Doctrines shift on Holy Spirit, race, church
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___In many subtle ways and a few not-so-subtle ways, Southern Baptist theology looks different at the end of the 20th century than it did at the beginning of the century.
___Many core beliefs remain unchanged, theologians and historians are quick to point out. But new perspectives have developed on other points, sometimes bringing in an entirely new stream of thought and other times resorting to beliefs revived from the past.
___An informal survey of a cross-section of Baptist theologians and historians produced a list of seven areas in which they believe Southern Baptist theology has shifted from 1900 to 1999:
___ The Bible. While the nature of the Bible and how it should be understood has been the all-consuming debate among Southern Baptists in the last quarter of the century, such
debates were barely on the radar screen at the turn of the century.
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BOYCE
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___The push toward biblical inerrancy seen among Southern Baptists in the late 20th century "is really without parallel," said James Leo Garrett, professor of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
___James Petigru Boyce, the founding president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of Southern Baptists' earliest writers of systematic theology, did not even include a chapter on Scripture in his "Abstract of Systematic Theology" published in 1887, noted Dwight Moody, dean of the chapel at Georgetown College in Kentucky and author of a chapter on the Bible in the 1994 book "Has Our Theology Changed?"
___The issue of biblical inspiration had burst onto the scene before the turn of the century, however, in a dispute at Southern Seminary. Popular professor Crawford Howell Toy resigned from the seminary faculty in 1879 after receiving extensive criticism of his views of the inspiration of Scripture.
___When the Toy controversy erupted, Boyce turned to Basil Manly Jr., who at the time was teaching at Georgetown College, to present a defense of the more traditional and conservative view of biblical inspiration, said Moody, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the subject. As a result of this conflict, Manly wrote a book called "The Doctrine of Biblical Inspiration," published in 1888.
___With the dawn of the 20th century, however, the issue of biblical inspiration again came into the limelight as the so-called historical-critical methods of biblical interpretation gained a stronger foothold in many universities. This set the stage for what ultimately
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MULLINS
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would become one of the most divisive chapters ever written in Southern Baptist history.
___ Calvinist-Arminian debates. Southern Baptists were born of two streams of theological thought on issues such as the atonement of Christ, the depravity of humankind and election to salvation. One stream was influenced by the 16th century Reformer John Calvin. The other was influenced by the 16th century theologian Jacob Arminius.
___Among key differences between these two theological systems are Calvinism's embrace of the doctrine of limited atonement and irresistible grace. In short, these doctrines assert that Christ's sacrifice on the cross purchased salvation only for those God chose in advance to obtain salvation and that God's gracious gift of salvation to those elect is so compelling that they all will be drawn to it. Arminianism, on the other hand, embraces a general atonement, meaning all people have equal opportunity to trust Christ and Christ's sacrifice on the cross is effective for all who will believe.
___Among Southern Baptists, both Calvinists and Arminians historically have agreed on at least one point, known variously as the security of the believer or perseverance of the saints. According to this doctrine, once a person professes faith in Christ, God will ensure that person's salvation regardless of what he or she does later.
___Although before the 20th century, many Southern Baptists were so-called five-point Calvinists, the influence of Arminianism on at least four of Calvinism's five major points gained predominance in the 20th century.
___"On the doctrine of election, the real change was from
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NORRIS
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Boyce to (E.Y.) Mullins," explained Garrett. Boyce, the founder of Southern Seminary, was a Calvinist; Mullins, president of the seminary at the turn of the century, was not.
___After what many thought to be the death of Calvinistic teaching among Southern Baptists by mid-century, a resurgent form of this theology became evident in the 1990s. As the century ends, Southern Seminary once again has a strong Calvinist as president, and an association of Southern Baptist Calvinists continues to grow in number and influence.
