Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009

Abstract

Southern Baptists have remained consistently conservative in a culture whose democratic drives have led the majority of American Christians to adapt their beliefs and practices to contemporary life's individualist values. Through most of the 20th century, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was the denomination's chief promoter of adaptation to modernity. After about 1900 many of its faculty embraced progressive theology and aimed to influence Southern Baptists in this direction. For most Southern Baptists, the adaptation went only so far. Throughout the 20th century, most remained committed to traditional orthodoxy in such fundamental areas as biblical inspiration, creation, conversion, atonement, and miracles. Southern Seminary played a surprising role in restraining modernism and preserving orthodoxy. This book is not about Southern Seminary alone—it is also about Southern Baptists. It shows how the denomination navigated the tension between the individualist values of modernity and traditional commitment to orthodoxy. The seminary's conflicts and transformations revealed Southern Baptists' most basic commitments and significantly shaped their identity. The story has a larger meaning also. It helps illuminate the course and character of religion in America, its conservative versions especially.