This book focuses on Samuel Miller (1769-1850), the first professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at Princeton Theological Seminary. It introduces the reader to a first-generation representative of Old Princeton, and the challenge that Stanton presents to the Ahlstrom thesis. The Ahlstrom thesis states that Old Princeton adopted false presuppositions from the Scottish Enlightenment and consequently broke from the Reformed tradition. This book invites the scholars who embraced this thesis to reassess.


Stanton also provides readers with a synopsis of the archival resources for Miller’s career, including unpublished sermons, introductory lectures, and lectures on piety, preaching, and Sacred Chronology. These indicate that Miller was influenced by Reformed orthodoxy, scholasticism, and Jonathan Edwards significantly more than Scottish Common Sense.


This book represents the first detailed record of Samuel Miller ever produced and will be a significant contribution to Old Princeton scholarship.