The Mystery of Mullins in Contemporary Southern Baptist Historiography Russell D. Moore and Gregory A. Thornbury

Russell D. Moore is a Ph.D. student E. Y. Mullins and the Baptist interest, Mullins’s non-Baptist in systematic theology at The Southern Obstinance of History contemporaries took keen interest in his Baptist Theological Seminary where he Throughout the recent theological contro- work. But the ideas that many Baptists has served as Research Assistant to the versies in the Southern Baptist Conven- heralded as a great theological advance President since 1998. His first book, tion, the factions involved have claimed instead elicited concern on the part of Why I Am a Baptist, co-edited with Tho- historical precedent as a means of fortify- other evangelicals who reviewed Mul- mas J. Nettles, will be published by ing their doctrinal and ecclesiastical posi- lins’s thought. In his review of The Chris- Broadman and Holman next year. tions. This phenomenon is natural and tian Religion in Its Doctrinal Expression, quite necessary. Alister McGrath observes Princeton theologian Caspar Wistar Hodge Gregory A. Thornbury is Instructor that, “We are all condemned to live and expressed frustration at inconsistencies in of Christian Studies at Union University, speak in history and historical forms. Like Mullins’s theological method. Hodge com- Jackson, Tennessee. He is co-editor of an intellectual prison, our very historic- mented that Mullins’s approach exhibited the forthcoming volume Who Will Be ity limits our intellectual options.”1 The significant Saved? The Doctrine of Salvation at theologian, McGrath continues, cannot Century’s End (Crossway). He has also elude this reality, finding “himself or want of clearness on . . . his view of written a chapter on A. H. Strong for the the place of Christian experience in herself within a tradition . . . in which the theology. . . . at times Dr. Mullins revised edition of Baptist Theologians past obstinately impresses itself upon the seems to mean only that the theolo- (Broadman and Holman). He is a Ph.D. present.”2 This obstinance of history gian must be a Christian and pos- sess a Christian man’s experience in candidate at The Southern Baptist Theo- surfaces at every turn of Southern Baptist order spiritually to discern and com- logical Seminary. debates over the content and character of prehend the doctrines written by Baptist theological conviction. revelation. Such a view we believe to be true, but scarcely to represent If, then, tradition is unavoidable in cur- what might be called an “experien- rent theological disputes among Southern tial method” in theology. At other times, however, Dr. Mullins speaks Baptists, then Southern Baptist theolo- as if there were two sources of gians must grapple with the significance knowledge in Christian theology— of the theology of E. Y. Mullins. And they viz., Christian experience and rev- elation. . . . This is a quite different have—repeatedly, and often. We might position, and is an impossible one. even call such grappling with Mullins an Christian experience implicates a obsession. The reason for this obsession system of doctrine, but it does not follow that the doctrinal system can resides in the fact that most Southern be made explicit from a study of Baptist theologians recognize Mullins’s Christian experience. . . . a knowl- defining and unparalleled role in the edge of this revelation comes before experience and determines it. In fact, development of contemporary Southern Dr. Mullins does not succeed in Baptist theological understanding. Like it clearing up this point, and fails to give any clear or adequate view of or not, we must deal with Mullins. the relation of Christian experience Historically, in addition to Southern and Christian doctrine.3 44 Upon reading Mullins, Hodge imme- logical forbear, competing interest groups diately discovered inconsistencies in Mul- in the SBC sometimes miss the critique lins’s thought, ambiguities and tensions that Casper Wistar Hodge thought to be in his method, and even outright contra- so obvious concerning Mullins’s theology: dictions in his theology. Hodge’s “want that the foundation of Mullins’s theology of clearness” from Mullins highlights the suffers from a serious lack of clarity and internally contested nature of much of from substantive internal inconsistencies. Mullins’s theological program. According Nevertheless, Southern Baptist histori- to Hodge, Mullins’s theological episte- ans still look to Mullins for affirmation. mology is quite “an impossible one.”4 As a result, the historical picture of Mul- Hodge’s critique underlined deep antino- lins as a theologian continues to fragment. mies within Mullins’s approach to theol- In the current environment, Mullins ogy, and presaged the controversies functions as a sort of Feuerbachian “wish surrounding Mullins. being” to which various groups pin their In contrast to Hodge, some Southern claims to theological legitimacy. To the Baptist theologians and historians her- conservatives, Mullins acted as a stalwart, alded Mullins’s contribution to the theo- contending for a version of bounded logical task as a long overdue innovation confessionalism and identifying himself in Baptist theological method. In contem- with the early Fundamentalists. To the porary Southern Baptist historiography, moderates, Mullins championed a robust particularly among those who label them- individualism by making Christian expe- selves as “moderates,” Mullins’s contri- rience the animating element of his doc- bution is often spoken of in reverent tones, trinal system. A recent proliferation of as “unrivaled” in stature, and as a “genu- other perspectives abound. One thing is ine pioneer” in theological method.5 In clear: everyone sees their own image in The Genesis Controversy, Ralph Elliot the mirror when they study E. Y. Mullins. expressed remorse that the moderate- controlled seminaries of the 1960s and Two Rival Historiographies 1970s did not appeal to the precedent of The contemporary assessment of Mullins’s theology of revelation sooner Mullins is set in the context of two rival and more candidly in the debate over historiographies that reflect the theologi- Scripture in the Southern Baptist Conven- cal divide in Southern Baptist life. Theo- tion (SBC). Such recourse, Elliot posited, logian Stan