The SBJT Forum: Overlooked Shapers of

Editor’s Note: Readers should be aware of the Forum’s format. Timothy George, D. A. Carson, C. Ben Mitchell, Scott Hafemann, Carl F. H. Henry, and Greg Wills have been asked specific questions to which they have provided written responses. These writ- ers are not responding to one another. The journal’s goal for the Forum is to provide significant thinkers’ views on topics of interest without requiring lengthy articles from these heavily-committed individuals. Their answers are presented in an order that hopefully makes the Forum read as much like a unified presentation as possible.

SBJT: Whom would you name as some- age twenty-eight Manly was called as one whose impact has been underesti- of the oldest and most prestigious mated? Baptist church in the South, the First Timothy George: Basil Manly, Sr. (1798- Baptist Church of Charleston, succeeding 1868) was one of the most significant the venerable Richard Furman. shapers of the Southern Baptist tradition, Manly had a great influence on an en- although his legacy has been somewhat tire generation of younger ministers, in- eclipsed by his illustrious son, Basil cluding his own son and James Petigru Manly, Jr., one of the four faculty founders Boyce. Manly was Boyce’s mentor and of Southern Seminary and sometime father in the ministry. A strong advocate president of Georgetown College. For of theological education, Manly called for many years in the SBC, figures such as the creation of an Education Convention, Manly, Sr., if noticed at all, were mere which played an important role in the objects of affectionate obscurity. Now that eventual formation of Southern Seminary, it is once again acceptable to evaluate the over which Manly also presided as chair and historic importance of such of the first board of trustees. figures, Manly, Sr. deserves to be brought Manly is doubly significant in Baptist down from the shelf of historical curios- history in that he served as a bridge ity and refurbished as a model of pastoral between the more settled conditions of integrity, theological fidelity, and denomi- Baptist life on the eastern seaboard and Timothy George is the founding Dean national statesmanship. the expansion of Baptist life into what was of Beeson Divinity School of Samford Manly was born at Chatham County, then the western frontier, that is, the Ala- University, Birmingham, Alabama. He is North Carolina, on January 29, 1798. His bama wilderness. Manly served as the the author of John Robinson and the father was a Catholic but, like his mother, second president of the University of English Separatist Tradition, Theology of Basil became a Baptist. Converted to Alabama and also as pastor of the First the Reformers, and Faithful Witness: The Christ through the witness of a slave, he Baptist Churches of Tuscaloosa and Mont- Life of William Carey, as well as several was baptized in 1816 in the Haw River. gomery. After an interlude of four years scholarly articles. George also serves as Soon thereafter he was licensed to preach back in Charleston, he returned to Ala- a senior adviser for Today. in the Sandy Creek Baptist Association. At bama in 1859 as a church planter and 76 evangelist for the Alabama Baptist Con- to create. His chief vocation as a theolo- vention, in which capacity he dubbed gian was to pass the torch of Baptist himself the “Baptist Bishop of Alabama.” orthodoxy and evangelical It is no surprise that Manly shows up from the giants of a bygone era, the Fur- on Brooks Holifield’s list of “gentlemen mans, Fullers, and Mercers, to a new theologians” who had a decisive effect on rising generation of powerful thinkers and Southern culture in the nineteenth cen- doers, the Boyces, Mells, and Brantley, Jrs. tury. Boyce described his itinerant preach- Manly opposed both , which ing ministry thus: “His journeys were seemed to him to undermine the gratuity accompanied by melting hearts and of God’s free grace, and Landmarkism, streaming eyes.” He himself said that his which placed undue and unbiblical preaching was “always close and practi- restrictions on the fellowship of God’s cal, more like an earnest conversation people. Throughout his career, Manly’s directed immediately to an individual.” approach to the ministry was character- Many of his sermons survive in manu- ized by what might be called an “evan- script form. They deserve to be studied gelical ecumenicity.” Intensely loyal to closely as a model of fervent piety and Baptist principles, Manly did not hesitate sound learning. to hold fellowship with other Christians Manly’s most famous sermon was with whom he shared a commitment to delivered on a day of public prayer and the doctrines of historic Christian ortho- fasting following the inauguration of doxy. Eventually, most Southern Jefferson Davis as president of the Con- were able to shed the harshest husks of federacy. Taking his text from Judges 6:13, Landmarkism, but the rustic Arminianism “If the Lord be with us, why then is all of the frontier worked as a slow dissolvent this befallen us?,” Manly declared in the on Southern Baptist theology and piety. tradition of sound Reformed theology that On both fronts, Manly still has much to the people of God were not exempt from teach his spiritual descendants today. calamities of history. As chaplain to the Manly was, of course, a child of his times Confederate Congress, Manly was clearly as well as a shaper of his times. Like many a partisan on the Southern side, but in this Southern theologians of his day, he was sermon he transcended the politics of the blind to the horrible evils of slavery. His day to place the tragedy of the Civil War life was filled with both joy and struggle. in the context of divine transhistorical He was driven to do the will of God, as purposes. In its poignancy and insight, best he understood it, as faithfully as he this sermon is comparable to Abraham could, for as long as he could. When he Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. died in 1868, the Civil War was past, but Later, when his own son, Fuller, was miss- the scars of racism and poverty still ing in action at the Battle of Petersburg, plagued his beloved Southland. Both the he was forced to live out personally the glory and the suffering of Manly’s life re- message he had proclaimed. mind us that all of us stand desperately in As one of the leading pastor-theolo- need of God’s grace and tender mercies. gians of his generation, Manly had a great theological impact on the churches he served and the denomination he helped 77 SBJT: Whom would you name as some- served as the of St. Peter’s, one whose contributions have been over- Dundee, since 1836. Though he was the looked? minister of this one “kirk” (church), his D. A. Carson: I confess I find the assigned reputation