Nevin, John Williamson, 1803–86, American theologian and educator, b. near Strasburg, Pa., grad. Union College, 1821, and Princeton Theological Seminary, 1826. He was professor of biblical literature (1830–40) in Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny (now part of Pittsburgh), and from 1840 he taught theology at the German Reformed Church Seminary, Mercersburg, Pa. He served (1841–53) as acting president of Marshall College, which in 1853 became part of Franklin and Marshall College; there he was president from 1866 to 1876. His writings and teachings gave rise to what was called the Mercersburg theology. Among his works are The Anxious Bench (1843), The Mystical Presence (1846), and Anti-Christ; or, The Spirit of Sect and Schism (1848).
See studies by T. Appel (1889, repr. 1969) and J. H. Nichols (1961).
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