Norman has identified two “could have been used to buttress the distinct streams of Southern Baptist his- position” of the moderate’s rejection of toriography: a “Reformation” stream, biblical inerrancy.6 Claiming Mullins, which understands Baptist distinctives in however, characterizes the endeavors by terms of biblical authority and a commit- both moderates and conservatives in ment to core doctrines, and an “Enlight- recent Southern Baptist historiography. enment” stream, which understands these Both sides frequently appear to have distinctives in terms of Christian experi- accepted the maxim: in matters of theo- ence.7 Norman’s categorization is similar logical dispute, be certain to subpoena to the observation by R. Albert Mohler Jr. Mullins as a witness. that the controversies in Southern Baptist In the rush to claim Mullins as an ideo- life reflect a tension between two compet- 45 ing visions of Baptist conviction: a “Truth Southern Baptists have increasingly Party” committed to a doctrinal self-defi- weathered charges from moderates that nition and a “Liberty Party” that locates their evangelical theological agenda is Baptist identity primarily in terms of Bap- itself a veiled repudiation of the Mullins tist distinctives such as priesthood of legacy. The lion’s share of such discussion believers, soul competency, and religious has centered on Mullins’s successor as freedom.8 Though both streams of Bap- president of The Southern Baptist Theo- tist thought seek to claim Mullins for their logical Seminary, R. Albert Mohler Jr. own, recent years have seen both sides Moderate E. Glenn Hinson, for instance, recognize that the implications of Mullins’s paints Mohler as the anti-Mullins who thought are often too complex either for “has taken the reins in hand to guide the hagiography or for demonization. As the institution, now under a tight Fundamen- century draws to a close, neither Baptist talist control, 180 degrees away from camp has made peace with the Mullins Mullins’ centering of the Baptist tradition legacy. in the voluntary principle in religion.”10 Moving his critique from the seminary’s Mullins and the Rebirth of new faculty to the new letterhead, Hinson Baptist Confessionalism uncovers the conservative conspiracy to The Southern Baptist Convention’s “blot out” the Mullins legacy even in such monumental clash over biblical inerrancy examples as Southern Seminary’s new in the 1970s and 1980s often included logo.11 Responding to Mohler’s 1997 appeals by SBC conservatives to the Mul- assessment of Mullins’s theology, Russell lins legacy. Southern Baptist conservatives Dilday, the moderate former president of claimed continuity with Mullins chiefly in Southwestern Baptist Theological Semi- terms of his role as shaper of Baptist nary, indicts Mohler’s interpretation of confessionalism in the 1925 Baptist Faith Mullins as “either a misreading of Mullins and Message statement. Conservatives or an unfortunate distortion of his theol- quickly aligned themselves with the 1963 ogy.”12 Curtis Freeman sees a populist heir to that statement, even dubbing one conservative revolt against Mullins in the of their early grassroots organizations the recent resurgence of Reformed theology “Baptist Faith and Message Fellowship.”9 within Southern Baptist borders. South- They contended that the drafting commit- ern Baptist Calvinists, particularly those tees chaired by Mullins in the 1920s and associated with the Founders Conference Herschel Hobbs in the 1960s explicitly movement, Freeman asserts, are “commit- upheld biblical inerrancy in the descrip- ted to the etiological myth of Baptist tion of the Bible as “truth without any Calvinism” and blame Mullins for a theo- mixture of error.” Far from being a liber- logical shift that dethroned the Reformed tarian anticreedalist along the lines of the orthodoxy of James P. Boyce and John L. moderate SBC establishment, Mullins’s Dagg.13 Jeff Pool reproves conservatives work on the denomination’s first confes- on the 1993-1994 Report of the Presiden- sional statement proved his commitment tial Theological Study Committee for to confessional boundaries, conservatives dishonestly using Mullins to achieve a claimed. confessional agenda. Pool charges conser- In recent years, however, conservative vatives did so “by whatever means nec- 46 essary (even appearing to value the such as Herschel Hobbs, led to a decisive comments of a theologian, when the com- Arminianizing of Southern Baptist mittee actually did not value the thought theology.20 of Mullins), to capture the allegiance of Stan Norman’s approach to historiog- all Baptists in the SBC . . . by a rhetorical raphy places Mullins at odds with the con- invocation of the highly respected name servative tradition by insisting that the and reputation of E. Y. Mullins.”14 Enlightenment stream of Southern Baptist In certain important respects, the mod- thought “was birthed in Edgar Young erate Baptist perception of conservative Mullins’s The Axioms of Religion.”21 unease with the Mullins legacy is accu- Norman, like Mohler, pronounces rate. Mohler, for example, argues that the Mullins’s attempt at theological balance very fact that both moderates and conser- between biblical authority and Christian vatives have attempted to co-opt the experience to be a failure. “His understand- Mullins legacy as their own is indicative ing of Christian experience overshadowed of a serious “lack of precision” in Mullins’s his understanding of biblical authority,” theology, which has “allowed variant Norman asserts. “Christian experience interpretations and reconstructions of his became for Mullins the core distinctive view.”15 Mohler criticizes Mullins for that shaped his understanding of biblical launching a theological method, largely authority.”22 Mullins’s project led to a derived from Friedrich Schleiermacher, Southern Baptist left-wing for whom which shared “a common starting point “Christian experience replaced biblical with the modernists.”16 Mohler leads authority as the core distinctive that inter- other conservatives in questioning impli- preted the other Baptist distinctives.”23 cations of what is arguably the most last- While moderate Baptists may be correct ing facet of the Mullins project. While in identifying a contemporary conservative acknowledging that Mullins’s formula- consensus of