Europe in the early seventeenth century was a continent divided along confessional lines. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Not only had the gulf between Protestants and Catholics widened there, in addition the animosity between Lutherans and Calvinists had grown to the point where members of the two Protestant churches often resented each other more than their common Catholic foe.

Some years ago James Hasting Nichols wrote, “A significant impetus to the awakening in Geneva and France came from Scotland… In Scotland the Evangelical revival may be dated from the 1700's.” But the influence of the Scottish Free Church went beyond the bounds identified by Nichols. At least one other country, namely, Sweden, was stimulated by this religious force from the British Isles.

In 1978 the first American publication of Heinrich Heppe's classic textbook of 1861 on Reformed dogmatics appeared. That occasion provides an opportunity to give an account of Heppe's place in nineteenth-century German Protestantism. An examination of Heppe's life and writings shows that, like August Vilmar, his Lutheran antagonist on the Marburg University faculty, Heppe was a confessionalist, defending the old Protestant church against modern rationalistic enemies. Unlike Vilmar, however, Heppe's confessionalism was inclusive rather than exclusive.

Historians of American Catholicism long have recognized that John Ireland, the aggressive archbishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota, was a leading exponent of the Americanist movement. At the turn of the twentieth century Ireland advocated a number of important ideas—religious liberty, separation of church and state, interfaith cooperation, and greater lay initiative—gleaned from the American experience. Reflecting his democratic convictions, Ireland declared, “Let there be individual action. Layman need not wait for priest, nor priest for bishop, nor bishop for pope.” Although there were differences on specific issues, Americanists in general took an optimistic view of American life and culture. In fact, they were eager to move their church into a more positive relationship with the political, cultural, and social climate of America.