Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Historical Theology

Kevin Bauder: “Fundamentalism and Scholarship”

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Kevin BauderBauder has finished another thoughtful series of short essays: “Fundamentalism and Scholarship.”

I’ve combined all 12 short essays into one PDF.

  1. Not Me (January 4, 2008)
  2. What Is a Scholar? (January 11, 2008)
  3. Hazards of Scholarship (January 18, 2008)
  4. Does Fundamentalism Need Scholars? (January 25, 2008)
  5. Does Fundamentalism Have Scholars? (February 1, 2008)
  6. How Do We Get Scholars? (February 8, 2008)
  7. To Make a Scholar (February 15, 2008)
  8. The Scholarly Life (February 22, 2008)
  9. Models of Scholarship (February 29, 2008)
  10. Scholarship and Separatism (March 14, 2008)
  11. The Dual Responsibility of a Christian Scholar (March 21, 2008)
  12. The Christian Scholar’s Christian Responsibility (March 28, 2008)

Note: Central Seminary emails these essays every Friday afternoon. You can access the archives here.

The History of Southern Seminary

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This semester a couple recent M.Div. graduates from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary entered Trinity’s Ph.D. historical theology program: Owen Strachan (blog) and Mark Rogers (blog). Jenni and I have enjoyed getting to know them and their families, and I’ve already learned a bit more about Southern Seminary. This week I learned that a history of Southern Seminary is available online at Southern’s “Archives and Special Collections.”

“The History of the SBTS“ efficiently organizes over 100 pages worth of fresh, concise, readable, popular, official, fascinating history.

Owen

Owen Strachan, who wrote nearly all of the site’s content, worked on this project nonstop for a year and a half, reading books, articles, and dissertations on Southern’s history (cf. the project staff).

“The History of the SBTS” is divided into seven parts:

  1. story: This traces Southern’s history from its founding (1859–78) to its conservative resurgence (1993–present).

  2. presidents: Nine presidents have served at Southern since 1859: Boyce, Broadus, Whitsitt, Mullins, Sampey, Fuller, McCall, Honeycutt, and Mohler.

  3. professors: Influential professors include Robertson, Beasley-Murray, George, and Dockery.

  4. beliefs: Southern’s faculty teaches in accordance with two confessions: The Abstract of Principles and The Baptist Faith and Message.

  5. buildings: Southern’s campus is historic and stately. Its current campus is beautiful, especially with the combination of classy, red-brick buildings, large trees, green grass, and a sunny, blue sky. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed spending a couple days on campus for our third anniversary last July! Here’s a picture we took of the library:

    SBTS Library

  6. lore: Interesting “facts and curiosities” contribute to Southern’s body of tradition.

  7. sources: A couple bibliographies are helpful for further study: books & dissertations and articles & other stuff.

Mark Minnick MP3s

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This week Mount Calvary Baptist Church (where Jenni and I were members prior to moving to Chicago) updated its website, and I correspondingly updated this entry on my “MP3s” resource page:

*Mark Minnick (bio): some of the finest expositional preaching I have ever heard. Dr. Minnick, my former pastor, had a formative influence on my theology and philosophy of ministry. (Most downloads are not free, but some are.)

Minnick

Some of the sermons that are (temporarily) available for free downloads include the following series by Dr. Minnick:

  1. 1 Corinthians 13
  2. Galatians 1–2
  3. a Christian view of illness
  4. restoring scripturally defined modesty
  5. responding to trials
  6. the deity of Christ
  7. Mount Calvary’s philosophy of ministry
  8. assurance of salvation

HT: Daniel Threlfall

John Piper’s Fundamentalist Father

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John Piper just posted an article entitled “A Birthday Gift to My Father on His 89th Birthday.” The second section of this brief article—which quotes his father quoting Bob Jones Sr.—opens with this:

“My father was a card-carrying fundamentalist, with a twist. He was irrepressibly happy in the grace of God. I suspect there are a lot of fundamentalists out there like that. For all I know, I may be one. So here is a taste of what I grew up with, which may be why abstaining from dancing, smoking, drinking, movie-going, and card-playing never felt like big sacrifice.”

