The Presbyterian creed is a respectable attempt to retell the messy history of the internal struggles of American Presbyterians over confessional subscription. Exhibiting a measure of restraint uncommon in the literature on the subject, Donald Fortson follows the story with attentiveness and sympathy. The temperament of the study alone is a welcome contribution to a theme that has suffered significantly from sectarian biases.

Beginning with the ratification of the Adopting Act of 1729, American Presbyterians through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries engaged in a recurring debate over what constituted adherence to the Westminster Standards for its ministers. Fortson rehearses the history of the deliberations between the Old Side and New Side explanations, the eventual schism in 1741 and the inconclusive and ultimately unsatisfying 1758 reunion. He also attends to outside influences that shaped American Presbyterianism, most notably New England theology and its rambunctious offspring (revivalism), growing cooperation between Presbyterianism and Congregationalism, and the emerging New Divinity. These influences strained the already fragile bond that joined those who advocated a strict interpretation of subscription and those comfortable with a much more relaxed view. Building on these precursory developments, Fortson turns to what he considers the culmination of denominational unrest, the schism of 1837 between Old School and New School Presbyterians. Despite cumbersome attention to internal strife, Fortson suggests that the reunions of 1864 in the South and 1869 in the North between the Old and New Schools were the result of genuine resolution of doctrinal and practical differences. Moreover, he recasts the New School position in a remarkably favourable light, recognising a greater depth of theological complexity than most conservative historians of American Presbyterianism are inclined to acknowledge.

Fortson's study is certainly a helpful and current guide through the terrain, but a compelling defence of new interpretations it is not. This is not to say that the work fails to propose fresh ideas: Fortson suggests that the New School alone correctly understood the intent of the eighteenth-century discussions on subscription; he sees a shift in Charles Hodge's emphasis rather than view of subscription (as many contend); he denies that in the South the New School forfeited its position when it reunited with the Old School. However, Fortson does not succeed in substantively arguing his positions. He states in the preface that his study is informed by several presuppositions, one being ‘the author's conviction’ that the New School accurately interpreted the stance on subscription intended by the previous century (p. xviii). This is a commendable assertion (and one worthy of deliberation), but it demands argumentation. The only defence Fortson offers is an acknowledgement that he is dependent on the interpretations of Leonard J. Trinterud in the middle of the twentieth century and Charles Augustus Briggs in the nineteenth. Fortson's explanation for Charles Hodge's switch in language on subscription is relegated to a few lines in two footnotes (pp. 160, 164). Beyond these particulars, the thrust of his general contention for the doctrinal robustness of the New School is deflected by insufficient exposure to and analysis of an appropriate range of representative voices. One perceives Fortson's reluctance to assess and argue definitively throughout the study. The blessing of his tenor of restraint is also the curse: he allows actors on all sides of the subscription controversy to speak for themselves but, at the same time, holds back from drawing constructive conclusions.

While Fortson attends to the broad range of issues surrounding confessional subscription in American Presbyterianism, William Evans's Imputation and impartation hones in on the theme of soteriology, albeit across a wider landscape of Reformed traditions in America. His work is an impressive and erudite exploration of how generations of American theologians both understood Calvin's doctrine of union with Christ and also diverged from it. Evans's argument is refreshingly concise and his narrative unfolds with particular clarity (reminiscent of Calvin's own brevitas et facilitas).

Reformed theologians in America during the eighteenth through early twentieth centuries seriously questioned the Genevan reformer's views on justification and sanctification, eventually modifying them into doctrines that were distinctly their own. Evans opens his study with a rapid tour through Calvin's soteriology and its systematisation at the hands of his early followers and under the influences of post-Reformation scholasticism and Pietism. Turning to the American scene, the bulk of his work is dedicated to the major theological traditions of New England, Mercersburg and Princeton. Evans demonstrates how the New England theologians – with Jonathan Edwards at their head – stimulated the ‘eclipse’ of federal theology and the theme of union with Christ and elevated the importance of sanctification over justification in the Reformed ordo salutis (p. 137). For Evans, John W. Nevin is the hero of Mercersburg theology, who, by placing renewed emphasis on union with the incarnate Christ, ‘represents a return to Calvin’ (p. 183). As a final case study in American Reformed soteriology, Evans examines Charles Hodge's federal theology and his departure from Calvin over the latter's doctrine of unio Christi and sacramental theology. He concludes the work with a condensed survey of relevant doctrinal developments through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Protestant academic theology and evangelicalism.

Evans's competency in the history of Reformed soteriology in America is apparent in his ability to navigate the vast array of primary works and identify and assess the contributions of properly representative figures. His exposition of the secondary literature is admirable in its own right, yet there is a complaint to lodge against the book. Evans acknowledges that his study began as a 1996 dissertation and it is clear from the footnotes and bibliography that he was careful to update the work with current research at key junctures before publication. Nevertheless, certain resources which one would consider crucial to his study are inexplicably absent. For instance, Evans's discussion on Calvin and the scholastic loci method makes no mention of Richard A. Muller's very helpful discussion of this in his Unaccommodated Calvin (Oxford 2000). Likewise, his treatment of Edwards's relationship to the Reformed tradition neglects any attention to George M. Marsden's definitive Jonathan Edwards (New Haven 2003). This critique, however, is not intended to diminish the significance of Evans's contribution to the subject. Imputation and impartation serves us well not only in providing an important interpretation of the Reformed doctrine of soteriology but also as a sure guide along the winding road that is the story of American Reformed theology.