---
title: 'The True Progress of Society by Atwater'
type: video
hasMedia: true
requiresPurchase: false
authors:
- 'Jonathan Master'
date: 2026-10-27
collection: 'Dead Presbyterians Society'
subcollection: 'Season 4'
topics:
- 'Social Issues'
- 'Christian Life'
url: https://confessional.org/dead-presbyterians-society/season-4/the-true-progress-of-society-by-atwater
---

# The True Progress of Society by Atwater

Is all change really progress? In an age obsessed with innovation and advancement, how can Christians distinguish true progress from mere change? In this episode of the Dead Presbyterians Society Podcast, we explore Lyman H. Atwater’s 1852 essay, The True Progress of Society. Atwater argues that genuine progress doesn’t come from abandoning the past, but from holding fast to what is true and good. Discover why steadfastness in biblical truth is essential to genuine growth—in the church, in society, and in the Christian life.

[Watch](https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1239656800)

## Transcript

One of politicians' favorite words is the word progress. You can hardly make it through a political campaign without hearing someone from either side of the political aisle talking about the need for more progress in the nation or in the state or even in your local government. There is always the push for progress.

But what does this even mean? Business leaders will also use the same terminology. They'll talk about the need for progress in their own companies or the need for progress in the market. But what is true progress in a society? Even within the church, you'll often hear people talk about the need for progress.

Certain doctrines of the past need to be downplayed or amended in order to build a church that suits the needs of the next generation. That is what is called progress in the church. One of the great classics of American Presbyterianism and American Presbyterian pastoral theology is Thomas Murphy's book, Pastoral Theology.

Long College Press had the privilege over the last year of republishing this wonderful work, and we commend it to all our listeners. In fact, if you have been a listener for any amount of time, you have no doubt heard us talk about Thomas Murphy and heard us discuss Pastoral Theology. Pastoral Theology is also available in a free audiobook format.

In order to access your copy of this free audiobook of Thomas Murphy's Pastoral Theology, go to gpts.edu pastoraltheology.com. Greetings from the past. Welcome to Dead Presbyterian Society. My name is Jonathan Master.

I serve as president of Greenville Seminary. We live in an age that is obsessed with progress. New technology promises to make our lives easier.

New ideas promise to make society more fair and just. Old ideas are often being questioned or revised or discarded, and beneath much of this is the assumption that if something is new, then it is better. It is progress.

If something is old, it is holding us back from progress. Societies can move very quickly and yet move in the wrong direction. Change can correct real abuses, but it can also tear down things that were worth preserving.

And when every inherited belief, institution, and moral conviction is treated with suspicion simply because it has been inherited from the past, this desire for progress can become relentless and restless, always changing, always rebuilding, never quite certain where things are headed. This is a problem that's not unique to our generation. In 1852, Lyman Hotchkiss Atwater looked around at a world that was undergoing enormous change, change that was often made in the name of progress.

He saw advances, vast advances, in science, in transportation, in educational theory, in political liberty, and even in missionary work, missionary reach. And all of this gave humanity remarkable confidence in their ability to improve things, particularly where Atwater was located. And Atwater believed that the word progress was being used to justify almost every kind of change, whether it was a good change or perhaps a change that needed to be addressed.

Atwater was not opposed to progress, but rather he believed that Christians ought to pursue it, but to pursue what he calls real progress and not false progress. False progress is the assumption that improvement begins by tearing down whatever has come before. We see this all the time today.

His argument was that real progress requires something stable. A man cannot move forward without firm ground beneath his feet, and neither can a church or a society. Atwater asks this question.

How do we distinguish genuine progress, real progress, from mere change? How do we correct what is wrong in society without destroying what is good? And how can Christians pursue real improvement without surrendering truths that ought never to change? These are the questions he seeks to answer in his 1852 essay, The True Progress of Society. Before we turn to Atwater's argument and consider how he answers these questions about progress and change, it's helpful to know something about the man behind the essay. Atwater's not as well known as some of the other men we've looked at in dead Presbyterian society, particularly not as well known as many of the others that are associated with old Princeton, but he is an important figure in that orbit of old Princeton.