discomfort with Mullins’s tion of soul competency helpfully empha- theological method, the moderates mistak- sized the necessity of personal repentance enly assume this means either: (a) that con- and faith, Mohler laments that “soul com- servatives have conceded the Mullins petency also serves as an acid dissolving legacy to their left-leaning counterparts or religious authority, congregationalism, (b) that conservatives have mounted a confessionalism, and mutual theological wholesale rejection of Mullins’s thought. accountability.”17 Mohler, among others, charges moderates Moderate Baptists also rightly point with selectively embracing Mullins’s theo- to historian Tom J. Nettles as an example logical program while distancing them- of conservative dissatisfaction with the selves from his conservative instincts Mullins legacy.18 Indeed, Nettles faults displayed, for example, in his position as Mullins for a Schleiermachian experi- chairman of the 1925 Baptist Faith and Mes- entialism, which “softened the belly of sage committee.24 In fact, many of the apologetics for biblical revelation.”19 selections Mohler includes in his recent Nettles also holds Mullins largely respon- compilation of Mullins’s writings demon- sible for steering Southern Baptists toward strate that while Mullins may have been a more anthropocentric soteriology, many things, he was no liberal.25 Even which, when popularized by preachers before his inauguration as Mullins’s suc- 47 cessor, Mohler, then editor of The Christian tially-errant Bible. Mullins, they contend, Index, argued that self-styled moderate carefully safeguarded the truthfulness heirs to the Mullins legacy had completely and authority of the Scriptures and even misunderstood Mullins’s own understand- answered some of the charges (such as the ing of soul competency. “By ‘soul compe- idea that belief in an authoritative Scrip- tency’ Mullins meant the freedom of the ture results in “bibliolatry”) made by con- human soul from external coercion,” temporary SBC moderates.29 In similar Mohler contended. Mullins did not mean fashion, an SBC Executive Committee “its competency to deal with sin or to serve brochure on the inerrancy controversy as its own religious authority.”26 included Mullins in a pantheon of Baptist Mohler is not alone in articulating a greats who supported the “Bible heritage” conservative adoption of some aspects of of the resurgent conservatism of the Mullins’s treatment of soul competency convention leadership.30 and voluntarism. Timothy George points Hence Southern Baptist conservatives to Mullins’s statements on the need for face the mystery of Mullins with deeply- confessional boundaries as evidence that conflicted impulses. On the one hand, they a concern for doctrinal truth does not claim him as an ambiguous but authentic nullify soul competency, contrary to the ally—a “reluctant evangelical,” in the arguments of some of Mullins’s defend- words of Nettles—a stalwart in his defense ers in the moderate wing of the SBC. of a biblically-anchored Baptist confes- George notes that queasiness with confes- sionalism. On the other hand, he is their sions of faith has more in common with most wily adversary, incubating a theologi- Alexander Campbell than E. Y. Mullins.27 cal method that would nurture the Baptist Paige Patterson, one of the key architects liberalism they so strongly oppose. of the denomination’s conservative resur- It may be argued, however, that Mul- gence, highlights the freedom-laden vol- lins is not both ally and adversary for con- untaristic impulse in Southern Baptist servatives. Instead he is neither. Southern life as that which, “while not without its Baptist conservatives do not resonate with liabilities, is nevertheless what makes a Mullins qua Mullins, but rather with the populist revolution possible within the residual influence of confessional Baptists SBC.”28 While moderates venerated such as Dagg, Boyce, Broadus, and Mul- Mullins for emphasizing the liberty lins contemporary J. B. Gambrell. Simi- beneath Baptist ecclesiology, Patterson larly, Southern Baptist conservatives are and the conservatives tipped their hats as not repelled by anything distinctive to well. While moderates cheered to slogans Mullins, but rather by the echo of non- like “Being Baptist Means Freedom,” evangelical influences such as James, Patterson and the conservatives demon- Bowne, and Schleiermacher. For conser- strated that “free and faithful Baptists” of vatives, the mystery of Mullins may be an evangelical stripe have the liberty to that for them he is neither the problem nor take on their denominational bureaucracy, the solution, but the conduit for some and win. theological influences they cannot toler- Likewise, Nettles, with L. Russ Bush III, ate and some they cannot do without. refuses to surrender Mullins to those who would promote him as the icon for a par- 48 Mullins and the Meltdown entirely without reason in memorializ- of Moderate Identity ing Mullins as the minister who had While conservatives organized a “Bap- best explained Baptists to themselves,” tist Faith and Message Fellowship” in the H. Clark Maddux observes.35 The Mullins early years of the inerrancy controversy, project has proven to be more than politi- moderates formed their own ideological cal “spin control” for the denominational interest group named, not after the con- moderates. Many articulate a self-con- fession of faith, but after its architect.31 The sciousness in which their interpretation of “E. Y. Mullins Fellowship” was short- Mullins’s soul competency is non-nego- lived, but its very existence demonstrated tiable both for forging Baptist identity and how seriously moderates took their self- for evaluating alternative theologies.36 identity as his heirs. During the thick of Glenn Hinson posits the voluntary debates over biblical authority, moderate principle as articulated by Mullins as at Baptists posited the authentic Baptist “the heart of the Baptist tradition.”37 theological heritage not with Dagg and More emphatically, Hinson writes that Boyce, but with Mullins, A. H. Strong, and Mullins’s principle of soul competency “is W. T. Conner.32 Mullins served as a rally- critical not merely to the churches but to ing point for moderates, perhaps most humankind.”38 importantly in terms of his articulation This libertarian interpretation