Great Debates

The Leipzig Disputation · 1519

Where does final authority in the Church lie: in the papacy, in councils, or in Scripture?

• Johann Eck: Defended papal primacy as established by Christ and confirmed by tradition and councils, and pressed Luther on his agreement with condemned teachings of Jan Hus.
• Martin Luther and Andreas Karlstadt: Karlstadt argued that grace, not the unaided will, is the source of good works; Luther argued that papal primacy rests on human rather than divine law and that councils can err, so Scripture must judge.

Erasmus and Luther on Free Will · 1524-1525

Does the human will cooperate with grace in salvation, or is it bound until God frees it?

• Erasmus: Held that Scripture teaches a real though limited freedom of choice, that many questions are best left in reverent moderation, and that the Church's long consensus deserves weight.
• Luther: Held that the fallen will is bound to sin until renewed by grace, that God's foreknowledge and promises are certain, and that clear assertions from Scripture are essential to Christian comfort.

Hume's Dialogues on Natural Religion · 1779

Can reason prove the existence and attributes of God from the order of nature?

• Cleanthes: Argues from design: the world resembles a vast machine, so its cause resembles a mind.
• Demea: Defends a priori proof and the mystery of God's nature, warning against making God too like man.
• Philo: Presses skeptical objections to the analogy and to the problem of evil, while conceding some force to the sense of design.

The Constitutional Convention · 1787

How should a republic over a large territory be framed?

Madison's notes record the arguments over representation, the executive, slavery and the powers of Congress, and the compromises that resolved them.

Federalists and Anti-Federalists · 1787-1788

Should the states ratify the proposed Constitution?

• Federalists: An energetic union with separated powers, checks and balances and an extended republic would secure liberty better than the weak Articles of Confederation.
• Anti-Federalists: A consolidated national government would be too distant and powerful; small republics, strong states and a bill of rights were needed to protect liberty.

The Burke-Paine Debate · 1790-1791

What does the French Revolution show about the foundations of political society?

• Edmund Burke: Society is a partnership across generations; inherited institutions, prescription and prudence protect real liberties better than abstract plans.
• Thomas Paine: Each generation holds natural rights and may establish government by its own consent; hereditary authority binds no one, and written constitutions should secure the rights of man.

The Webster-Hayne Debate · 1830

Is the Union a compact of sovereign states or a government of the people?

• Robert Y. Hayne: The Constitution is a compact among the states; a state may judge federal overreach, and Western land and tariff policy should respect Southern and Western interests.
• Daniel Webster: The Constitution was made by the people and is supreme law; the federal courts decide its meaning, and nullification would dissolve the Union.

The Compromise of 1850 · 1850

How should the territories won from Mexico be organized, and can the Union be preserved?

• Henry Clay: Proposed a package of mutual concessions, including California's admission, territorial governments, and a stronger fugitive slave law, to settle sectional disputes.
• John C. Calhoun: Argued that the balance between the sections had been destroyed and that the South needed constitutional guarantees to remain in the Union.
• Daniel Webster: Spoke 'not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American' in support of compromise to preserve the Union.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates · 1858

Should Congress or the settlers of each territory decide whether slavery may exist there?

• Stephen A. Douglas: Popular sovereignty: let the people of each territory decide for themselves, as the surest way to keep national peace and local self-government.
• Abraham Lincoln: Slavery is a moral wrong that should be restricted and placed on the course of ultimate extinction, in keeping with the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

The Huxley-Wilberforce Debate · 1860

How should Darwin's theory of natural selection be received?

At the British Association meeting in Oxford, Bishop Samuel Wilberforce criticized the evidence for Darwin's theory and Thomas Henry Huxley defended it. No transcript exists, and the famous exchanges are known only from later, conflicting recollections.