Augustus Hopkins Strong

Augustus Hopkins Strong (3 August 1836 – 29 November 1921) was a Baptist minister and theologian who lived in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His most influential book, Systematic Theology, proved to be a mainstay of Baptist theological education.[1]

Augustus Hopkins Strong
Augustus Hopkins Strong.
Born(1836-08-03)August 3, 1836
Rochester, New York
DiedNovember 29, 1921(1921-11-29) (aged 85)
Pasadena, California
Alma materYale College
OccupationSeminary president

Early life and education

Augustus Hopkins Strong was born on August 3, 1836, in Rochester, New York.[1] He was a descendant of "Elder John Strong, of Northampton, Massachusetts."[2] His grandfather was a "physician of considerable eminence",[3] who moved from Warren, Connecticut, to Scipio, New York, in 1799, then to Rochester in 1821. His father, Alvah Strong, was the printer of such early Rochester newspapers as the Anti-Masonic Enquirer, the Morning Advertiser, and the Weekly Republican, before becoming the longtime proprietor of The Daily Democrat.[4] Both his father and eldest uncle were deacons of the First Baptist Church of Rochester, and helped found the Rochester Theological Seminary (RTS), in 1850,[5] the institution over which he would later preside.[6] RTS would later become Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.[7]

Strong's younger brother, Henry A. Strong, was a successful businessman and philanthropist who served as Eastman Kodak's first president. His youngest uncle became a Forty-niners in the California Gold Rush, after losing both his wife and infant son.[2] A first cousin twice removed, Theodore C. Achilles would later become a diplomat, another such cousin would marry Margaret Woodbury Strong, and a niece would marry George R. Carter.

After Strong graduated from Yale College in 1857, he took a year to travel Europe, before he began his theological studies at RTS.[8]: 44 

Career

In August 1861, Strong was named pastor of First Baptist Church, Haverhill, Massachusetts. After his four-year pastorate there, became pastor of First Baptist Church, Cleveland, OH, from 1865 to 1872, and thereafter became president of RTS.[6][8]: 44–45 

It was during his time as president that he wrote his Systematic Theology, which was the main textbook of Protestant seminaries in North America. He received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Rochester, Alfred, Brown, Bucknell, Princeton, and Yale.[8]: 6 

Personal life

Strong was married, and his eldest son was the American psychologist and philosopher, Charles A. Strong.

He died on Tuesday, November 29, 1921 in Pasadena, California, after which his body was returned to Rochester, where he was laid to rest in the week following, at Mount Hope Cemetery on December 5, in his family's vault, after laying in state in Alvah Strong Hall at the Seminary. Among others, Strong was eulogized by Rush Rhees, then president of the University of Rochester, and by Clarence A. Barbour, a succeeding president of the Seminary.[6]

Theology

Strong held a form of inclusivism, that is, he believed that some people from non-Christian religions actually believe in the one true God, the God revealed in the Bible. Thus, it was Strong's view that their faith in God—to the limits of their knowledge and their rejection of the religion around them—constituted "an implicit faith in Christ."[9]

Selected works

References
  1. Brackney, William H., ed. (2021). "Strong, Augustus Hopkins (1836–1921)". Historical Dictionary of the Baptists. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 575. ISBN 978-1-5381-2252-5.
  2. Dwight, Benjamin W. (1871), The History of the Descendants of Elder John Strong, of Northampton, Massachusetts, vol. 2, Albany, New York: Joel Munsell, p. 913, OCLC 2033052, retrieved 2009-10-04
  3. "Death of Alvah Strong", Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York, p. 7, 1885-04-21, ISSN 1088-5153
  4. "Henry A. Strong, Long Business Associate of George Eastman, Dead in His Eighty-first Year", Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York, p. 38, 1919-07-27, ISSN 1088-5153
  5. Rochester Theological Seminary (1920). General Catalogue, 1850 to 1920. E.R. Andrews Printing Co. p. 5.
  6. The NYT Staff (December 6, 1921), "Dr. Augustus H. Strong Buried", The New York Times (published 1921-12-06), p. 19, ISSN 0362-4331, retrieved November 30, 2021.
  7. Tyson, John R. (2019). School of Prophets: A Bicentennial History of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press. p. 1.
  8. Wacker, Grant (1989). Augustus H. Strong. Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-86554-980-7.
  9. Strong, Anthony H. (1907) [1886]. Systematic Theology. Old Tappan, NJ: Revell. pp. 842–843. OCLC 878559610.
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