MULLIN, Robert Bruce 1953-

PERSONAL: Born October 24, 1953, in Plainfield, NJ; married; children: one. Education: College of William and Mary, A.B., 1975; Yale Divinity School, M.A.R., 1979; Yale University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Office—General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, 175 Ninth Ave., New York, NY 10011-4977. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Yale University, New Haven, CT, instructor, 1984-85; North Carolina State University, Raleigh, began as assistant professor, became professor, 1985-98; General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, New York, NY, sub-dean for academic affairs, Society for the Promotion of Religion and Learning professor of history and world mission, and professor of modern Anglican studies, 1998—.

MEMBER: Historical Society of the Episcopal Church.

WRITINGS:

Episcopal Vision/American Reality: High Church Theology and Social Thought in Evangelical America, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1986.

(With Sydney E. Ahlstrom) The Scientific Theist: A Life of Francis Ellingwood, Mercer (Macon, GA), 1987.

(Editor) Moneygripe's Apprentice: The Personal Narrative of Samuel Seabury III, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1989.

(Editor, with Russell E. Richey) Reimagining Denominationalism: Interpretive Essays, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1994.

Miracles and the Modern Religious Imagination, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1996.

The Puritan as Yankee: A Life of Horace Bushnell, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Robert Bruce Mullin has written extensively on Christianity, especially as practiced in the United States, including the role of the Episcopal Church, beliefs about miracles, and the life of prominent nineteenth-century Congregational ministerHorace Bushnell. His works have won praise as bringing thoughtful discussion and fresh interpretation to religious matters.

Episcopal Vision/American Reality: High Church Theology and Social Thought in Evangelical America focuses on early American Episcopal leaders identified with the denomination's high church movement, which emphasizes ritual and tradition. According to Mullin, John Henry Hobart, bishop of New York from 1816 to 1830, and the clerics he influenced held up the Episcopal Church as the "pure church" and disdained the evangelical faiths that were attracting many adherents in the United States at that time. Hobart and other high-church clergy also sought to keep the Episcopal Church largely removed from the social activism of the era, such as the fights for the prohibition of alcoholic beverages and the abolition of slavery.

"Mullin provides an excellent analysis of the ecclesiastical and social implications of Hobart's views as well as their decline under the new pressures of pre-Civil War America," commented Milton J. Coalter, Jr., in Theology Today. John T. Ford, a contributor to Religious Studies Review, found Mullin's book "replete with historical data and insightful vignettes" and also praised its "eminently readable prose." Deborah Mathias Gough, writing in the Journal of American History, called the work "a worthy effort to fill a gap in American religious historiography," but thought Mullin devoted too little space to the fact that there was significant disagreement with Hobart among leaders of his own denomination. Nevertheless, she recommended the book to "anyone interested in religion in nineteenth-century America and anyone who wants a better understanding of the conservative response to the rapidly changing American society."

In Miracles and the Modern Religious Imagination Mullin deals with how beliefs about miracles have changed, with much attention to developments among Christians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Since the Reformation, the dominant Protestant dogma had been that miraculous occurrences are limited to those described in the Bible; miracles do not happen in modern times. This was, among other things, a way for Protestant churches to set themselves apart from Roman Catholicism, which held that miracles could still happen, although church officials had to verify them. In the late nineteenth century, the Protestant dogma came under attack from several sides. Many people, as indicated by the growing popularity of faith healing, asserted a belief in modern miracles; others, given the advances of science, expressed skepticism about both ancient and modern ones. The early twentieth century saw the rise of Protestant denominations which promised miracles to the faithful. Diversity of thought has persisted, with some sects seeing miracles as literal events that still take place, others believing only in the miracles described in the Bible, and still others considering the Bible's miracle stories to be allegorical.