extended all over Scotland and topic this quarter unusually difficult. It is beyond. Throughout Scotland he was not that I cannot think of anyone who referred to as “the saintly M’Cheyne.” might qualify. The problem is that there Where M’Cheyne excelled was in his are so many who might qualify, and I mix of serious study and eminent piety. cannot find adequate criteria for adjudi- While still a theological student in cating among them. A friend of mine who Edinburgh, he met regularly with Andrew named his son Calvin told me (his tongue Bonar, Horatius Bonar, and a handful of only slightly in his cheek) that he would other earnest ministers-in-training. The have preferred Oecolampadius, but that purpose of these informal meetings was too few people knew who this hero of the to pray, to study, and to work through magisterial was. Many have Greek and Hebrew exercises—disciplines wondered how influential Balthasar M’Cheyne preserved throughout his short Hubmaier would have become in the life. This group of students took the Bible Anabaptist wing if he had not been killed so seriously in their living and preaching so young. To make the matter of criteria that when the eminent Thomas Chalmers, still more difficult, I have to admit that vari- then Professor of Divinity, heard of the ous writers were a help to me when I was way they approached the Bible, he said, at some stage or other of my pilgrimage, “I like these literalities.” even though later reflection has led me to M’Cheyne was constantly attempting think less of their views. When I was four- to foster serious Bible reading. He pre- teen years of age, I read Watchman Nee’s pared a chart for the people of his own The Normal Christian Life, and found it a parish to encourage them to read through, wonderful incentive to personal holiness. in one year, the and I remain grateful for that spur to Psalms twice, and the rest of the Old Tes- holiness, even though a little more study tament once. (That chart is still very much has convinced me that in his major empha- in use. John Stott has followed the ses Nee is exegetically dubious, theologi- M’Cheyne Bible reading scheme for cally mistaken, and sometimes pastorally decades.) To one young man he wrote, dangerous. So where do I rank him? Moreover, a choice like this should be You read your Bible regularly, of course; but do try and understand made with respect to the readership. If all it, and still more to feel it. Read more D. A. Carson is Research Professor the readers of SBJT were professional aca- parts than one at a time. For of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical demics, my choice would be slanted in a example, if you are reading Genesis, read a Psalm also; or if you are read- Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He different way than if they were all voca- ing Matthew, read a small bit of an is the author of numerous commentar- tional evangelists. So bearing in mind the Epistle also. Turn the Bible into ies and monographs, and is one of this readership of this journal, I shall choose prayer. Thus, if you were reading the First Psalm, spread the Bible on the country’s foremost New Testament Robert Murray M’Cheyne. chair before you, and kneel and pray, scholars. His most recent book is The M’Cheyne was born in Edinburgh, Scot- ‘O Lord, give me the blessedness of the man let me not stand in the coun- Inclusive Language Debate: A Plea for land, on May 21, 1813. He died on March sel of the ungodly.’ This is the best Realism (Baker, 1998). 25, 1843, not quite thirty years old. He had way of knowing the meaning of the 78 Bible, and of learning to pray. So I recommend M’Cheyne—and not just M’Cheyne, but a host of pastor-theo- Stories of M’Cheyne are legion. At one logians who manifest similar values. They point he used to go for a walk on Mon- will inform our minds, warm our hearts, day with Andrew Bonar. The two men and steel our wills. served separate churches, but they often compared notes and prayed together. On SBJT: What do you perceive to be a one occasion Bonar told M’Cheyne that neglected influence or emphasis in on the previous day he had preached on evangelicalism? hell. M’Cheyne quietly asked him if he C. Ben Mitchell: To their own peril, had been enabled to preach it with tears. evangelicals, including Southern Baptists, It was Andrew Bonar who, after his have neglected liberal arts education that friend’s untimely death, collected some of develops a Christian worldview. It is not M’Cheyne’s letters, sermons, and miscel- that we lack colleges and universities. It laneous papers, and published them, along is not that we have been miserly concern- with a brief biography. The work appeared ing buildings and books. But, sadly, we in 1844 under the title Robert Murray have neglected the central core of classi- M’Cheyne: Memoir and Remains. Within cal education—the integration of faith and twenty-five years it went through 116 Brit- learning throughout a humanities curricu- ish editions, in addition to those in America lum. In an age of increasing specialization and elsewhere. It is still widely recognized a call to an emphasis on a broad-based as one of the great spiritual classics. humanities education may seem Pale- So why do I recommend M’Cheyne? olithic. Perhaps I am a young dinosaur. First, he typifies a host of ministers who But, in my view, evangelical students are, were scholar-practitioners, pastor-theolo- for the most part, worse off for their Chris- gians, serious students yet fervent evan- tian liberal arts educations, not better off. gelists. The bifurcation between scholar The reason evangelical students are ill- and pastor that cripples so much of min- prepared by most Christian colleges and istry today was not for him. Second, he universities is because very few of those brought piety and serious study together schools seem to be committed to traditional in unashamed union. So much of the humanities curricula from a Christian Western tradition of study magnifies dis- worldview. Students are untaught when it passionate distance from the subject. Cer- comes to integrating the disciplines under tainly we need the careful listening to the the rubric of a robust Christian world and text that avoids mere subjectivism. But our life perspective. So, instead of graduating C. Ben Mitchell is Assistant Profes- aim should not be to become masters of scholars whose faith shapes how they think sor of Christian Ethics at The Southern the text but to be mastered by the text. about the world and their place in it, these Baptist Theological Seminary. He has Third, M’Cheyne was passionately com- schools repeat the worn nostrums of a written widely on philosophical and ethi- mitted to reforming the church by the largely secular view of culture. cal issues, is currently the editor of Eth- Word of God, and did all he could to pro- A liberal arts education focuses on the ics and Medicine, and serves as mote a broad, deep, and reverent grasp big issues. Ultimate questions like the Consultant on Biomedical and Life Is- of Scripture. By his standards, so much nature of the universe, the meaning of life, sues for the Ethics and Religious Lib- ecclesiastical ministry today seems mis- the existence of God, and the problem of erty Commission of the Southern Baptist focused or even frivolous. evil occupy such an education. Moreover, Convention. 