of Mul- of soul competency and the freedom of lins’s theology of voluntarism resides at the individual to interpret Scripture. As the heart of the moderate Baptists’ dissent conservatives gained ground on trustee against what they called a “takeover” of boards across the convention, for instance, the denomination. The Alliance of Bap- moderates accelerated talk of “soul com- tists, a liberal splinter group organized in petency” and “the priesthood of the 1987, summarizes its self-identity in terms believer” in their attempt to keep denomi- of the freedom of the individual, the free- national employees and professors from dom of the local congregation, and the being held accountable to the confessional freedom of the larger body of Christ.39 guidelines of the institutions they served.33 Indeed, a call to such freedom, often pre- Like that of the conservatives, however, sented as part of the Mullins heritage, the moderate conscription of Mullins is stood at the forefront of almost every showing signs of strain. The older genera- moderate Baptist endeavor, from the tion of Baptist moderates largely cling initial conflagration of the controversy to tenaciously to what they claim as Mul- the current pronouncements of the Coop- lins’s legacy of soul competency and erative Baptist Fellowship, the shadow personal voluntarism, articulated in often denomination formed in the 1990s to starkly individualistic terms. An emerg- rival the “taken over” SBC. ing communitarian strain within the Bap- These traditional or “paleo”-moder- tist left, seen most clearly in the Baptist ates’ individualistic reading of Mullins Manifesto (or “Baptifesto”) statement of surfaces, for instance, in the intensity with 1997,34 brought with it a willingness by which James Dunn stresses the “‘I’ at the some moderates to reexamine Mullins’s center of our being even Almighty God place at the table. will not trample.”40 For him, such theo- “Self-proclaimed moderates were not logically expressed individualism is at 49 the core of Baptist identity. Dunn’s anti- that the libertarian moderate interpreta- confessional reading of the Baptist heritage tion of Mullins’s doctrine of soul compe- leads him to assert that the only thing re- tency was responsible for the silence of the sembling a creed for genuine Baptists is: Baptist left in the face of President Bill “Ain’t nobody but Jesus going to tell me Clinton’s 1998 sex and perjury scandal.45 what to believe.”41 Agreeing with fellow While some paleo-moderates have moderates Grady Cothen, Bill J. Leonard, sought to modify slightly their reading of and Leon McBeth that Mullins’s soul com- Mullins,46 they have maintained that a petency concept is a self-evident truth that commitment to individual autonomy is needs no proof, Dunn points to the doc- essential to the Baptist distinctive of soul trine as the obvious foundation for his liberty. Walter Shurden, for instance, church/state separation activism as head rejects criticisms that Mullins’s view of of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public soul competency was indicative of a “hyper- Affairs in the 1980s and 1990s. Similarly, individualism that undercuts church life,” theologian Molly T. Marshall ties Mullins’s but he upholds the view that individual- emphasis on soul freedom to the authority ism is an essential component of Baptist of the individual to interpret the text, an life since “discipleship begins with an authority she believes means the indi- awareness of God that is intensely per- vidual should “interrogate” texts that seem sonal, private, and uncoerced, allowing no to foster sexism, violence, or oppression.42 proxies, and where each individual is Jeff Pool rejects as encroaching accountable to God.”47 Against those who “credalism” confessional statements that contend that this experience arises from do not arise “from the basic Baptist prin- the community of faith, Shurden posits ciple” he sees in the Baptist Faith and Mes- the individual’s experience as “where the sage: “Every human finally stands invited church, according to Baptists, is born.”48 and able to respond finally and only to Thus Shurden stands firm in his insistence the loving and beckoning triune God.”43 that “the one word that comes closer than Pool’s radically individualistic under- any other to capturing the historic Bap- standing of Baptist confessionalism leads tist identity is the word ‘freedom.’”49 him to equate Southwestern Seminary’s It is precisely at this point that Mullins refusal to publish a collage of moderate becomes a mystery among the moderates. interpretations of the Baptist Faith and The individualistic libertarian interpreta- Message with Roman Catholic adherence tion of Mullins is no longer monolithic to the magisterium of the church.44 It is within the “Liberty Party” stream of Bap- not difficult to see how the moderates’ tist historiography. Strongly influenced by exaltation of murkily-defined doctrines of the emphasis on community in the writ- soul competency and the voluntary prin- ings of postmodern theologians such as ciple could leave conservatives wonder- James McClendon, Stanley Hauerwas, ing if, and on what grounds, such a view and Stanley Grenz, a newer group within could allow a Baptist church to refuse the Baptist left has called for a reassess- membership to a unitarian or a state con- ment of Mullins from within moderate vention to refuse to seat messengers from ranks. These, the rebellious children of a white supremacist church. Even secular Mullins, see their elder siblings as naive journalist Kenneth Woodward reported in their adoration of Mullins’s ideology. 