THE TIMES DURING THE LIFE OF HENRY VAN DYKE:-

Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy:

“The Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy was a religious controversy in the 1920s and 30s within the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America that later created divisions in most American Christian denominations as well. The major American denomination was torn by conflict over the issues of theology and ecclesiology. Underneath those struggles lay profound concerns about the role of Christianity in the culture and how that role was to be expressed.”

The Controversy began in 1922 due to a sermon by a well-recognized spokesman, Harry Emerson Fosdick was preaching by special permission in First Presbyterian Church, New York, delivered his sermon "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" which brought to the surface the differences between liberal and conservative Christians. The end of this controversy was by J. Gresham Machen and a number of other conservative Presbyterian theologians and clergymen who left their denomination in 1936 to establish the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

 The Old-Side–New-Side Split (1741–58) and the Old-School–New-School Split (1838–69):

The Old Side-New Side Controversy lead to the Presbyterian Church bring divided in 1741 into an Old Side and New Side. The two churches reunified later in 1758. The Old School–New School Controversy lead to the Presbyterian Church being split into two denominations. These denominations were further divided into northern and southern halves due to slavery. In 1869-70 the New School and Old School were reunited in the north which led to the formation of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

The rise of Higher Criticism and the Briggs Affair, 1880–93:

American Presbyterians first became aware of Higher Criticism also known as the Historical-Critical method during the development of the German academy. Charles Briggs, had studied Higher Criticism in Germany. In his inaugural speech upon being made Professor of Hebrew at Union Theological Seminary in 1876 was the first hint of Higher Criticism within American Presbyterianism. Briggs was the founder of the Presbyterian review in 1880 along with A. A. Hodge, president of Princeton Theological Seminary .problems occurred when in 1889 B. B. Warfield became co-editor and refused to publish one of Briggs' articles, which became  an important  turning point.

Briggs was later appointed as Union's first-ever Professor of Biblical Theology. "The Authority of Holy Scripture” was his address, in which he announced that “Higher Criticism had proven that Moses did not write the Pentateuch; that Ezra did not write Ezra, Chronicles or Nehemiah; Jeremiah did not write the books of Kings or the Lamentations; David only wrote a few of the Psalms; Solomon did not write the Song of Solomon or Ecclesiastes and only a few Proverbs; and Isaiah did not write half of the book of Isaiah.

The movement to revise the Westminster Confession of Faith, 1900–1910: 

Henry van Dyke started a movement of modernists and New Schoolers to revise the Westminster Confession of Faith. Van Dyke had been trying to affirm that all dying infants go to heaven; to say that God loved the whole world and to affirm that Christ atoned for all mankind. In 1901,van dyke chaired a 25-man committee. In 1901, he drew up a non-binding summary of the church's faith, which mentioned that God's love of all mankind; and also denied that the Pope was the Antichrist. This was adopted by General Assembly in 1902 and rectified by the presbyteries in 1904.

Other important social dilemmas during the life of Henry Van Dyke:-

1.    The Doctrinal Deliverance of 1910 (a.k.a. The Five Fundamentals)

2.   The Fundamentals and "Back to Fundamentals”

3.   Ecumenism, 1908–21

4.   "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" (1922)

5.   William Jennings Bryan and the General Assembly of 1923

6.   The General Assembly of 1923, 24, 25 and  The Special Commission of 1925 and the General Assembly of 1926

7.    The Auburn Affirmation (1923–24)

8.   The General Assembly of 1924

9.   The General Assembly of 1925

10.The Scopes Trial (1925)

11.  The Battle for Princeton Theological Seminary, 1926–29