79 a Christian liberal arts education traces the ship of Christ. contours of global thought. History, phi- Take the burgeoning field of molecular losophy, and theology loom large in the biology for example. Clearly, the field curriculum. Great literature, both fiction requires an impressive set of specialized and nonfiction, figure into a worldviewish skills. Geneticists are constantly pushing Christian education, not just for the sake the envelope with respect to research and of learning information, but for the pur- discovery. We have learned more about pose of cultivating imagination. Thinking genetics in the past forty years than we God’s thoughts after him requires skill at learned in all the millennia prior to them. transcending the mundane and pedes- We are likely to learn exponentially more trian ways of looking at the world. Sci- in the next four decades. If the emphasis ence and mathematics enable us to on gaining specialized skills triumphs, understand God’s universe more com- physicians, scientists, biotechnologists, and pletely and, thus, more faithfully. Music others will know a great deal about alle- and art evoke the imagination and warm les, genomes, and germ cells. But the more the heart to the beauty of God’s creation. important theological and philosophical Are these merely the musings of a issues will remain unanswered unless maudlin romantic? Perhaps. But, perhaps these biologists are informed by a rigorous a curriculum like this would, in part, fill Christian worldview perspective. the God-shaped vacuum within the In addition, the persons who are actu- human soul. Perhaps a Christian liberal ally doing genetic research are in the best arts education would equip students to position to ask the moral question, “Just exegete the world around them, to under- because we can do something, does that stand its way of life, diagnose its ills, and mean we should?” The technological penetrate the façade of self-satisfaction imperative begs to be obeyed, yet the that marks our culture. moral imperative asks whether or not one An emphasis on liberal arts education should succumb. Those closest to the sci- is contrary to the present emphasis on spe- ence are in a better position to consider cialization and the pragmatic concern of the moral imperative, all things being getting a job after graduation. In fact, a equal, than those removed from the sci- good deal of energy is spent today trying ence. Yet, without the kind of Christian to devise a curriculum that will give worldview education for which I am call- graduates certain marketable job skills. ing, the scientist would not even know This is a laudable goal. An emphasis on what questions to ask. Instead, as today, liberal arts education, however, does not scientists do research and ethicists, phi- necessarily mitigate against subsequent losophers, and theologians supervise. specialization. Instead, a strong Christian Recently a researcher told me that he humanities curriculum will provide stu- “can’t afford to think about whether what dents with the cognitive and hermeneuti- I’m doing is ethical. That’s someone else’s cal skills to understand and interpret their job. I do science.” Despite the fact that this world. Furthermore, those who are arrangement provides jobs for persons of equipped with these skills will be in the my ilk, it is nevertheless a disaster wait- best position to penetrate and engage ing to happen (or maybe it already has every discipline to bring it under the Lord- happened). As never before in the history 80 of humanity, scientists need to ask the University: From Protestant Establishment to moral questions. Established Nonbelief.1 The long-range At the risk of sounding politically implications of such a vacuum among the incorrect, evangelicals are the only ones gate-keepers of the American mind can be who can offer a holistic, robust, liberal arts easily imagined. But rather than dwell on education from a Christian worldview what has happened, let me call our atten- perspective. No one else will do so and tion to Marsden’s own positive response no one else should do so. Mainline Prot- to this development and offer my own estant institutions have capitulated one by brief response as well. I will be referring one to secularism, and secular institutions to his The Outrageous Idea of Christian Schol- demonstrate almost no tolerance for evan- arship,2 in which he argues that Christians gelical presuppositions. If evangelicals still have a legitimate place in the schools will not provide hearty liberal arts pro- that used to be their own. I think that grams, who will? If they will not provide Evangelicals and other Christians have them now, then when? neglected a commitment to specifically The apostle Paul told the Corinthians, Christian scholarship, and this must be “For though we live in the world, we do regained. Marsden’s book offers some not wage war the way the world does. The interesting thoughts on what this trans- weapons we fight with are not the weap- formation would include. ons of the world. On the contrary, they My calling attention to this issue is the have divine power to demolish strong- flipside of the issue addressed in our holds. We demolish arguments and every Forum by Ben Mitchell. I heartily agree pretension that sets itself up against the with our need to take the liberal arts seri- knowledge of God, and we take captive ously and to pursue the integration of every thought to make it obedient to faith and learning for all we are worth Christ” (2 Co 10:5, NAS). At the end of (I do teach at Wheaton College, after all). the day, a strong Christian liberal arts cur- Often, we squander the opportunities we riculum that integrates faith and learning have to bring together faith and learning. is a demonstration that the people of God I am concerned with the corresponding honor Christ and desire to bring every question of education in our culture at thought captive to him. large as raised by Marsden’s two works. I am afraid that Mitchell’s call cannot be SBJT: What do you consider to be an heeded in most circles because of the important but neglected movement in downsized version of Christianity that is contemporary culture? often brought to the task of integration Scott Hafemann: One of the most signifi- itself. We are faced today with a crisis of cant moves in recent culture has been the both presence and proclamation in col- Scott Hafemann is Hawthorne Pro- gradual exclusion of people and perspec- leges and universities. fessor of Greek at Wheaton College in tives of faith from the ranks of the profes- This came home to me recently while I Wheaton, Illinois. He is the author of sors and curricula in contemporary was reading Marsden’s work on an air- Suffering and the Spirit, Paul, Moses, universities. This loss of the “soul” of the plane. After spending about 3,000 miles and the History of Israel, as well as American university has been well docu- across the aisle from one another, the man several scholarly articles. He is currently mented by George Marsden in his impor- next to me finally asked the question that at work on 2 Corinthians for The NIV tant work, The Soul of the American had been prompted by the spine of Application Commentary. 