This book deals with the history of the particular American religious sect which, because of its large and varied membership, its intellectual vigor, and the part played by its clergy in shaping public thought, affords the richest field for a study of the influence of religious organizations upon American life. The story of the struggle of the Old School Presbyterian leaders to choose between their desire to avoid a break in their church and their feeling that it was their duty to voice their loyalty to the Union forms an interesting and illuminating commentary on the problems of the troublous times of the War of the Rebellion. The minor Presbyterian groups played varying parts, but always occupied more than their proportionate share of public attention because each met its own problems with a characteristically Presbyterian individuality. Professor Vander Velde's monograph is important not only for American religious history but also for the fact that it illustrates how closely Church and State were related during the Civil War period.

The American Presbyterian creed up until the second half of the twentieth century has been the confessional tradition of the Westminster Assembly (1643-48). Presbyterians in America adopted the Westminster Confession and Catechisms in 1729 through a compromise measure that produced ongoing debate for the next hundred years. Differences over the meaning of confessional subscription were a continuing cause of the Presbyterian schisms of 1741 and 1837. The Presbyterian Creed is a study of the factors that led to the ninteenth-century Old School/New School schism and the Presbyterian reunions of 1864 and 1870. In these reunions, American Presbyterians finally reached consensus on the meaning of confessional subscription that had previously been so elusive.