With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the optimism of liberal theology was discredited. Many liberal theologians turned to neo-orthodoxy in an attempt to correct what were seen as the failings of liberalism, namely an overemphasis on divine immanence and the goodness of humanity along with the subordination of American Protestantism to secularism, science, and American culture. Neo-orthodox theologians instead emphasized divine transcendence and the sinfulness of humanity. From the 1940s into the 1950s, neo-orthodoxy set the tone at Presbyterian seminaries. Prominent Presbyterian theologians of this era include Elmer George Homrighausen and Joseph Haroutunian.