81 Marsden’s book: “So, in 100 words or less, secular response to the world in which we just what is so outrageous about Chris- live? tian scholarship?” After a startled pause, To broach this question today is not I said that the author’s answer could be easy. Marsden points out that to be explicit given in one word: God (that is, that he about one’s particular beliefs is the “most exists and that his existence has implica- difficult” thing to do in a pluralistic set- tions for everything that we study). ting.5 While simply being religious may Alright, it can be given in 17 words. be viewed phenomenologically as part of Of course, I was both right and wrong a very common human experience, to in my quick response. As the title of his assert particular beliefs is seen as “inher- book indicates, Professor Marsden is con- ently offensive” within a pluralistic cerned with more than simply regaining academic culture. Thus, if Christian schol- a legitimate place within the secular acad- arship appears outrageous, then evangeli- emy for a general theistic perspective, as cal scholarship looks really outrageous. fundamental as this is. In the end, Marsden Indeed, if Christians are being excluded is committed to a specifically “Christian” or forced into silence in our universities, scholarship. Moreover, Marsden tipped then evangelicals are confronted with a his hand that his particular brand of Chris- double argument for their marginal- tianity is that of the Reformed tradition, ization: the naturalistic reductionism of so that his “entire account of Christian the secular academy and the theological scholarship is built on an Augustinian reductionism of Christian liberalism and base.”3 It was this move from a bare the- . Naturally we should resist the ism to Christianity, and then from Chris- pressure of the academy, to whom we tianity to Augustinian Christianity that appear naive and unscientific, but should gave me pause. If such a move from the we risk the scorn of our fellow Christians, generally religious to a specific religion, to whom we appear unduly separatistic to a specific brand of this religion, is and sectarian, even fundamentalistic? legitimate within the academy, and I think Marsden is certainly right that “con- Marsden has demonstrated that it is, then temporary university culture is hollow at what’s good enough for Marsden is good its core,” for its loss of belief in God’s enough for me. As Marsden himself existence strips morality of its transcen- points out, “there are not simply ‘reli- dent basis.6 From an evangelical per- gious’ views of various subjects. There are spective, however, much of western only the views of particular religions….”4 Christianity has itself been hollowed out, So, in following his lead, what does his since objective revelation is denied. As a study mean for us as evangelicals? As result, Christianity has often been evangelical Baptists? As evangelical Bap- trivialized as just one more manifestation tists who are Augustinian in their soteri- of religious feelings, what Marsden calls ology? To paraphrase Marsden here, an “extra-curricular activity that is irrel- “what difference could it possibly make” evant to academic pursuits.”7 But liberal- that we have these particular adjectives? ism and pietism do not care. They are In other words, to take just the first ques- happy with being relegated to a separate tion, what is the distinctively evangelical sphere, a “transcendent realm that science response to the Christian response to the could not grasp.”8 At least they can still 82 have a place at the proverbial “table” of by liberal Protestants. Have we too become discussion. But what is left of the Faith is content to take our evangelicalism for merely faith, a religion of the heart which granted, emphasizing instead “the unify- centers on the conviction that God has ing moral dimensions of our spiritual heri- authoritatively revealed himself in a time tage, rather than the particulars of and space apart from us as recounted and traditional Protestant doctrine”?12 Whereas interpreted for us in his written word. liberal became non-sectarian Marsden’s own history of liberalism’s in order to promote a unified national cul- capitulation to the dominant culture, only ture, evangelicals often downplay their to be usurped by the secular academy, own distinctives in order to assimilate into makes it clear that if evangelicalism is to a generalized Christian culture. Hence, just survive we must not retreat from our con- as the mainline denominations conse- viction concerning the Bible to personal- quently discriminated against “more tra- ized moral ideals and piety. Marsden’s ditionalist Protestantism,”13 it is revealing analysis of colleges that we often give the impression that our and universities demonstrates that devo- primary fear is fundamentalism. For tions and chapel are not enough to sus- under the pressure of pluralism, “Protes- tain us academically nor to preserve the tantism that made a distinction between faith in the midst of objectivist naturalism the saved and the lost…or that emphasized on the one side and what he calls “relativ- the exclusive authority of biblical revela- istic postmodern anti-realist naturalism”9 on tion,” becomes an embarrassment to “the the other. Maintaining personal piety and unifying cultural project. The authority of a social location marked by communal naturalistic science, social science, and worship are necessary, but not sufficient. history validates the disparagement of What is needed is an explicit, publicly dis- traditional Protestantism and endorses the cussed, growing understanding of our superiority of nonsectarian liberal Protes- faith, not only as a verb, but also as a tant views.”14 But Marsden’s warning noun—the Faith as formed and continu- should be