He was a pastor, a theologian, a philosopher, an educator, a writer, and his life and ministry placed him at the intersection of many of the intellectual and theological debates of the 19th century. Who was Lyman Atwater? He was born in 1813 at Cedar Hill, Connecticut. He entered Yale College in 1827.

He was 14 years old when he entered. He graduated in 1831, receiving second honors in his class, and he entered Yale Divinity School in the 1830s, and he served as a mathematics tutor at Yale while he was studying at Yale Divinity School. He was licensed to preach in 1834.

Now, he was a Congregationalist. He was not a Presbyterian. He was pastor of the First Congregational Church of Fairfield, Connecticut, and he was there for approximately 20 years.

From 1835 to 1854, he served there, and while he was there, there were many controversies that were stirring in Presbyterianism, particularly what is called the old school, new school division of 1837, and Atwater defended the old school position, what became associated with Princeton Seminary, and he established himself as a committed, rigorous Calvinist. He also began to publish during this time, and his theological journal articles were published increasingly with the Princeton Review. He was closely associated with Charles Hodge and old Princeton theology, and so in 1854, he left pastoral ministry to become professor of mental and moral philosophy at the College of New Jersey, which would later become Princeton University, and he remained there the rest of his life.

He did academic work on metaphysics and other aspects of 19th century intellectual life, and in the 1860s, was appointed to a special lectureship at Princeton Theological Seminary, which further connected him with old Princeton. He became a member of the board of trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary around 1860, and he served as its vice president from 1876 until his death in 1883. After his death, he was recognized as a significant figure in 19th century Presbyterianism.

He had been awarded an honorary doctorate in 1851 from Princeton. Yale had awarded him an honorary doctorate as well. Today, we're looking at Atwater's essay entitled The True Progress of Society.

This was published in the January 1852 issue of the Princeton Review. It was written amid enormous change in the life of America, and there were growing movements for political, social, and even theological reform, and as you know, Atwater had resisted some of these changes, particularly in theology, and this was also in wake of European revolutions in 1848, and amid American debates about all kinds of things, slavery, and women's rights, and education, and the family, and religious authority. And what Atwater seeks to do in his article is distinguish true progress from what he regarded as destructive radicalism.

That's the question we need to think about today. What is true progress? Atwater begins his essay by claiming that progress and human advancement are among the most sought-after things in civilization. The more men improve their situation, the more they realize their capacity for further improvement.

He writes this, they have kindled up to earnest longings and strivings for still further and even illimitable progress. He lists many ways in which he has seen his own society improve. New discoveries in science and the arts, labor-saving inventions, advances in transportation, greater access to comforts of life, significant improvements, he mentions even in Protestant missionary efforts.

Protestant missionaries were able to go further than they had been before. With so much advancement, there was always a desire for more, and so Atwater reminds us at the beginning that as things advance, we're never satisfied. There's always a desire for more.

He describes it this way, the spirit of progress among the masses, most wholesome as it is when rightly regulated, often degenerates into a morbid restlessness and passion of novelty, a merely revolutionary and destructive propensity. Because of our sinful state, even our best intentions can turn into selfish and power-seeking desires. He compares this in the essay to the progress of a young man who becomes aware of his own strength and his capacity to do things.

When left untrained, this actually can breed discontentment with what already exists and impatience. He writes, quote, that fickleness which mistakes mere change for improvement. And this can happen on a societal scale in very destructive ways.

It's not just the individual young man who can be susceptible to these things. He says often these things are called reform, but in fact what often happens in society is it destroys in order to create. It tears down in order to build up and disregards the accumulated wisdom of the past.

Quote, all is to be presumed doubtful until proved by a fresh discussion. We are all afloat. And he says when these things happen in society, even the most basic doctrines of the Bible are often called into question.

