Mere Fidelity Replay: Protestants & History with Paul Gutacker
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Apr 15, 2026 Paul Gutacker, historian of American religion and author of The Old Faith in a New Nation, explores nineteenth-century Protestant debates. He discusses biblicism, how Scripture and tradition shaped arguments around slavery, and how history was mobilized or misused in moral conflicts. He offers reflections on hermeneutics, international influences, and how pastors might responsibly use the past.
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Biblicism Was Not Purely Solo Scriptura
- American Protestants often claimed Scripture alone yet regularly appealed to tradition and precedent when interpreting contested passages.
- Paul Gutacker shows biblicism varied: the Bible was preeminent but rarely treated as truly sole authority in practice.
History Deepened Rather Than Resolved Slavery Debates
- Appeals to history often made antebellum hermeneutical disputes worse by giving both sides a sense of being validated by the church past.
- Gutacker found that invoking tradition sometimes stalled debate and increased likelihood of violent resolution.
Papal Statement Sparked Selective Patristic Hunting
- After Pope Gregory XVI condemned the slave trade, Catholic and Protestant leaders dredged patristic and council texts to claim precedent for their positions.
- Gutacker recounts Bishop John England and others selectively using medieval and patristic quotations to argue slavery's permissibility or wrongness.