50 The “Baptifesto” signatories oppose principle of soul competency is a revival both the confessional orthodoxy of the of ancient gnosticism since Mullins’s conservatives and the paleo-moderate dichotomous anthropology meant that view of freedom, which the newer group “the ‘soul’ in soul competency is disem- sees as more a cultural by-product of bodied.”53 Freeman takes on paleo-mod- modern democratic society than as an erates such as James Dunn on their own integral part of Baptist identity. The ground, suggesting that “Mullins no doubt communitarians, in a less than subtle would recoil” from their confessionally- swipe at Mullins himself, advocated tepid libertarianism.54 Nonetheless, he “following Jesus as a call to shared dis- faults Mullins with breeding such error by cipleship rather than invoking a theory of failing to “delineate the qualities of a char- soul competency.”50 Even the “Baptifesto” acter that would constitute competency: plank on religious liberty flows from an the habits and skills which a competent understanding of the community as a soul would need to possess in order to read colony of heaven rather than from any the Bible wisely” along with “the sort of doctrine of soul liberty. The “Baptifesto” community and spiritual formation that signatories directly challenged Mullins as are necessary to initiate and sustain con- one who “embraced modernity by defin- verted souls in the Christian life.”55 In an ing freedom in terms of the Enlighten- assessment harsher than any offered by ment notions of autonomous moral Southern Baptist conservatives, Freeman agency and objective rationality.”51 The suggests “what Mullins invented was the document lumped Mullins in with what myth of soul competency,” which served it pronounced the equally rationalistic libertarian moderates as “a metanarrative orthodoxy of Princeton theology and The that supported the revisionism of the past Fundamentals. Since Mullins was a con- which had located the roots of soul com- tributor to The Fundamentals, the “Bapti- petency in earlier Baptist and primitive festo” managed to repudiate simultane- Christian soil, much as the myth of ‘the ously both conservative and liberal trail of blood’ guided Landmarkers in vehicles for Mullins hagiography. The their reading of the history of Christian- response to the “Baptifesto” statement ity.”56 Mullins’s myth has been harmful, from readers of the moderate news peri- Freeman contends, because it provides no odical Baptists Today reflected the shock basis for ecclesiology and stifles socio- with which many on the Baptist left political engagement. viewed this distancing from Mullins. “It While it may appear that Freeman and is nonsense to suggest that E. Y. Mullins his fellow communitarians have managed led us down the path to selfish individu- completely to free themselves from alism,” retorted one reader in a stingingly Mullins, such is not the case. For all their critical letter to the editor.52 criticism, the “Baptifesto” moderates too Since the publishing of the “Bapti- see Mullins as an incipient spokesman for festo,” communitarian moderates have their ideology. Freeman, for instance, ar- pulled even fewer punches in their reas- gues that Mullins used soul competency sessment of Mullins. Startlingly, Curtis and other keystones of his theological sys- Freeman, a key crafter of the manifesto, tem as “navigational tools” by which he agrees with Harold Bloom that Mullins’s “steered the Southern Baptist ship around 51 the rocky waters of fundamentalism and scholars. One can almost anticipate the past the swirling currents of liberalism.”57 arguments for Mullins as eco-feminist, Mullins, like a good postmodernist, “per- animal liberationist, or queer theorist. ceived that although theological liberals An early twentieth-century theologian (e.g., Schleiermacher, Clarke, Mathews, functions as the key arena for the continu- and Fosdick) and conservatives (e.g., ing crisis of Baptist identity among mod- Hodge, Dagg, and Boyce) traveled differ- erates who cannot yet decide whether ent routes they were on the same voy- their defining value is liberty or commu- age.”58 Right in line with the postmodern nity, whether to argue as enlightened thinkers of the present era, Mullins saw modernists or trendy postmodernists, or the same Enlightenment philosophical even whether to call themselves “Bap- foundationalism behind both fundamen- tists” or “baptists.” Moderates still largely talism and liberalism, Freeman asserts. claim Mullins as their theological forbear, Similarly, Timothy Maddox argues but he is beginning to force them to think that in Mullins’s thought “is not simply a through the implications of a theology modern project but a complex restatement based largely on the experience of the of Baptists that can easily be seen as proto- individual and the competency of the postmodern in nature.”59 Indeed, Maddox soul. For moderates, as for conservatives, contends, both libertarian and com- Mullins may be a mystery, but he is not munitarian moderates can claim this going away. “proto-postmodern” Mullins as their own. After all, the intent of Mullins’s the- The Mystery of Mullins ology, he claims, was to “help form the and Theological Method community” since The Axioms of Religion As we have demonstrated in the served to unite the Baptist community sections above, every Southern Baptist worldwide.60 Once Maddox broaches the scholar, or so it seems, holds a strong opin- possibility of a postmodern Mullins, he ion regarding the importance of Mullins’s almost giddily finds Mullins’s thought theology. In Mullins’s thought, persons chock full of postmodernism. “Looking see individual elements with which they closer at Mullins one finds the very either strongly resonate or dissent. Con- postmodern themes of situatedness, sequently, even though most persons hermeneutics, tradition, and community,” want to lay claim to at least some portion Maddox concludes. “He represents of the Mullins’s legacy, no one achieves notions that have always been held by consensus by looking to Mullins’s Baptists but have often been repressed thought. Mullins’s scholars across the within the modern world.”61 Maddox goes ideological divide either applaud or so far as to describe Mullins’s view of the eschew the substantive intellectual self as “surprisingly similar” to that of streams that composed Mullins’s thought. postmodernist Paul Ricoeur62 and But inasmuch as Mullins’s theology both Mullins’s theological method as “in line” rallies and polarizes, its inquirers are with that of David Tracy. Such an anach- never able to determine how all these ronistic reading of Mullins surely opens a streams cohere into one overarching theo- world of disconcerting possibilities for the logical method. next generation of revisionist Mullins The simple answer to the above 52 dilemma stems from the acknowl- achievement of Mullins’s work. E. Y. edgement that the disparate elements of Mullins towered over many of his peers Mullins’s theology do not terminate in a as one of the most intellectually