Background
James Isaac Good was third in descent from Jacob Guth of Zweibriicken in Rhenish Bavaria, who landed at Philadelphia September 9, 1765, and lived successively in Lancaster, Lebanon, and Berks counties.
Guth taught the Reformed parish school at Bern Church in Berks, read the services in the absence of a minister, and was a candidate for ordination at the time of his death in 1802. His sons, Joseph and Philip Good, were members of the state legislature.
Three of Philip’s sons - William A. , Jeremiah Haak, and Reuben - became German Reformed clergymen.
William A. Good (18101873) studied theology under the Rev. Lewis Mayer at York and was the first superintendent of public instruction in Berks County, holding office for six years. His wife was Susan B. Eckert; their son, James Isaac, was born on December 31, 1850, at York, where his father was then pastor.
Education
Good graduated with honors from Lafayette College in 1872 and from Union Theological Seminary three years later.
Career
Good was ordained pastor of Heidelberg Church at York June 16, 1875; was pastor of Heidelberg Church in Philadelphia 1877-90, and of Calvary in Reading 1890-1905.
From 1890 to 1907, he was professor in Ursinus School of Theology, where he taught several subjects, served as dean 1893-1907, and supported six or more students each year out of his own income. In 1898, he effected the removal of the School to Philadelphia.
When Central Theological Seminary was opened at Dayton, Ohio, in 1907, he became its professor of church history and liturgies. Until his death he regularly spent the first semester at Dayton and the second at Ursinus, where he now taught church history to undergraduates.
He was president of the board of foreign missions of the Reformed Church in the United States 1893-1924, president of the General Synod 1911-14, president of the Western Section of the Reformed Alliance, and vice-president of the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches.
In 1879, he made his first trip to Europe and, while seeking information about his ancestors, became interested in the history of the Reformed Church.
For the next quarter of a century, he went abroad every summer to collect books, copy manuscripts, and visit places associated with great events of the past. Later, he turned to the history of the Reformed Church in the United States.
He edited with W. J. Hinke the Minutes and Letters of the Coetus of the German Reformed Congregations in Pennsylvania, 1747- 92 (1903) and was chairman of the German Reformed half of the committee that edited the Hymnal of the Reformed Church (1920).
The end of his busy, happy life came in Philadelphia; he did a full, satisfactory day’s work, went to bed eager for the morrow, and died in his sleep.
Religion
As chairman of the Western Section’s committee on relations with churches in Europe, Good cheered and aided the needy Reformed churches on the Continent.
Good believed as firmly in the infallibility of the Heidelberg Catechism as in the infallibility of the Bible. Of progressive revelation, historical development, evolution, divine immanence, and a social gospel, he had no thought, save to condemn them as sceptical innovations and evidences of decadent faith. His was a static universe with a static God working in a miraculous way.
Politics
Good was the last prominent leader of the anti-liturgical party in his denomination and a thorough conservative.
Views
Good's historical writings are strongly colored by his theological convictions.