heeded by evangelicals: the ally reformed by Scripture. For as separation of faith from history into a so- Marsden points out, in the past, “the called “two level view” of reality was the taken-for-granted aspect of the Christian key to the secularization of mainline Prot- context had the paradoxical effect of estant schools.15 inhibiting the development of explicit By contrast, it is not accidental that the Christian perspectives. Because a broadly evangelical statements of faith typically Christian outlook could be presumed, not contain a summary of our understanding much effort was made to relate Christian- of the Bible. This particular contribution ity specifically to what was being stud- of evangelical Christian scholarship to ied.”10 As a result, “The Christian heritage learning was underscored for me by the was thus relatively easy to undermine conspicuous absence in Marsden’s work academically.”11 of any discussion of the role and nature Marsden’s book consequently raises the of the Scriptures. Evangelicals are not question of whether evangelical colleges united because we all share the same are not increasingly making the same mis- expressions of worship and religious take that he points out was made earlier experience. To put it bluntly, we are 83 evangelicals not because we love Jesus, are already Christian. For us the burden but because we share certain theological is to move from being Christian to being convictions that grow out of the Bible. a particular kind of Christian as a result Loving Christ is a necessary, but not suf- of being shaped by a particular set of ficient, condition for being an evangelical, Christian truths. since we take seriously Marsden’s point that “for those who believe God is at ENDNOTES the heart of reality, other knowledge is 1George Marsden, The Soul of the Ameri- distorted if divorced from the context of can University: From Protestant Establish- theological truths.”16 Evangelicals take ment to Established Nonbelief (New York: Marsden’s plural noun “truths” very Oxford Univ. Press, 1994). seriously, because evangelicals have a net- 2Marsden, The Outrageous Idea of Christian work of beliefs, not just a belief. This Scholarship (New York: Oxford Univ. accords with Marsden’s definition of the- Press, 1997). ology as “any serious thought about God 3Ibid., 98. and God’s revelation according to a par- 4Ibid., 8. ticular religious tradition.”17 If we are to 5Ibid., 10. integrate faith and learning as Mitchell 6Ibid., 3. rightly admonishes us, then we must all 7Ibid., 20. become, to some degree, biblical theolo- 8Ibid., 21. gians, not just worshipers. I agree with 9Ibid., 30. Marsden that we should not reduce our 10Ibid., 15. work only to its theological dimensions.18 11Ibid., 16. But Marsden also points out that main- 12Ibid., 14. line “Church related institutions that 13Ibid., 15. affirm continuity with their religious heri- 14Ibid. tage by talking of their emphasis on val- 15Ibid., 123-124, n.11. ues are saying almost nothing.”19 In the 16Ibid., 76. same way, evangelical colleges that stress 17Ibid., 83. religious experience as the foundation of 18Ibid. their enterprise are equally vacuous. 19Ibid., 104. Carl F. H. Henry is the dean of Bap- We may not be able to make it back into 20Ibid., 106. tist and evangelical theologians. His pub- the university as evangelicals in many lications span fifty years, and he has fields, but at least we can be evangelical SBJT: What truth are Christian scholars lectured and taught at scores of colleges, in our own schools. In mainline Protes- neglecting as they seek to construct a universities, and seminaries. Henry’s tantism, faculty development in colleges Christian worldview? magisterial six-volume God, Revelation, and universities will mean cultivating Carl F. H. Henry: What earlier generations and Authority testifies to his commit- “the Christian academic consciousness of considered a noble evangelical endeavor ment to rational, revelational, and devo- faculty who are already seriously reli- —the integration of faith and learning— tional Christianity. The founding editor gious.”20 For them the burden is to move now easily deteriorates into an academic of , he is now Senior from being religious to being Christian. cliché that obscures essentials of the Chris- Research Professor at The Southern But for evangelicals, faculty development tian view. Faith becomes a rubber word. Baptist Theological Seminary. means cultivating the particular evangeli- It accommodates so many options that it cal academic consciousness of faculty who readily invites faith in faith. It can embrace 84 faith in Allah, or even faith in New Age, Some emphasize—rightly—that Chris- no less than faith in Christ. tian revelation must not be confused with For some, integration involves no the “eternal truths” that pantheistic and indispensably unique cognitive content, idealistic philosophers affirm. But if this but only an openness to reality that implies that Christian truth is not eternally escapes rational exposition of the self- true, one falls into costly error. The tem- revealing God of the Bible. Faith implies poral and historical particularity of the only the challenge of the transcendent, the do not imply that it is not eternally necessity of religion, the priority of the true. It is eternally true that Jesus’ cruci- paradoxical, the advocacy of the non- fixion and third-day resurrection are rational. If faith has infinite nuances (and integral to the divine redemption of sinners. not necessarily a fixed inherent meaning), Some confusion over the integration of the term “learning” is similarly ambigu- faith and learning seems to have invaded ous. It is hardly a summary term for an even the Coalition of Christian Colleges unchanging body of knowledge. Nor need and Universities. The very epistemic Christians applaud it as the timeless wis- foundations of the Christian revelation are dom of the ages. Moses was familiar with confused. The unbroken authority of Egyptian learning and Daniel with that of Scripture and its inerrancy are minimized the Babylonians, but the biblical spokes- or obscured. A tendency arises to view men hardly exalted them into universal scriptural inerrancy as merely an evan- truth to be “integrated” with the revela- gelical distinctive rather than as a neces- tion of Yahweh. sity of evangelical doctrine. Yet if Scripture Human learning is subject to ongoing is partly erroneous, the process of integra- revision and displacement. A science text- tion is frustrated. A partially reliable Scrip- book only a decade old is usually consid- ture cannot be logically correlated either ered outdated. But the inspired biblical with faith or learning. writers insist that the Word of the Lord is Another consequence of affirming the fixed and final, and that Jesus