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.
Is believer’s baptism the clear teaching of the New Testament Scriptures? What are the historical and theological challenges to believer’s baptism? What are the practical applications for believer’s baptism today? Volume two in the NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY STUDIES IN BIBLE & THEOLOGY (NACSBT) series for pastors, advanced Bible students, and other deeply committed laypersons addresses these compelling questions. Indeed, Believer’s Baptism begins with the belief that believer’s baptism (as opposed to infant baptism or other faith proclaiming methods) is the clear teaching of the New Testament. Along the way, the argument is supported by written contributions from Andreas Kostenberger, Robert Stein, Thomas Schreiner, Stephen Wellum, Steve McKinion, Jonathan Rainbow, Shawn Wright, and Mark Dever. Users will find this an excellent extension of the long-respected NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY.
What is spirituality? For some, it means nothing more than vague self-improvement pulled from the latest best-selling self-help book. For others, it refers to some generic religious practice. Shedding life-giving light on what often remains ill-defined and unclear, this book sets forth a vision of biblical spirituality—“a renewed sense of the momentousness of being alive in God’s world as God’s people are led by God’s Spirit through God’s Word unto godly, Christlike character.” With careful exegetical work and theological reflection, the contributors—pastors and scholars such as Christopher W. Morgan, Paul R. House, Nathan A. Finn, and Gregg R. Allison—address spirituality from the perspective of the Bible, exploring topics such as the Trinity, divine sovereignty and human responsibility, the “already” and “not yet,” and the church. This book also addresses practical questions about spirituality related to the workplace, disciplines of the body, and more.
The inerrancy of the Bible--the belief that the Bible is without error--is often a contentious topic among mainstream Christianity. Like other titles in the Counterpoints collection, this volume gives those interested in theology the tools they need to draw informed conclusions on debated issues by showcasing the range of positions in a way that helps readers understand the perspectives--especially where and why they diverge. Each essay in Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy considers: The present context, viability, and relevance for the contemporary evangelical Christian witness. Whether and to what extent Scripture teaches its own inerrancy. The position's assumed or implied understandings of the nature of Scripture, God, and truth. Three difficult biblical texts: one that concerns intra-canonical contradictions, one that raises questions of theological plurality, and one that concerns historical authenticity. Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy serves not only as a single-volume resource for surveying the current debate, but also as a catalyst both for understanding and advancing the conversation further. Contributors include Al Mohler, Kevin Vanhoozer, Michael Bird, Peter Enns, and John Franke.
This volume, edited by and contributed to primarily by African-American voices in the SBC, is one small effort to help remove the stain of racism from the SBC in pursuit of Christian unity in our beloved denomination.
These eighteen pieces have been commissioned to provide a succinct yet comprehensive guide to the best of recent evangelical thinking about how the New Testament is to be interpreted, so that it may speak most clearly to today's world. The need for such a handbook can be felt more keenly as on the one side a secularized world dismisses the biblical faith as outmoded, unworkable, and unsatisfying; and, on the other, numerous Christian communities, committed to taking that faith with ultimate seriousness, are driven by controversies about how to read and understand the Bible. Following the editor's introduction, in which I. Howard Marshall examines a familiar New Testament passage in order to exemplify the problems and rewards that await the careful interpreter, the essays are arranged under four headings, beginning with overviews of the history of New Testament study and the role of the interpreter's presuppositions in this enterprise; then going on to discuss the various critical tools, the methods of exegesis, and the application of the New Testament to the faith and life of the contemporary reader. An annotated bibliography concludes the presentation. Because the issues involved here have too often been ignored in many quarters, more than one approach to or opinion about a given matter may surface in these essays; yet, undergirding this diversity is the author's shared conviction, as conservative evangelicals with a high regard for the authority of Holy Scripture, that we are called upon to study the Bible with the full use of our minds. As the editor writes, The passages which we interpret must be the means through which God speaks to men and women today. Our belief in the inspiration of the Bible is thus a testimony that New Testament exegesis is not just a problem; it is a real possibility. God can and does speak to men through even the most ignorant of expositors of his Word. At the same time he calls us on to devote ourselves to his Word and use every resource to make its message the more clear.
This title offers a comprehensive analysis of Baptist theology. Embracing in one common trajectory the major Baptist confessions of faith, the major Baptist theologians, and the principal Baptist theological movements and controversies, this book spans four centuries of Baptist doctrinal history. Acknowledging first the pre-1609 roots (patristic, medieval, and Reformational) of Baptist theology, it examines the Arminian versus Calvinist issues that were first expressed by the General Baptists and the Particular Baptists; that dominated English and American Baptist theology during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from Helwys and Smyth and from Bunyan and Kiffin to Gill, Fuller, Backus, and Boyce; and, that were quickened by the 'awakenings' and the missionary movement. Concurrently there were the Baptist defense of the Baptist distinctives vis-a-vis the pedobaptist world and the unfolding of a strong Baptist confessional tradition. Then during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the liberal versus evangelical issues became dominant with Hovey, Strong, Rauschenbusch, and Henry in the North and Mullins, Conner, Hobbs, and Criswell in the South even as a distinctive Baptist Landmarkism developed, the discipline of biblical theology was practiced and a structured ecumenism was pursued. Missiology both impacted Baptist theology and took it to all the continents, where it became increasingly indigenous. Conscious that Baptists belong to the free churches and to the believers' churches, a new generation of Baptist theologians at the advent of the twenty-first century appears somewhat more Calvinist than Arminian and decidedly more evangelical than liberal.
The issue of slavery contributed to the separation of Baptists in the South from their northern brethren, but that isn’t the only topic on which they took a stand. Roger C. Richards, a scholar of religion, explores how Baptists came to influence the South, from the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845 to the group’s convention meeting of 2012. From the very beginning, Southern Baptists committed themselves to taking the Gospel to all people in all countries. In this textbook, you’ll learn how Baptists financed mission efforts; reorganized denominational structures; set policies at annual meetings; developed educational institutions; and changed over three major periods. Baptists overcame numerous struggles to come to the colonies, and they played an important role in fighting for America’s independence. They’ve also faced challenges from within, and three major controversies contributed to the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention. Designed for college and seminary students who want to learn about the events and people who shaped the Southern Baptist Convention into the denomination it is today, History of Southern Baptists provides key insights.
The Baptist Story is a narrative history of a diverse group of people spanning over four centuries, living among distinct cultures on separate continents, while finding their common identity in Christ and expressing their faith as Baptists.
Showing that Southern Baptist women are more complex and rebellious than outsiders might think, the author presents the views of more than 150 women, often using their own words, and finds in them an unshakable belief that God speaks as directly to them as to any pastor.
