Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009 [Hardcover]

Gregory Wills (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0195377141 | ISBN-13: 978-0195377149

With 16.3 million members and 44,000 churches, the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Baptist group in the world, and the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Unlike the so-called mainstream Protestant denominations, Southern Baptists have remained stubbornly conservative, refusing to adapt their beliefs and practices to modernity's individualist and populist values. Instead, they have held fast to traditional orthodoxy in such fundamental areas as biblical inspiration, creation, conversion, and miracles. Gregory Wills argues that Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has played a fundamental role in the persistence of conservatism, not entirely intentionally. Tracing the history of the seminary from the beginning to the present, Wills shows how its foundational commitment to preserving orthodoxy was implanted in denominational memory in ways that strengthened the denomination's conservatism and limited the seminary's ability to stray from it. In a set of circumstances in which the seminary played a central part, Southern Baptists' populist values bolstered traditional orthodoxy rather than diminishing it. In the end, says Wills, their populism privileged orthodoxy over individualism. The story of Southern Seminary is fundamental to understanding Southern Baptist controversy and identity. Wills's study sheds important new light on the denomination that has played - and continues to play - such a central role in our national history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gregory A. Wills is Professor of Church History at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195377141
• ISBN-13: 978-0195377149
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #254,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #56 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Protestantism > Baptist

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind, July 21, 2009

By 

A. Lindsey (Louisville, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009 (Hardcover)

"Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1859-2009)" is an excellent, engaging history of the flagship seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Wills has expertly combined a close attention to historical accuracy with an engaging writing style that makes this book hard to put down. This book is similar to a well-produced historically-based movie (think "Titanic" or especially "Apollo 13") in that the end is known from the beginning, and yet one experiences suspense, being engrossed in certain previously-unknown details, and wanting to see exactly how everything works out.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Institutional History, July 24, 2009

By 

B. Nygaard - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009 (Hardcover)

Institutional histories often go unnoticed; this one is worth the read. Baptist historian Gregory Wills provides an insightful, in-depth, and intriguing look at one of the most important theological seminaries in the country. From its difficult founding in antebellum South Carolina to its contentious shift from liberalism to orthodoxy, the history of Southern Seminary mirrors the struggles of the Southern Baptist Convention through the years. Beyond baptist history, this book addresses many of the seminal debates in seminary education: academic freedom, denominational identity, and struggle for orthodoxy are recurrent themes. Wills is a scholar par excellence. He gives careful attention to the primary sources, citing frequently from an expansive breadth of original documents including personal correspondence and other unique documents. The result is a full and faithful picture of the lives of those connected with the Seminary and a careful catalog of important events and their consequences. Wills is fair but unflinching in recounting the many turbulent controversies surrounding the Seminary. The history is lively and engaging; his analysis is perceptive. It is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in baptist history or the pivotal role seminaries play in American religion.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating story with many lessons for today; I couldn't put it down!, December 5, 2009

By 

Mr. Mark L. Ward "mainlytheologicalbooks" (Greenville, SC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009 (Hardcover)

I wrote several blog posts as I read through this excellent work, and I've reproduced them here:

1. Al Mohler on the Conservative Takeover of Southern Seminary

I've read about 200 pages of Gary Wills' history of Southern Seminary, including the final section on the Mohler years (I couldn't wait!), and I'm really enjoying it. God used James Boyce to perform Herculean tasks to keep the seminary alive in the early years, and faculty members like John Broadus made deep sacrifices, too. The seminary was firmly Calvinist in those days, as was the denomination, and the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy hadn't happened yet--so it was a dynamic quite different from today.

However, the SBTS of today is more like the SBTS of the 1860s than it has been in a century, a point the book makes well. Al Mohler is, humanly speaking, the major reason for the recovery of Boyce's original vision. Mohler performed Herculean tasks of his own, and every good conservative will thrill to hear how the wolves in sheep's clothing were removed from the faculty.

2. Sadness Over Southern

I can hardly put Gregory Wills' history of Southern Seminary down, and I'm willing to call it a must-read for conservative seminarians.

It was thrilling to read of Boyce and Broadus' doctrinal rigor and foresight, and it's been deeply saddening to read how quickly all their life-spending labors were co-opted by the "mediating" theology of E. Y. Mullins. How different our whole country might be if the SBTS founders' vision and doctrine had maintained control at their institution!

I thought this little paragraph about Mullins, who began his tenure right at the turn of the twentieth century, was telling and tragic:

"Southern Baptists relinquished Calvinism in the early twentieth century due largely to the influence of pragmatism, experiential theology, and a growing emphasis on the priority of individual freedom. E. Y. Mullins provided leadership in all three areas." (p. 240)

Wherever you stand on Calvinism, lovers of the gospel will agree that when it went out the SBTS back window into the bluegrass, a lot of good things went with it.

Incidentally, the way Wills tells the story, the conservatives lost the presidency to Mullins in part because of the sinful vanity of Boyce and Broadus' successor, William H. Whitsitt. Personal sin led to institutional downfall.

3. A Truly Great Line from a Truly Great Book

I'm still thoroughly enjoying--and receiving historical instruction from--Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009.

I just got through the major fight liberal-moderate president Duke McCall had in the 1950s with a group of liberal-moderate faculty. McCall won, and because he was not viewed as liberal, rank and file Southern Baptists viewed his victory as a purge of unsound theology from the school. But they weren't quite right. Wills' little line at the end of this paragraph is brilliant:

"Herschel Hobbs's assessment prevailed widely: 'This was Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's finest hour as she stood in the breach and said to modernism and its kind that it shall go no further in Southern Baptist institutions and life.' McCall's purge had saved the school and the denomination from liberalism. The orthodox soon discovered, however, that it was not a case of once saved, always saved."

4. You Lie!

I finished up the history of Southern Seminary. I couldn't help it. It was a riveting read. I knew the conservatives would win in the end, I just couldn't guess how Providence would manage it.

The story was worse than I expected. When liberal-moderates realized that they were losing both the denomination and its flagship seminary, they embarked on a policy of obfuscation. "Obstructivism," Wills called it. "Lying" would not be too strong.

"Liar" and "Hitler" have the same pedigree in debate terminology. I've long opposed the extremist rhetoric--shouted by right and left alike--that resorts to either. The meaning of "lie" is specific and universally agreed upon: telling an untruth which one knows to be an untruth.

That's why Rep. Wilson (SC) had to apologize for his infamous recent outburst. President Obama, like President Bush before him, is certainly guilty, in a specific sense, of telling untruths. Someone who has to speak constantly, relying on advice from others, can't help it in this fallen world. But it's another thing to charge that our president knows certain of his words are false and utters them anyway.

That, however, is just what successive liberal-moderate presidents of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary did repeatedly. They insisted to their constituency that their faculty were doctrinally sound--according to their constituency's definition of soundness--when they knew otherwise. One even released a statement, signed by the five other liberal SBC seminary presidents, claiming to believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. That president subsequently told his faculty that, basically, he had not intention of honoring his words. He felt that any action he took was justified in light of his goal of saving the seminary from the fundamentalists.

Conservatives can be guilty of the same casuistry, but in this case they were the good guys. A fascinating story I highly recommend. And the final line was quite affecting.