Samuel Miller

Samuel Miller (October 31, 1769 – January 7, 1850) was a Presbyterian theologian who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Biography

Samuel Miller was born in Dover, Delaware, on October 31, 1769. His father was the Rev. John Miller (1722–1791). Miller attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1789. He earned his license to preach in 1791, and the University of Pennsylvania awarded him a Doctorate of Divinity degree (D.D.) in 1804. From 1813 to 1849, he served as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at Princeton Theological Seminary, and was also integral in founding the institution.

Throughout his life, Miller was a vigorous participant in many of the controversies that took place within the Presbyterian Church, including that which resulted in the division of the church into new and old schools. He was also considered an authority on many of the issues that faced Christians, especially Presbyterians, of his time.

Miller is, perhaps, best known for the theological, polemical, and biographical writings he published throughout his life, including A Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century (1803, 1805), Memoir of the Reverend John Rodgers (1813), Letters on Unitarianism (1821), An Essay on the Office of the Ruling Elder (1831), The Primitive and Apostolical Order of the Church of Christ Vindicated (1840), Letters from a Father to a Son in College (1843), and Thoughts on Public Prayer (1849). He was also responsible for the publication, in 1814, of the memoir and the writings of his elder brother, Edward Miller, a prominent physician and teacher in New York, who died in 1812.