Hart, D.G. (Darryl Glenn Hart)

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Hart, D.G. (Darryl Glenn Hart)

PERSONAL:

Education: Temple University, B.A., 1979; Westminster Theological Seminar, M.A.R., 1981; Harvard University, M.T.S., 1983; Johns Hopkins University, M.A., 1985, Ph.D., 1988.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 3901 Centerville Rd., P.O. Box 4431, Wilmington, DE 19807-0431. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, teaching assistant, 1985-88; Duke University, Durham, NC, postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in the divinity school, 1988-89; Wheaton College, Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, Wheaton, IL, director, 1989-93; Westminster Seminary California, Escondido, CA, from associate professor to professor and dean of academic affairs, 1993-2000, adjunct professor, 2000—; Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Wilmington, DE, director of academic projects and faculty development, 2003—. Has been an elder in the Christian Reformed Church and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church; member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's Committee on Christian Education.

MEMBER:

Historical Society, American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, American Society of Church History.

WRITINGS:

Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1994.

The University Gets Religion: Religious Studies in American Higher Education, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1999.

The Lost Soul of American Protestantism, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Lanham, MD), 2002.

That Old-Time Religion in Modern America: Evangelical Protestantism in the Twentieth Century, Ivan R. Dee (Chicago, IL), 2002.

(With John R. Muether) With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship, P&R (Phillipsburg, NJ), 2002.

Recovering Mother Kirk: The Case for Liturgy in the Reformed Tradition, Baker Academic (Grand Rapids, MI), 2003.

Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Age of Billy Graham, Baker Academic (Grand Rapids, MI), 2004.

John Williamson Nevin: High Church Calvinist, P&R (Phillipsburg, NJ), 2005.

(As Darryl Hart) A Secular Faith: Why Christianity Favors the Separation of Church and State, I.R. Dee (Chicago, IL), 2006.

EDITOR

Reckoning with the Past: Historical Essays on American Evangelicalism from the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 1995.

(With R. Albert Mohler, Jr.) Theological Education in the Evangelical Tradition, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 1996.

(With Harry S. Stout) New Directions in American Religious History, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Bruce Kuklick) Religious Advocacy and American History, W.B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1997.

(With David N. Livingstone and Mark A. Noll) Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Sean Michael Lucas and Stephen J. Nichols) The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical Tradition, Baker Academic (Grand Rapids, MI), 2003.

J. Gresham Machen, Selected Shorter Writings, P&R (Phillipsburg, NJ), 2004.

A Student's Guide to Religious Studies, Intercollegiate Studies Institute (Wilmington, DE), 2005.

Also editor of the revised edition of Fides et Historia, 1992-96, and the Westminster Theological Journal, 1996—. General editor, with consulting editor Mark A. Noll, of Dictionary of the Presbyterian and Reformed Tradition in America, Intervarsity Press (Downers Grove, IL), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS:

Theologian D.G. Hart has written extensively about various aspects of the Christian faith, including evangelicalism and the separation of church and state. In Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America, the author presents a biography of the early twentieth-century conservative Christian theologian. Writing in Christianity Today, Allen C. Guelzo commented that the author "sketches a Machen who was a bundle of ‘anomalies’: a conservative intellectual who opposed modernism for social reasons as much as religious ones; an old-school Presbyterian who treated liberals and fundamentalists alike as innovators; and an unlikely ally of secular modernists such as Walter Lippmann and H.L. Mencken." Guelzo also wrote: "What makes Hart's achievement remarkable is the skill with which he has synthesized … interpretive pieces into a readable and compelling narrative."

The University Gets Religion: Religious Studies in American Higher Education is an examination of the study of religion in academia. The author offers his opinion that, in general, academia has failed to produce first-rate scholarship concerning religion; it goes on to present a case for the removal of religion completely from the academic environment. According to Hart, this would benefit both academia, which could pursue studies on a purely secular line, and religion, which would profit from a new and more effective scholarship. "His focus is on the arguments used to justify this discipline, its scholarly methods, and its place in the modern American university," reported Douglas A. Sweeney in Books & Culture.

Hart provides an analysis of the modern evangelical movement in his book Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Age of Billy Graham. Hart begins by taking a look at the scholarly analysis and construction of evangelicalism and then explores evangelicalism as a religious movement following World War II. Hart also presents his theory that evangelicalism is actually dying due to a splintering of various factions. Mark Galli stated in Books & Culture that "I find myself resonating with large parts of Hart's second argument." Journal of Ecclesiastical History contributor Steven Tuck commented: "This is an impressively thoughtful book that is generous in its treatment of evangelical leaders and scholars of evangelicalism. It is well suited for under-graduates and pastors as well as experts in the field of religious history. Much of the argument rings true, but of course a provocative book provokes questions."

In his 2006 book, A Secular Faith: Why Christianity Favors the Separation of Church and State, the author examines the history of the relationship between the church and state and also the question of whether or not Christianity should be used for political purposes in the form of faith-based politics. As the title suggests, Hart is in favor of a strict separation of church and state based on his belief that the basic tenets of Christianity are not suitable for solving political disputes. To support his theory, the author examines nine typical American concepts concerning the relationship between church and state that Protestant doctrine has been unable to resolve, such as the idea that the only real obligation that Christians have concerning political matters is that they do not interfere with religion and religious practices. "Although demanding to read, Hart's argument is blazingly enlightening," according to Ray Olson in Booklist.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 2006, Ray Olson, review of A Secular Faith: Why Christianity Favors the Separation of Church and State, p. 28.

Books & Culture, September 1, 2003, Douglas A. Sweeney, review of The University Gets Religion: Religious Studies in American Higher Education, p. 34; January 1, 2004, Mark Galli, review of Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Age of Billy Graham, p. 22.

California Bookwatch, November 1, 2006, review of A Secular Faith.

Christian Century, August 2, 2000, Leigh E. Schmidt, review of The University Gets Religion, p. 807.

Christianity Today, November 14, 1994, Allen C. Guelzo, review of Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America, p. 98; December 6, 1999, review of Dictionary of the Presbyterian and Reformed Tradition in America, p. 91.

First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, October 1, 2003, review of That Old-Time Religion in Modern America: Evangelical Protestantism in the Twentieth Century, p. 77.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, October 1, 2004, Bryan D. Spinks, review of Recovering Mother Kirk: The Case for Liturgy in the Reformed Tradition, p. 805; July 1, 2005, Stephen Tuck, review of Deconstructing Evangelicalism, p. 633.

Journal of Religion, January 1, 2005, Timothy Larsen, review of Deconstructing Evangelicalism, p. 120.

Journal-World, November 16, 2006, Sophia Maines, "Historian to Discuss Developments in Evangelical Movement."

Library Journal, September 15, 2006, Carolyn M. Craft, review of A Secular Faith, p. 65.

Reference & Research Book News, November 1, 2006, review of A Secular Faith.

Weekly Standard, November 6, 2006, Terry Eastland, review of A Secular Faith.