Christ is Bible’s errancy is that evangelical cam- “the same yesterday, today and forever” puses are tempted to neglect, or even to (Heb 13:8, NAS). Notably some contem- avoid, formation of the Christian world- porary religionists correlate Jesus Christ view, on the mistaken premise that this the God-man with faith but not with would involve an unjustifiable rational- learning. They internalize rather than ization of scriptural revelation. Christian objectify religious claims. truth is then formulated not only in The term “integration” raises other opposition to speculative philosophies, as questions. Does it propose a role for logi- is needful, but lamentably also in opposi- cal consistency and validity, or simply an tion to an explicit evangelical world-life open-ended presentation? Are logic and view predicated consistently on Scripture systematic consistency alien to the Chris- teaching. Sometimes this maneuver tian revelation? Not a few professedly involves substituting natural law specu- evangelical theologians argue that if one lation for an explicitly biblical theology, aims to present a logically consistent the minimization of which has implica- world-life view, one rationalizes and fal- tions for the entirety of a revelatory sifies Christian truth. system. In any event, the epistemic foun- 85 dations of Christian faith are endangered of modernity and of post-modernity as when scriptural teaching is neglected well. Nord deplores uncritical acceptance or considered problematical. The Bible of the philosophical assumptions inher- affirms that only if one begins with the ent in public education, and he champi- knowledge of the self-revealing God does ons a required course in religion. But one become wise in the knowledge of life. without insistent focus on the question of The beginning of wisdom is rooted in the cognitive truth he cannot escape Pilate’s fear of the Lord (Pr 9:10). inquiry, “What is truth?” or ignore Jesus’ The segregation of faith from learning insistent answer, “I am the truth.” has, in recent years, been the theme of Hoekema focuses especially on the numerous volumes. In a review of three issue of campus rules and behavior. He such books Hillsdale College professor, asserts as passé the regulatory and disci- John Reist, penetratingly identifies the plinary power of administrative authori- shared failure of almost all such studies ties. Containment of problems of drugs, in respect to faith or theology and religion alcohol, and sexual misconduct will rest and morals. He laments their delinquency more on stressing consequences and on in not providing a compelling theory of effective behavioral models than on sheer religious knowledge. Reist examines David prohibition and regulation. The relevance A. Hoekema’s Campus Rules and Moral of Christian ethics to the student mind Community. In Place of Loco Parentis (Univ. gains no visibility. Press of America, 1994), Thomas O. Buford concedes that “the academic life Buford’s In Search of a Calling: The College’s of the college is morally empty” and calls Role in Shaping Identity (Mercer Univ. this a crisis in self-knowledge. To be sure, Press, 1995), and Warren A. Nord’s Reli- he notes the displacement, by modern gion and American Education: Rethinking a concentration on technical reason and National Dilemma (Univ. of North Carolina career preparation, of traditional views Press, 1995). of God and/or moral reasoning. Buford Reist notes that no amount of lamenta- would leave student interest in morality tion over the present academic crisis and religion mainly to the church and regarding self-knowledge can compensate home. He stresses the biblical doctrine for loss of God-knowledge. When stu- that humans bear the image of God and dents are taught the importance of reli- focuses on reason and imagination. Yet he gion yet are told that religious resists universally valid truth grounded commitment is a matter only of personal in a transcendent metaphysical center. preference, or of revered tradition, the Buford’s own cognitive claims in support cognitive claims of the Christian religion of his view are insufficient to displace will be ignored. careerism by divine calling. Nord frankly states his disinterest in Contemporary academe yearns to the question of the truth either of the retain a religious identity and seeks to rise Christian option or of an alternative secu- above a merely experiential view of lar view of reality. Yet he affirms that reli- morality, yet it fails to challenge the con- gious studies have potential to provide temporary mind by its evaporation of critical perspective on the unsolved dilem- intellectual supports beyond personal mas of liberal education and on the claims opinion. The integration of faith and learn- 86 ing requires a precise view of faith and a ity. They retained commitment to un- logically compelling view of learning; it conditional, eternal election and to the requires also a quest for integration that necessity of the Holy Spirit’s work of does not readily collapse into feeling or effectual calling for conversion, but they volition. introduced two significant changes. First, they advocated a moral government SBJT: What do you consider to be an theory of the atonement, and second, they unrecognized influence in the develop- rejected the doctrine of the imputation of ment of Baptist theology? Adam’s sin and guilt to his posterity.3 Greg Wills: Historians have noticed the Teachers of the moral government influence of New England Theology on theory held that Christ died for all per- Presbyterians and Congregationalists, sons—his death was a “general atone- but have not attended to its influence on ment.” Christ did not take the punishment Baptists. Like Presbyterians of the same that sinners deserved, but rather suffered period, Baptists had their old school and in sufficient measure to show that the law new school Calvinists. The old school was holy and that God abhorred sin. leaders looked to ’s works and Christ’s substitution, Johnson wrote, was the Second London Confession of Faith a “full equivalent for the dishonor cast (a Baptist revision of ’s upon the law of God by disobedience.” Westminster Confession of Faith) as the God accepted it as satisfaction for sin be- best expressions of their views. The new cause it demonstrated “Jehovah’s oppo- school leaders thought that the works of sition to the conduct of the sinner.”4 Christ and Timothy Dwight were did not suffer the actual penalty the sins more scriptural. Like their Presbyterian deserved. If he had, moral government counterparts, new school Baptists dis- advocates argued, then redemption trusted creeds. would have been a matter of justice, not William B. Johnson, first president of of grace. They held that when God for- the Southern Baptist Convention, wrote