Why Andrew Fuller Matters

Abstract

Andrew Fuller was the most influential Baptist theologian of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He is often remembered for his friendship and support of William Carey, but he also needs to be remembered for his theology, known in his own day as ‘Fullerism’. It was formed by his rebuttal of the Hyper-Calvinism that dogged far too many Particular Baptist communities and is encapsulated in his treatise The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation. This controversy, which at its heart was about divine sovereignty and human responsibility, led to Fuller’s instructive involvement in other key conflicts of his day, namely, the debates with Socinianism, Deism, and Sandemanianism. Fuller’s importance as a pastor-theologian, though, is not limited to these controversies, but is also evident in a quintessential evangelical piety that is focused on the cross.