and cul- systematic theological method. This con- turally aware theologians of his age. clusion explains the multi-faceted inter- Mullins was an ideological superconduc- pretations of Mullins’s theological method tor, appropriating the leading ideas of in contemporary Southern Baptist histo- the most influential philosophical move- riography. As soon as one appropriator ments of the late nineteenth and early of Mullins suggests an integrating theo- twentieth centuries. He digested with logical motif, another Mullins observer critical ability the writings of philosophers counters with an equally important but and theologians such as Schleiermacher, contradictory theological principle found James, Bowne, Harnack, Newman and imbedded in Mullins’s work. One cannot Schweitzer. Mullins’s Freedom and Author- merely say, as is often assumed, that ity in Religion, for example, demonstrates Mullins’s method emanates from experi- his considerable facility with the theologi- ence, without qualifying what experience cal currents of his age.65 Mullins earned precisely means in Mullins’s determina- his well-deserved scholarly reputation. tion. Such persistent and repeated inter- Notwithstanding Mullins’s renowned nal confusion within Mullins’s system substantive scholarly acumen, however, precipitated Casper Wistar Hodge’s cri- few scholars acknowledge that Mullins tique highlighted above that Mullins’s never forged these individual intellectual Christian Religion in Its Doctrinal Expression influences into a rigorous theological contained mutually exclusive claims to method. While “Christian experience” authority.63 In any case, Hodge observed, comprises the common refrain from those Mullins’s theology possessed no thor- asked to summarize Mullins’s theological oughgoing methodological principle, his method, his use of that category fails to resulting method is quite “impossible.” explain adequately his entire system, as a For his part, Mullins resisted having his careful reading of The Christian Religion in views easily categorized or labeled. Once Its Doctrinal Expression reveals. This phe- when questioned by an eager fundamen- nomenon distinguished Mullins from talist concerning his position on evolution other modern theologians, whose meth- and particularly whether he affirmed the ods affected every doctrine within the special, direct creation of Adam, Mullins system (e.g., Schleiermacher’s feeling of retorted that “some of you brethren who absolute dependence, Barth’s infinite train with the radical fundamentalists qualitative distinction between time and are going over on Catholic ground and eternity, Tillich’s existential method of leaving the Baptist position. . . . A man correlation, et al.).66 Mullins’s appeal to who tries to pin his brethren down to Christian experience fails to provide the stereotyped statements, such as your same quality of explanatory power as do letter contains, has missed the Baptist comparable theological methods. As spirit.”64 Unfortunately, Mullins’s theo- Hodge indicated in his review of The logical method is not coherent. Christian Religion, Mullins never offered This conclusion need not lessen our a clear word regarding the nature of Chris- recognition of the sheer intellectual tian experience vis á vis the doctrine of 53 revelation. made peace with modernity. This picture Instead of doggedly advancing a of Mullins possesses tremendous explana- thoroughgoing method, Mullins experi- tory power. When assessing Mullins, one mented with an array of distinct theologi- finds it difficult to speak of his thought cal epistemologies within The Christian apart from some other more seminal Religion in Its Doctrinal Expression. A few thinker or movement such as Schleier- examples will suffice. In Chapter One, macher, James, Personalism, or Boyce.70 Section Two (I/2), and Chapter Four, Sec- The literature on Mullins repeatedly bears tions Two and Four (IV/2, 4), we see the out this observation. In The Shaping of pragmatic and relativizing influence of American Religion, for example, Sydney William James from The Varieties of Reli- Ahlstrom commended Mullins as “the gious Experience. In Chapters (I/4) and supreme Baptist theologian” given his (IV/3, 7), Mullins incorporated the attempt to “intellectualize the old-time insights of Boston Personalism. In Chap- religion of the 19th century evangelism.”71 ters Four and Ten, he contended with con- Ahlstrom viewed Mullins’s attempt as temporary questions regarding the quite noble, of course, given the limita- relationship between science and religion, tions of the very task of intellectually and concluded that theological conclu- rehabilitating the revivalist tradition. He sions derive from empirically justifiable considered Mullins to be the bright and propositions. As a result, these separate, dutiful son of revivalism, but not the pio- sometimes conflicting, but extremely neer of a new theological movement. influential sources for theology help Given the substantive amount of attention explain Mullins’s rather unconventional given to his thought in recent years, we organization of the remaining theological most accurately view Mullins as a sort of common places in his systematic theol- “retro-fitter” in his tradition, updating a ogy.67 In the preface to The Christian Reli- tradition that he inherited with the novel gion, Mullins acknowledges his reticence resources of modernity. In the midst of his to adopt theological systematization. He extensive rehabilitation projects, unfortu- explains that whereas Reformation and nately, we lose confidence that all of these post-Reformation theologies “were com- “updates” cohered in any systemic sense prehensive, more or less philosophical of the word. treatises,” and exhibited “a very com- If appropriators of Mullins see them- mendable desire to systematize the truths selves in the mirror as they study his of Christianity,” these approaches “too work, it is due to the fact that Mullins’s often [sacrificed] the biblical method and thought itself was largely a mirror of his aim in the interest of a ‘school’ of theol- times and culture. The parties within the ogy or a philosophical principle.”68 Thus, SBC that contend with each other over Mullins endeavored to “discard” such Mullins, disagree not so much over par- systems and “adhere . . . more closely . . . ticular doctrines or positions Mullins held to the Scriptures.”69 as they do over agreement as to the center Despite Mullins’s self-estimation of his of his thought. To the one frustrated by own approach, reviewers of his thought the lack of consensus on the Mullins’s fail to view him as primarily a biblical legacy, take heart. The frustration is as old theologian, but rather as a theologian who as the twentieth century itself. 