gave sinners strict justice remained unsat- in 1848 that South Carolina Baptists were isfied. Instead, God reckoned the death of fast becoming “moderate Calvinists.”1 By Jesus an acceptable substitute to penal jus- this he meant that they were adopting tice. In the larger view, they argued, this some of the distinctive views of New was the highest justice, since it resulted England Theology. Johnson approved of in the greatest good for the most persons. the change. He praised Furman Univer- It was the theological equivalent of the sity theology professor James S. Mims for political theory that good governors Greg Wills is Assistant Professor of being “imbued with the Spirit of ‘New sought the public welfare above all, even Church History at The Southern Bap- 2 England Theology.’” Throughout the when it meant omitting strict justice. tist Theological Seminary. He is the South Baptist leaders embraced the New Kentucky’s Bethel Baptist Association author of the highly acclaimed Demo- England views. endorsed a clear explanation of the moral cratic Religion: Freedom, Authority and Successors of Jonathan Edwards such government position in a circular letter Church Discipline in the Baptist South, as Joseph Bellamy, Samuel Hopkins, and which they adopted in 1836: 1785-1900 (Oxford University Press, Timothy Dwight modified traditional 1996). Wills also serves as Archivist for Atonement is the satisfaction made Calvinism to develop what became known the James P. Boyce Library at South- to Justice, where the laws of a gov- as New England Theology or New Divin- ernment have been violated; so that ern Seminary. 87 the justice and dignity of the gov- view of the atonement, he took some ernment may be sustained and hon- ored as effectually as though the decided steps in the direction of the New offender were punished….the Divinity when he redefined the atonement atonement is a governmental trans- as making a general provision but with a action, rendering full and complete satisfaction to law and justice; so that particular intention to ransom the elect, God, the Ruler of the Universe, can and he redefined the doctrine of imputa- consistently with justice and the tion, at times using moral government honor of his government, pardon and restore to favor all who repent language. Fuller seemed to advocate such of their sins and submit to the gov- a combination of views that representa- ernment of Jesus Christ.5 tives of both the New England views and the old school Calvinism claimed Fuller In regards to the New England view’s as a member of their group. second change, New Divinity advocates Others also propagated the new views. rejected imputation primarily because , pastor of Providence, they believed that God could not justly , First Baptist Church and punish one person for the guilt of another. president of , taught It was a legal absurdity, they held, to think New Divinity views in South Carolina that either guilt or punishment could when he became the founding president transfer. God did not therefore impute of the University of South Carolina in Adam’s guilt to his posterity nor did he 1809. William B. Johnson studied theology impute Christ’s righteousness to believ- under Maxcy’s tutelage and promoted the ers. Among the Southern Baptist leaders New England Theology throughout his who rejected the doctrine of imputation distinguished career. John Mason Peck, were Thomas Meredith, editor of North the first home of the Triennial Carolina’s Biblical Recorder from 1835 to Convention, worked in Missouri and 1850, John B. White, president of Wake southern Illinois from 1817 to 1858 and Forest University from 1848 to 1853, and taught these views through his paper, the Jesse Hartwell, professor of theology at Western Baptist. A. M. Poindexter, who Baptist colleges in South Carolina, Ala- worked as an agent for Columbian Col- bama, Arkansas, and Louisiana. lege, Richmond University, and the South- Many Southern Baptist leaders ern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, taught adopted these views concerning the moral the moral government view. 7 government theory and imputation. Some Many accepted the teachings of these learned them by reading such New men. J. R. Kendrick, editor of South England authors as Bellamy and Dwight. Carolina’s Southern Baptist, knew many In fact, one Virginia minister reported that colleagues who, like Johnson, preached Dwight was a standard work in the Bap- both election and general atonement, tist minister’s library at mid-century.6 the distinctive combination of the New Others learned them from professors at Divinity. “Not a few advocates of what is the New England colleges or seminaries. denominated ‘General Atonement,’ rig- The writings of Andrew Fuller, the idly adhere to the doctrine of Election.”8 English Baptist missionary leader, prob- Joseph S. Baker, editor of the Christian ably had the most influence on the accep- Index from 1842 to 1848, proposed that the tance of New Divinity views. Although majority of Southern Baptists believed Fuller did not teach a moral government 88 that the atonement was general.9 The ure, it had appealed to those Calvinistic spread of moral government views con- Baptists who felt that there was some con- tributed largely to this phenomenon. tradiction between the general command There were Baptists who opposed the to believe in Christ and the doctrine that new school views, however. John Leland, Christ atoned for the sins of the elect only. popular evangelist of the Virginia’s Revo- It allowed them to hold both the eternal lutionary War period, opposed the New election of individuals and a general Divinity in his First Rise of Sin. In an atonement. The wide interest in political appendix he assailed New England’s gen- theories from the late colonial through the eral atonement views and argued in tra- antebellum period gave power and plau- ditional fashion for particular redemption sibility to the theory. Moral government or limited atonement.10 So did Joseph S. views of the atonement suited an Ameri- Baker, writing, “I am a believer in a per- can body politic enamored with John sonal atonement, and believe that all for Locke’s theories of civil government. whom the Saviour has atoned will assur- By the 1920s most Baptists propounded edly be saved.... I glory in believer’s the old school view of the nature of the , and the doctrines called Calvin- atonement. They taught that the atone- istic.”11 Both John L. Dagg, president of ment was primarily a penal substitution Mercer University, and James P. Boyce, for sinners, not a prop to God’s moral president of The Southern Baptist Theo- government. Southern Baptist leaders logical Seminary, opposed the New defended the traditional Protestant view. England theory of the atonement in Z. T. Cody, editor of South