Miracles and the Modern Religious Imagination contains "all the ingredients to be found in any conversation or private reflection on the subject, traced to their origin and subsequent role in the complex weave," remarked J. Leslie Houlden in the Times Literary Supplement. Houlden pronounced the book "excellent" and "a model of fairness and clarity." Journal of Religion contributor Ann Taves observed that "Mullin makes a significant attempt to bridge the gulf between the history of (elite) Protestant theology and the history of popular religion in the United States," but thought he pays too little attention to popular religion prior to the 1890s. Many religious movements had begun to question established teachings about miracles earlier in the century, she noted. Taves allowed, however, that, "as a straight intellectual history of Anglo-American ideas about miracles, especially among Reformed and Anglo-Catholic theologians, Mullin's study is superb." Andrew M. Greeley, writing in History of Religions, offered praise for "Mullin's complex, sophisticated, and extremely creative process of reasoning" and called the book "remarkably intelligent," while Choice reviewer C. S. Langton deemed it "a noteworthy contribution to intellectual, theological, and ecclesiastical history."

Mullin reinterprets an important figure in nineteenth-century American religion in The Puritan as Yankee: The Life of Horace Bushnell. Bushnell, pastor of the Congregational North Church in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1833 to 1859, was highly influential for a time, but saw his standing diminish after his attempt—largely through his writings of the late 1840s—to bring together opposing factions within his denomination and American Protestantism generally. With some adhering to Calvinist beliefs in God's predestination of a soul's fate, some maintaining that all could achieve eternal life through faith in Christ, and others asserting a belief in universal salvation, Bushnell sought a doctrine on which all could agree. But his call on Christians to relax "the exact and literal interpretation of our standards" angered many conservative believers and led some to characterize Bushnell as ultraliberal; at the same time liberals considered him too conservative on both theological and social issues. He was antislavery but thought abolitionists too strident; he favored opening higher education and the professions to women but opposed female suffrage. When he died in 1876, Bushnell was remembered as a man who liberalized Protestantism, but in Mullin's portrait, he emerges as largely conservative, devoted to New England Puritan traditions and nostalgic for agrarian society marked by hard work and self-reliance, and as a "tinkerer" in matters of religious dogma, offering modest revisions rather sweeping reforms.

"Mullin's interpretation of Bushnell as a theological 'tinkerer' works well in his reassessment of Bushnell's major theological writings," commented Christopher H. Evans in Christian Century. Sandra Collins, writing in Library Journal, noted that the book shows a "much maligned" liberal to be in reality "a deeply conservative Puritan and misunderstood intellectual" and reflects in detail on the times in which he lived. Several other critics likewise praised Mullin for placing his subject in context. The author, related George McKenna in First Things, provides "a panoramic glimpse of American Protestantism during a period of rapid transition" and guides readers to "the unifying themes in Bushnell's life and work." To Evans, "the strength of The Puritan as Yankee lies in the way it challenges readers to see Bushnell in light of the larger Protestant theological controversies of his generation, as opposed to later liberal interpretations of his life," but the reviewer wished for more information about Bushnell's role as a pastor, as "exploring the extent to which Bushnell's pastorate shaped the contours of his theological writing might clarify his role as a theological tinkerer." He did find, however, that Mullin "sheds new light on one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of American theology." Collins summed up the biography as "sophisticated, well informed, and challenging."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, April, 1997, C. S. Langton, review of Miracles and the Modern Religious Imagination, p. 1356.

Christian Century, November 6, 2002, Christopher H. Evans, "Theological Tinkering," p. 40.

First Things, February, 2003, George McKenna, "Tinkering with Christianity," p. 49.

History of Religions, August, 1998, Andrew M. Greeley, review of Miracles and the Modern Religious Imagination, p. 92.

Journal of American History, December, 1986, Deborah Mathias Gough, review of Episcopal Vision/American Reality: High Church Theology and Social Thought in Evangelical America, pp. 747-748.

Journal of Religion, July, 1998, Ann Taves, review of Miracles and the Modern Religious Imagination, p. 438.

Library Journal, November 1, 2002, Sandra Collins, review of The Puritan as Yankee: The Life of Horace Bushnell, p. 96.

Religious Studies Review, April, 1988, John T. Ford, review of Episcopal Vision/American Reality, p. 176.

Theology Today, October, 1986, Milton J. Coalter, Jr., review of Episcopal Vision/American Reality, p. 462.

Times Literary Supplement, December 26, 1997, J. Leslie Houlden, "Cures and Credulity," pp. 4-5.*