54 ENDNOTES shield with a cross within which is 18H. Clark Maddux, for example, cites 1 Alister McGrath, The Genesis of Doc- a much tinier open Bible with a Nettles as one of Mullins’s “sever- trine (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990) 81. dove hovering over it. Shades of the est and ablest critics” although he 2 Ibid. medieval crusades!” Ibid. finds Nettles’s analysis “necessarily 3 Casper W. Hodge, “Recent Litera- 12Russell Dilday, “Mullins the Theo- limited” by its sesquicentennial ture: The Christian Religion in Its logian: Between the Extremes,” scope. “Edgar Young Mullins and Doctrinal Expression,” The Princeton Review and Expositor 96 (Winter Evangelical Developments in the Theological Review 16 (1918) 125-126. 1997) 79. Moderate Timothy Mad- Southern Baptist Convention,” Bap- 4 Ibid., 125. dox agrees with Dilday that Mohler’s tist History and Heritage 33 (Spring 5 Dwight A. Moody, “The Bible” in Has introduction to the 1997 volume on 1998) 62. Our Theology Changed?, ed. Paul A. Mullins was “unfortunate” and a 19Tom J. Nettles, “The Rise and Basden (Nashville: Broadman and “misreading” of Mullins. See Timo- Demise of Calvinism Among South- Holman, 1994) 9, 34. See also other thy D. F. Maddox, “E. Y. Mullins: Mr. ern Baptists,” Founders Journal 19/ chapters in this volume for more Baptist for the 20th and 21st Cen- 20 (Winter/Spring 1995) 16. examples of this kind of assessment tury,” Review and Expositor 96 (Win- 20Tom J. Nettles, By His Grace and for of Mullins. ter 1999) 103 n. 11. His Glory (Grand Rapids: Baker, 6 Ralph H. Elliot, The “Genesis Contro- 13Curtis W. Freeman, “E. Y. Mullins 1986) 246-257. Mark T. Coppenger versy” and Continuity in Southern and the Siren Songs of Modernity,” puts forth a similar assessment of Baptist Chaos: A Eulogy for a Great Review and Expositor 96 (Winter Mullins’s role in the shift in South- Tradition (Macon, GA: Mercer Uni- 1999) 33. It is important to note that ern Baptist theology. Remarkably, versity Press, 1992) 19. Freeman considers such observa- Coppenger cites a passage from 7 Stan Norman, “Fighting the Good tions to be without historical foun- Mullins’s preaching as “seemingly Fight: The Struggle for a Baptist dation. “That Mullins is indicative at odds with the anthropological Identity” SBC Life, April 1999, 8-9. of the adjustment of Baptist theol- article of the Abstract of Principles.” 8 R. Albert Mohler Jr., “A Call for ogy to modernity is surely correct,” Coppenger, “The Ascent of Lost Baptist Evangelicals and Evangeli- he notes. “That he is the cause or Man in Southern Baptist Preach- cal Baptists: Communities of Faith source of this shift is less likely.” ing,” Founders Journal 25 (Summer and a Common Quest for Identity” 14Jeff Pool, Against Returning to Egypt: 1996) 12. in Southern Baptists and American Exposing and Resisting Credalism in 21Norman, 9. Evangelicals, ed. David S. Dockery the Southern Baptist Convention 22Ibid. (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, (Macon, GA: Mercer University 23Ibid. 1993) 227-228. Press, 1998) 100-101. Pool cites as 24Mohler, “Introduction,” 24. 9 James C. Hefley, The Truth in Crisis: evidence of the “objectionable 25The volume includes, for instance, The Controversy in the Southern Bap- evaluation of Mullins” by quoting Mullins’s defense of confession- tist Convention (Dallas: Criterion a 1995 quote by Mohler describing alism in his essay “Baptists and Publications, 1986) 1:58-62. Mullins as “the pivotal figure” who Creeds” and his conservative cri- 10E. Glenn Hinson, “E. Y. Mullins as “paved the way for true liberalism tique of modernist scholarship in Interpreter of the Baptist Tradition,” to enter the SBC.” “The Jesus of ‘Liberal’ Theology.” Review and Expositor 96 (Winter 15R. Albert Mohler Jr. “Introduction,” Timothy and Denise George, ed., 1999) 119. in The Axioms of Religion, ed. Timo- The Axioms of Religion. 11“Until [Mohler] became president, thy and Denise George (Nashville: 26R. Albert Mohler Jr., “Soul Compe- the Seminary’s logo was an open Broadman and Holman, 1997) 13. tency: Getting the Baptist Story Bible with a dove hovering over it,” 16Ibid., 9-10. Straight,” Christian Index, 13 May Hinson writes. “Now the logo is a 17Ibid., 26. 1993, 2. In this article, Mohler con- 55 trasts Mullins’s view of soul com- Sherman’s use of Mullins in his 38Hinson, “E. Y. Mullins as Interpreter petency with the characterization of significant debate with conserva- of the Baptist Tradition,” 116. his view given by liberal Baptists tive Paige Patterson at Morgan- 39“The Covenant of the Alliance of such as television journalist Bill town, North Carolina. SBC Battle for Baptists,” in Walter B. Shurden, The Moyers and finds in the revisionist the Bible Debate: Does the Bible con- Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms model “precisely the competency tain errors?, audiotape of debate (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, Mullins rejected.” between Paige Patterson and Cecil 1993) 85-86. 27Timothy George, “Southern Baptist Sherman (Dallas: Criswell Bible 40James M. Dunn, “Yes, I Am a Ghosts,” First Things, May 1999, 20- Institute, 1982). Baptist,” in Why I Am a Baptist: 21. 33Such arguments continue in, for Reflections on Being Baptist in the 28Paige Patterson, “Anatomy of a Ref- example, E. Glenn Hinson, “The 21st Century, ed. Cecil P. Staton Jr. ormation: The Southern Baptist Voluntary Principle in Baptist Life,” (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, Convention 1978-1994,” Faith and Whitsitt Journal 6 (Spring 1999) 12- 1999) 46. Mission 16 (Summer 1999) 25. 13. Hinson does so without explain- 41Ibid., 47. 