Nothing is settled. There's no firm ground for faith and no foundation on which to build. So this raises then the question, what is true progress? He has acknowledged already that progress can be a good thing, a desirable thing, but quote, what is true progress? Who are the true progressives in the very best sense? He's not speaking about modern political reform movements.

He really gives two major views with respect to progress. There are two views that represent really two dangers or two impulses. The first one is what he calls the conservative view or the conservative impulse.

These are quote, applied to the class who would preserve all the treasures of truth and means of wellbeing, which have already been gained and make these a capital to be wielded in seeking still larger discoveries and accumulations. That's the conservative position. The radical position, he says, involves quote, a fondness for radical innovations, a disposition, not merely to lop off diseased branches, but for the sake of getting rid of these to uproot and destroy the tree itself.

He describes the radicals even further. He says there are, there are radicals who are ultra radicals who quote, carry an idea or reform, which in itself and within proper limits is right beyond all reasonable and scriptural bounds so that it becomes false and ruinous. And these are another type of radical in attempting to advance men in truth and goodness.

They begin by destroying what of these they already possess. These radicals, the ultra ists and the destructives may say that they are eager for progress, but what he acknowledges here, what he discerns is that they actually are only concerned with tearing down. They don't know how to build up at all.

So what is true progress? Well, it's not found among the progressives. It's not found among the radicals as he calls them. Rather, he says this quote at the summit of moral perfection, whether in creator or creatures, not only necessity and Liberty, but the most absolute stability and the most consummate progress co inside.

He talks about this in terms of the work of the Lord. The Lord is stable in every way. He is unchanging yesterday, today, and forever.

And he says there's a principle in the Christian life. Steadfastness is one of the qualities scripture repeatedly connects with growth in grace or what we might say is true progress. Think of the martyrs and reformers of the past who did most to advance the cause of Christ.

Their lives were marked not by a restless desire to tear down, but by a firm commitment to the truth, to a solid foundation and a persistent faithfulness and stability in their pursuit of that. Atwater asks this quote, is not their eminent success in advancing truth and righteousness due to this same fixedness of principle and persistent fidelity to it? And this is the application he makes to the church. The church must be quote, firm and immovable in convictions, their steadfast aim, their indomitable perseverance.

This is how the church grows, how the church advances, how the church we might say progresses, but progresses in a real way. Progress requires perseverance. Perseverance requires something firm enough to hold on to or to build upon.

Then he goes on to give a list of men who illustrate this kind of progress, true progress, real progress. He mentions Paul and Augustine and Luther and Calvin and Edwards and Washington and Wilberforce. These men accomplished different things, but what he sees in them all is a combination of steadfast conviction and forward movement.

Paul, as we know, describes Christian character as steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord. He commands Christians to hold fast to that which is good. So stability is not the enemy of progress.

In fact, without something fixed and firm, there's nothing from which to move forward, nothing on which to build. If there is no stability, if there is no stable foundation, there could be no true progress. Whatever we might call it, it's nothing more than a radical tearing down.

And just as stability is essential for true progress, he also argues that progress is necessary for healthy stability. Now, here's what he's trying to say. There's a balance that's required or what he uses a word that we don't use very often, equipoise.

When put in due equipoise and fit combination, they mutually aid, regulate, and perfect each other. And he uses, again, the example of the Christian life. While we must remain steadfast in the truths that are revealed to us in Scripture, we still must grow.

The church should be continually advancing in its understanding and defense and spread of the truths of the Scriptures. Otherwise, doctrine can become a kind of dead orthodoxy. It's not fueling anything.

There are truths confessed with the lips, but no power is behind them. And so, the church rightly progresses, not by moving beyond biblical truth, but by understanding it more deeply, applying it more faithfully, and spreading it more widely. He lists a number of truths that are part of this stable foundation.

