J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (1923)
J. Gresham Machen, professor of New Testament at Princeton, then Westminster
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Courteous, exact, and unwilling to call a disagreement small to keep a room quiet.
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
J. Gresham Machen wrote this book in 1923. He lost the fight over Princeton Seminary in 1929, founded Westminster, and was put out of the ministry in 1936 for starting an independent mission board. Liberalism, he argued, is a different religion that uses Christian words. Saying so honestly is kinder than pretending to be united.
By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.
| Lv | Move | Type | Cat. | Pwr | Acc | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chapter… | Bible | Scripture | — | — | 12 |
| 25 | Affirm | — | Status | — | — | 1 |
| 44 | The Chief Modern Rival | History | Argument | 78 | 100% | 15 |
| 46 | Random Verse | Bible | Argument | 10 | 100% | 30 |
| 48 | Imperative and Indicative | Soteriology | Argument | 90 | 100% | 10 |
| 52 | A Different Religion | Presupposition | Argument | 96 | 100% | 10 |
How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.
Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.
In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.
“The chief modern rival of Christianity is ‘liberalism.’”
J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (1923), ch. 2, public domain.public domain
In the gameMachen names it plainly, and the quotation marks are deliberate — the thing is not really liberal, and it is not really an -ism, but it is unmistakably the rival, and it is inside the building.
“…liberalism is altogether in the imperative mood, while Christianity begins with a triumphant indicative; liberalism appeals to man’s will, while Christianity announces, first, a gracious act of God.”
J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (1923), ch. 3, public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain
In the gameThe difference located in one grammatical fact. Liberalism tells you what to do; Christianity tells you first what God has done. A religion of the imperative and a religion of the indicative are not the same religion in two moods.
A faith that is all "you ought" and a faith that begins "God has" are not one religion in two moods. The Affirmation keeps the second’s vocabulary and runs on the first’s engine.
“…Christianity is battling against a totally diverse type of religious belief, which is only the more destructive of the Christian faith because it makes use of traditional Christian terminology.”
J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (1923), ch. 1, public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain
In the gameMachen’s thesis, and it is a claim about categories rather than a charge of heresy. Liberalism keeps the vocabulary of Christianity and means something else by all of it, which makes it more corrosive than open unbelief.
Machen’s answer is not that a doctrine was denied — nothing was. It is that two men can say "I believe in the resurrection" for forty years, mean a body and mean a memory, and never be in the same religion. The shared words hide the split; they do not heal it.