29L. Russ Bush and Tom J. Nettles, ing why Mullins himself supported 42Molly T. Marshall, “Exercising Lib- Baptists and the Bible, revised and confessional guidelines for faculty erty of Conscience: Freedom in Pri- expanded edition (Nashville: members at Baptist educational vate Interpretation,” in Baptists in Broadman and Holman, 1999) 258- institutions if doing so endangers the Balance: The Tension Between Free- 269. Mullins’s legacy of the voluntary dom and Responsibility, ed. Everett C. 30“We Thought You’d Like to Know,” principle. Goodwin (Valley Forge, PA: Judson May 1993 (Convention Relations 34“Re-Envisioning Baptist Identity: Press, 1997) 147. Department of the Executive Com- A Manifesto for Baptist Communi- 43Jeff Pool, “Chief Article of Faith: The mittee of the Southern Baptist ties in North America,” Baptists Preamble of The Baptist Faith and Convention). The brochure cites Today, 26 June 1997, 8-10. Drafters of Message (1963),” in Sacred Mandates Mullins’s address to the 1923 South- this document include James Will- of Conscience: Interpretations of the ern Baptist Convention supporting iam McClendon Jr., and Curtis Free- Baptist Faith and Message, ed. Jeff B. confessional requirements for fac- man. Signatories include Nancy Pool (Macon, GA: Smyth and ulty members at Baptist schools. Ammerman, Carey Newman, Roger Helwys, 1997) 77. Mullins’s quote is included along- Olson, and Stanley Grenz. 44Jeff Pool, “Conscience and Interpret- side others such as John L. Dagg, 35Maddux, 62. ing Baptist Tradition,” in Sacred James P. Boyce, B. H. Carroll, and 36A. J. Conyers, for instance, assesses Mandates of Conscience, 17. “If Lottie Moon. Interestingly, this bro- the revival of Reformed theology [Southwestern Baptist Theological chure also highlights Mullins’s doc- among Southern Baptists with the Seminary President Kenneth] trine of soul competency, describing warning that “[a] theology of this Hemphill and his administration it as “the accountability of each per- type must accommodate the Baptist genuinely trusted and expressed the son before God. Your family cannot conviction that (to use Mullins’s SBC’s historic perspectives, they save you. Neither can your church. term) the soul is ‘competent’ to would allow Baptists to read, to dis- It comes down to you and God. respond to God’s gift of himself in cuss, to argue, if need be to com- Authorities can’t force belief or Jesus Christ.” A. J. Conyers, “The plain and finally to decide for unbelief. They shouldn’t try.” Changing Face of Baptist Theol- themselves how they will evaluate 31H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heri- ogy,” Review and Expositor 95 (Sum- interpretations of the BFM (1963),” tage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness mer 1998) 28. Pool writes. “Instead, the adminis- (Nashville: Broadman, 1987) 682. 37Hinson, “The Voluntary Principle in trators of SWBTS have decided not 32See, for instance, moderate Cecil Baptist Life,” 1. to allow Baptists in the SBC to exer- 56 cise their prerogatives as partici- 65E. Y. Mullins, Freedom and Authority the Northern Baptist Convention’s pants in a common priesthood. Nei- in Religion (Philadelphia: The rejection of the New Hampshire ther such a repressive posture nor Griffith and Rowland Press, 1913). Confession of Faith in 1922 ener- such manipulative behavior repre- 66Mullins’s lack of a penetrating gized Mullins’s push for a confes- sents the broader and most authen- methodological principle cannot be sion of faith in the South in 1925. tic heritage and piety of Baptists in said to exist as a peculiarly Baptist Mullins participated in the program the SBC.” phenomenon, since examples can be at the 1922 Northern Baptist Con- 45Kenneth Woodward, “Sex, Sin and multiplied to the contrary (e.g., A. vention on the day that Cornelius Salvation,” Newsweek, 2 November H. Strong’s emphasis on ethical Woelfkin’s clever appeal to “the 1998, 37. monism, and Stanley Grenz’s com- New Testament alone as our creed” 46See, for instance, Hinson’s sugges- munitarianism based on the doc- helped defeat W. B. Riley’s motion tion that contemporary moderates trine of the Trinity). for Northern Baptists to adopt the abandon Mullins’s emphasis on 67In view here, for example, is Mul- New Hampshire Confession of denominationalism and revise his lins’s placement of the doctrine of Faith as a doctrinal standard for its individualism. Hinson, “Interpreter the Holy Spirit before the doctrines institutions and agencies. Perhaps of the Baptist Tradition,” 118-119. of God the Father, Creation and the Mullins’s support of a slightly 47Walter Shurden, “The Baptist Iden- work of Christ, as well his separa- reworded New Hampshire Confes- tity and The Baptist Manifesto,” Per- tion of the sections concerning the sion in 1925 came from a desire to spectives in Religious Studies 25 person and work of Jesus Christ. see Southern Baptists avoid the bit- (Winter 1998) 331. Although Mullins avers that his ter dispute which eventually tore 48Ibid. rationale for doing so stems from their northern counterparts in two. 49Shurden, 55. the fact that we only obtain the For a detailed account of the pro- 50“Re-Envisioning Baptist Identity,” 8. knowledge of God through redemp- ceedings of the 1922 Northern Bap- 51Ibid., 9. tion, his novel conceptualization of tist Convention at Indianapolis, see 52Patrick N. Rogers-Horn, “Numer- the order of theological subjects The Watchman Examiner, July 6, 1922. ous Difficulties,” letter to the editor, remains nonetheless striking. See 71Sydney Ahlstrom, “Theology in Baptists Today, 21 August 1997, 10. E. Y. Mullins, The Christian Religion America: A Historical Survey,” in the 53Freeman, 36. in Its Doctrinal Expression (Nashville: Shaping of American Religion, Vol. 1 54Ibid., 34. The Sunday School Board of the (New Jersey: Princeton University 55Ibid. Southern Baptist Convention, 1917) Press, 1961) 303. 56Ibid., 35. 214. 57Ibid., 23. 68Ibid., vii. 58Ibid., 29. 69Ibid., vii. 59Maddox, 97. 70Every contribution to Baptist 60Ibid., 94-95. thought attributed to Mullins 61Ibid., 98. appears beholden to some earlier, 62Ibid. more fundamental perspective or 63Hodge, 125. event. For instance, Southern Bap- 64E. Y. Mullins, letter to the editor, in tists rightly cheer Mullins for his the Fort Worth Searchlight, April 16, pivotal role in developing and gain- 1926, quoted in Kenneth K. Bailey, ing denominational acceptance of Southern White Protestantism in the The Baptist Faith and Message as Twentieth Century (New York: a confession of faith. But rarely Harper and Row, 1964) 63. acknowledged is the likelihood that 57