposition (1933) ISBN 0801033934
• The Epistle to the Hebrews: an exposition (1934) ISBN 0801033993
• The Revelation of John: an exposition (1936) ISBN 0801034051
• The Pastoral epistles of Paul: an exposition (1966) ISBN 1113589035

References

1. ^ Longfield, Bradley J. (1993). The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195086740. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "The Charles Rosenbury Erdman Manuscript Collection". Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries. http://libweb.ptsem.edu/collections/ead/erdman_charles_r.html. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 
3. ^ Longfield., B. J. (1999). D. G. Hart. ed. Dictionary of the Presbyterian and Reformed Tradition in America. InterVarsity Press. pp. 92. 
4. ^ "The Princeton Cemetery". http://www.princetonol.com/groups/cemetery/mon.html. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 

Religious titles
Preceded by The Rev. Clarence E. Macartney	Moderator of the 137th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America 1925–1926	Succeeded by The Rev. William Oxley Thompson

Persondata
Name	Erdman, Charles R.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1866
Place of birth
Date of death	1960
Place of death