On a similar note, Piper dedicates The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright to his father:

“This is the year (2007) that my father died. Who can estimate the debt we owe our fathers? Bill Piper preached the gospel of grace for over seventy years, if you count the songs and testimonies at the nursing home. He was an evangelist—the old southern, independent, fundamentalist sort, without the attitude. He remains in my memory the happiest man I ever knew” (p. 9).

Bob Jones Jr. on Reading Evangelicals

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Jenni and I are visiting family in Greenville, South Carolina, and this afternoon I guided one of my brothers on a tour of the Jerusalem Chamber at Bob Jones University‘s library. On our way out, I showed him the seminary building, which includes several interactive kiosks, one of which contains video testimonials from faculty, pastors, and graduates attempting to convince prospective students to come to BJU Seminary. That kiosk includes a letter on BJU letterhead with this explanation: “In 1994 a young man preparing for the ministry wrote to Dr. Bob Jones Jr. asking for his advice to someone who is called to preach. The following is Dr. Jones’ reply.”

Bob Jones Jr.

[Read more…] about Bob Jones Jr. on Reading Evangelicals

Dave Doran on Fundamentalism

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Last Friday I referenced Collin Hansen’s CT article “The Crisis of Modern Fundamentalism.” This led to an interesting exchange in the comments section, particularly seven posts by Dr. Dave Doran (“Dave” in the comments) as he interacted with Tim Baylor.

  1. Dr. Dave Doran is president of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and senior pastor of Inter-City Baptist Church in Allen Park, MI. He wrote the foreword to Rolland McCune’s Promise Unfulfilled (part of which is reproduced here).
    doran.jpg
  2. Tim Baylor grew up in fundamentalism, including a pastoral internship under Dr. Doran. He is currently working on an M.Div. at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. (He is quoted in Collin Hansen’s CT article.)
    baylor.jpg

I’ve found this exchange to be helpful, especially how Dr. Doran articulates his understanding of fundamentalism.

  1. One of the major questions on the table here is whether fundamentalists can embrace a wider social involvement than some of them have traditionally embraced.
  2. Coming at the issue from another angle: Is secondary separation the crucial difference between fundamentalism and evangelicalism?

Update: Harold J. Ockenga’s foreword to Harold Lindsell’s The Battle for the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976) suggests that I asked the right two questions: “The ringing call for [1] a repudiation of separatism and [2] the summons to social involvement” were the two key notes of the address for which Ockenga coined the term “neo-evangelicalism” in 1948 (p. 11). HT: Brian Collins.

John Piper: “Praise God for Fundamentalists”

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John Piper just posted an article on his blog entitled “Praise God for Fundamentalists.” He responds to the 2005 FBF resolution “On the Ministry of John Piper.” He concludes,

“What I want to say about Fundamentalism is that its great gift to the church is precisely the backbone to resist compromise and to make standing for truth and principle a means of love rather than an alternative to it. I am helped by the call for biblical separation, because almost no evangelicals even think about the doctrine.

“So I thank God for fundamentalism, and I think that some of the whining about its ill effects would have to also be directed against the black-and-white bluntness of Jesus.”

Update:

  1. Mike Riley, “On the Ministry of John Piper” (published on the FBF site). Riley wrote this for the FBF.
  2. Mike Riley, “Piper and the FBF Resolution” (published on Riley’s blog). Riley wrote this today in response to Piper’s blog post referenced above.
  3. Michael Bird, “Praise God for Fundamentalists?” Bird lists six reasons that he “cannot praise God for them.”
  4. Will Pareja, “John Piper on Fundamentalism.” Pareja begins, “Dr. Piper: You have no idea how far words like these go, my brother.”