Charles Augustus Briggs and Tensions in Late Nineteenth-Century American Theology
This study evaluates the theological position of Briggs from a comprehensive perspective, comparing his religious epistemology, his Christology, and his bibliology to the conservative orthodoxy of Princeton and to the Ritschlian liberalism of Adolf von Harnack and A.C. McGiffert. Briggs embraced the fideism of Isaac August Dorner, which colored all of his theological thinking. The study concludes that Briggs was neither conservative nor liberal. Rather he was broadly orthodox, affirming the historical fundamental doctrines of the faith against the onslaughts of liberalism.