Orestes Brownson and the Problem of Revelation

The Author: Arie J. Griffioen is Professor of Religion and Theology at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He received his Ph.D. in theology from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In addition to writing numerous articles for professional journals, he is co-editor of Reformed Confessionalism in Nineteenth Century America: Essays on the Thought of John Williamson Nevin.

"In this volume, Orestes Brownson's thought during his Protestant (pre-1844) period is given careful, thorough analysis for the first time. Dr. Griffioen captures the continuities as well as the dramatic alterations in Brownson's course of development, making this at once an illuminating study in philosophical theology and a microcosm of antebellum American intellectual history." (James D. Bratt, Professor of History and Director of Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship, Calvin College)
"Dr. Griffioen argues, convincingly, that by 1844 Brownson had reached a synthetic view of revelation, one that wrestled with the variety of American religious approaches and tried to bring them into a grand harmony. Griffioen traces a concatenation of changes and developments in Brownson's thought, demonstrating in the process the variety of approaches to the issue as American thinkers tried to come to grips with the interrelationships of the Bible, reason, religious experience, tradition, and community in understanding what constitutes revelation and its reception." (Patrick W. Carey, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Dayton University and Professor of American Historical Theology, Marquette University)