Carolina’s Bap- their classroom lectures and theological tist Courier, defended penal substitution manuals. on many occasions because he believed Although the presence of both old and it constituted a primary bulwark against new schools among Baptists troubled the the advance of Protestant liberalism. people at times, they did not polarize Although modernism had many forms, greatly on that account. James L. Cody observed, “all forms of it agree in Reynolds, who taught at Furman Univer- the rejection of the substitutionary sacri- sity, Mercer University, and the Univer- fice of the Cross.”13 In an essay published sity of South Carolina, ignited one of the in various Baptist papers in 1921, E. Y. few protracted controversies over New Mullins, president of The Southern Bap- England views. He accused Furman Uni- tist Theological Seminary from 1899 to versity of promoting heresy when both its 1928, insisted that Christ “purchased” theology professor, James S. Mims, and its believers at the cost of his suffering and chairman of the Board, William B. bore the penalty of their sin. Christ “took Johnson, rejected the doctrine of imputa- the sinner’s place,” Mullins said, and tion. Reynolds attacked their New Divin- “assumed responsibility for our sin,” so ity views in a controversy that lasted from that by his blood “men are purchased 1847 to 1850.12 for God.”14 But old school influence After the Civil War the moral govern- ended there. Leaders in the 1920s taught ment theory began losing ground. By the a general atonement and many dis- time of the modernist controversies of the trusted creeds. 1920s, it had disappeared. During its ten- One of the errors of the moral govern- 89 ment view was that it established an ENDNOTES exaggerated separation between God and 1 William B. Johnson, letter to James S. his law, between his love and his justice. Mims, 25 Mar. 1848, William B. Johnson It abstracted justice from the identity and papers, James B. Duke Library, Furman character of God. In the moral govern- University. ment view, God in love wished to forgive 2 William B. Johnson, letter to James S. sinners freely, but law and justice blocked Mims, 6 Oct. 1851, William B. Johnson the way. The law “demanded the exe- papers, James B. Duke Library, Furman cution of its penalty, and justice con- University. curred.”15 God substituted Christ’s 3 Bellamy retained the doctrine of impu- suffering for the actual penalty and tation, but he was exceptional at this removed all legal obstacles to the salva- point. For discussion of New School tion of every sinner. Moral government Presbyterianism, see George Marsden, teachers tended to portray the atonement The Evangelical Mind and the New School as making propitiation to the law, not to Presbyterian Experience: A Case Study of God. Before any atonement was made, Thought and Theology in Nineteenth-Cen- God held no wrath against sinners and tury America (New Haven: Yale Univ. did not need to be reconciled. It is a short Press, 1970). The classic works on New step from this view to the modernist no- England Theology are Frank Hugh Fos- tion that law and justice do not hinder ter, A Genetic History of the New England God’s fatherly benevolence. Theology (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago For some Baptists, New Divinity views Press, 1907) and George Nye Boardman, may have prepared them to accept mod- A History of New England Theology (New ernism. Most rejected the modernist York: A. D. Randolph, 1899). Among option, however. Instead, they jettisoned more recent works on New Divinity see the new school’s moral government Mark Valeri, Law and Providence in Joseph views of the nature of the atonement but Bellamy’s New England: The Origins of the retained its commitment to general New Divinity in Revolutionary America atonement. (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1994) The enduring heritage of the New and John R. Fitzmier, New England’s Divinity views was a redefinition of Bap- Moral Legislator: Timothy Dwight, 1752- tist orthodoxy in the twentieth century. 1817 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univ. Most of the old school commitments dis- Press, 1998). appeared, with only penal substitution 4 Johnson, “On Imputation—No. V,” enduring. The old school confidence in Southern Baptist, 4 April 1849, 606. particular redemption and the indispens- 5 Bethel Baptist Association, Minutes, 1836, ability of creeds dissolved. The new school 6, 8. R. T. Anderson wrote the letter; a commitment to general atonement and committee of four revised it. James M. their suspicion of creeds gained consen- Pendleton and Reuben Ross were active sus. This combination of views became a leaders in this association. part of Baptist identity. The new school’s 6 R. W. [Robert Williamson], “The modified Calvinism was a bridge to some Preacher’s Library, etc.,” Biblical Recorder, of the ideas that in the twentieth century 14 Mar. 1888, 1. became central to Baptist identity. 7 See Jonathan Maxcy, “A Discourse on the 90 Atonement,” in The Literary Remains of ville: Sunday School Board of the South- Jonathan Maxcy, D.D., ed. Romeo Elton ern Baptist Convention, 1917) 307, 322- (New York: A. V. Blake, 1844) 53-80; Wil- 330. liam B. Johnson, “On Imputation—No. 15James M. Pendleton, Christian Doctrines V,” op. cit.; John Mason Peck, “Fulness (1878; rpt. Philadelphia: Judson Press, of Christ—No. 1,” Western Baptist, 1 Feb. 1906) 229. 1831, 41-42; and A. M. Poindexter, “The Imputation of Sin to Christ,” Baptist Preacher 9 (1850) 187. Poindexter, like Bellamy, retained belief in the doctrine of imputation. 8 Kendrick, “Communication on the Atonement,” Southern Baptist, 7 Jan. 1852, 2. 9 Baker, “An Apparent Impeachment,” Christian Index, 28 April 1858, 2. 10Leland, “The First Rise of Sin,” in the Writings of the Late Elder John Leland, ed. L. F. Greene (New York: G. W. Wood, 1845) 164-165. 11Baker, op. cit. 12See, e.g., Reynolds, no title, Southern Bap- tist, 3 May 1848, 414; anonymous, “On Imputation,” ibid., 21 Feb. 1849, 582; William B. Johnson, “On Imputation,” ibid., 7 Mar. 1849, 590. 13Cody, “The Great Controversy,” Baptist Courier, 8 Feb. 1923, 2. See also the un- signed report of his ministers’ conference address (“The Ministers’ Conference,” ibid., 8 Dec. 1910, 1) and two additional articles by Cody defending penal sub- stitution (“Dr. Brown on the Atone- ment,” ibid., 3 July 1924, 2; and “Dr. Glover and the Atonement,” ibid., 19 July 1928, 2-3). 14Mullins, “Was the Atonement Substitu- tionary,” Religious Herald, 29 Sept. 1921, 4-5, and 6 Oct. 1921, 6, 11. The article appeared on about the same dates in the Baptist Courier, Baptist Standard, Biblical Recorder, and others. Mullins explained his view in more detail in The Christian Religion in Its Doctrinal Expression (Nash- 91