And it would be the kinds of things that we would expect him to say, the doctrine of God, the doctrine of man, and man's sinfulness, the fact that man cannot deliver himself from his state of sinfulness, the truths of the incarnation, the truths of the suffering and substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, and his resurrection from the dead, and the work of the Holy Spirit in applying these acts of redemption to God's people, and the free offer of salvation, and the faith and repentance and holy living that are necessary to salvation, and the resurrection of the just and the unjust, and the final judgment of Christ. And what he says is, all mature Christians have to believe these things. These aren't novel discoveries.

These are truths of the historic faith. And the true church, to deny these kinds of doctrines, would be not to pursue real progress, but to actually undermine the whole foundation on which we must stand. And we might even add to that.

And he might have even added to it, later in life, all the truths contained in our confessional standards. And then, this raises another question. And that question is, how can Christians have confidence that these things are really true? And he says, the Holy Spirit has been at work among his people to confirm these truths in our hearts.

The Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates and sanctifies Christians through these very truths, enabling them to understand and perceive and love and believe what God has revealed. And so, faith receives certain truths upon the testimony of God, trusting God's word. And that's why stability and progress remain together in the church.

We're not constantly questioning the foundations, but by the Holy Spirit, we're continually growing and we're continually spreading these truths even further. So then, who are the true progressives? Atwater says, they are, quote, they are the men who believe, love and obey and do their utmost to lead others to believe, love and obey the truth as it is in Jesus. In brief, the first condition of progress in good is to, quote, hold fast to that which is good.

The more rapid that train, he says, the firmer must be the track. We have to have a solid foundation or we're headed to nowhere, although we may be headed there very quickly. That's why Atwater's image of the train and the track is so fitting.

The faster we desire to move, the more important it becomes to make sure that the foundation beneath us is firm. Progress without truth can move quickly, but speed is no virtue when the track is leading in the wrong direction or when there is no track at all. The surest way forward is to hold fast to that which is good, to seek the old paths, to continually build on the foundation we have in the scriptures, to build on the unchanging truth that God has given to us in his word.

Atwater wrote the true progress of society more than 170 years ago, but his warning may be even more necessary for us today. We live in a culture that is constantly telling us to move forward. New technology, new ideas, purportedly new moral standards, new ways of understanding ourselves are often presented as progress simply because they are new.

We are rarely encouraged to ask whether the direction we are moving is actually good. Is it actually true? Atwater warns us against that fickleness which mistakes mere change for improvement. See, Christians cannot accept the culture's definition of progress.

Neither can we assume that everything old must be preserved simply because it's old. There are sins that must be confronted, errors that must be corrected. There are practices in your life that may have characterized you for a long time, but they need to change.

But you see, it's scripture and not the spirit of the age that must determine what needs reform and what must remain fixed. Otherwise, in our eagerness to correct one evil, we may uproot something that God has declared good. And of course, this danger exists within the church.

We should be suspicious whenever Christianity or the Christian church is told that it must change in order to remain relevant. The church must never progress beyond the gospel, the authority of scripture, the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man or salvation through Jesus Christ. We must never progress beyond quote unquote progress beyond the truths that have been handed down to us, the pattern of sound words we have in the scriptures.

In fact, progress, real progress consists in knowing these truths more deeply, believing them more firmly, living them more faithfully and proclaiming them more clearly. So this means we have to ask ourselves some pertinent pressing questions. Have you confused what is new with what is better? What is good? What is true? Are you subtly abandoning significant stabilizing truth in the quest for relevance and the quest to be on the right side of history to keep up with progress when everyone around you is moving in the same direction? Do you ever stop to ask what direction is that leading to in your own Christian life? Are you actually progressing, becoming more holy, more faithful, more knowledgeable of the scriptures, more like Christ, more able to spread the truths of the gospel? Or are you simply changing? Atwater reminds us that moving forward means nothing if we are moving away from the truth.

We need somewhere firm to place our feet before we can move forward. The question is not simply whether we are progressing in some unqualified way, but whether we are progressing in the right direction. The Christian should be faithfully holding fast that which is good while always abounding in the work of the Lord.