___"One thing that explains this for me is that Baptist identity has always been a challenge," said Brad Creed, dean of Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University. "We don't have a Martin Luther or a John Knox or a John Wesley. As we have witnessed the balkanization of Baptists at the end of the 20th century, there's more searching and questioning about what it means to be a Baptist, to discover the source of our identity or our historical roots.
___"The resurgence of Calvinism is a function of that in part," he continued. "Those who are involved in this movement claim the Reformed heritage as the pristine heritage for Baptists today. That's true only in part. To make that claim is to ignore a great deal of Baptist history."
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TRUETT
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_ The Holy Spirit. "A hundred years ago, nobody was writing about the Holy Spirit," said Moody. "Of course, this century has been the century of the Holy Spirit. The Pentecostal movement is the most powerful Christian movement around the globe. And it has brought the Holy Spirit back into center stage in Christian life."
___This has shown up most noticeably among Southern Baptists in worship, according to Moody and Paul Basden, pastor of Brookwood Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., and editor of "Has Our Theology Changed?"
___"A century ago, you would not have expected to have so many Baptist churches that look like charismatic worship services without (speaking in) tongues," Basden said. "Worship in Baptist churches today is far more like that."
___ Race. Early in this century, white Baptists in the South often defended segregation, using biblical texts as ammunition. By the end of the century, such rhetoric was hard to find among recognized Baptist groups.
___Race was "a burning issue in this century," Garrett asserted. And it is an issue that revolves around one's understanding of the nature of humans created in the image of God, he added.
___Unfortunately, this is one case where culture pushed theology in the correct direction, he added. "We were forced to the change by the culture. We were not the pioneers here."
___That's not to discount the work of Baptist ethicists such as T.B. Maston and Henlee Barnett, who led Southern Baptists to understand the race issue in theological terms, he said.
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MASTON
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___"They were very courageous. But by and large, Southern Baptists were forced to this. ... Our change in convictions was greatly influenced by change in the social order."
___The result is a better theology, Garrett said. "Our doctrine of the image of God has been strengthened at this point. We operate out of a doctrine of the human that does not allow for racism, that sees racism as a sin. We didn't see it as a sin before; we saw it as a way of life."
___Only toward the very end of the century did this revised doctrine of humanity come nearly full circle for the larger community of Baptists, suggested Basden. And that, he believes, was the result of the Promise Keepers movement, which made racial reconciliation a major theme.
___"Promise Keepers pushed it over the top," he said.
___Even so, Sunday morning worship services remain the most segregated parts of American society, Creed added. "While some progress is encouraging, Baptists still have a long way to go."
___ Religious liberty. From a national level, Southern Baptist views on religious liberty appear to have shifted during the century, but how extensively is hard to say, according to Garrett.
___Early in the century, Southern Baptist leadership advocated a strict view of church-state separation, he said, citing the words of George Truett, J.M. Dawson and others.
___"Now, in the latter part of the century, particularly in the SBC leadership circles, we see people starting to question whether there really is a separation of church and state, advocacy of vouchers, a strong commitment to the return of Christian nation values."
___Yet those who hold the earlier view of church-state separation and those who advocate a new understanding of it both claim to be defenders of religious freedom, he noted.
___"This is kind of a mixed picture. You didn't have two groups back in the early part of the century. Baptists were very much united. But they didn't have some of the issues to deal with we have today."
___ The church. The influence of a theology known as Landmarkism heavily influenced Southern Baptists in the first half of the century, particularly in a path from Texas and Oklahoma to Kentucky and Tennessee.
___The most strident advocates of Landmark beliefs, which center heavily on emphasizing the local church to the exclusion of denominational affiliations, were J.R. Graves and J. Frank Norris.
___In practical terms, Landmark beliefs led many Baptist churches to adopt very strict policies on what baptism was acceptable for church membership and who could partake of the Lord's Supper. Landmarkers rejected "alien" immersion, usually meaning any baptism performed outside a Baptist church and sometimes meaning any baptism performed outside that particular Baptist church. They also advocated "close communion," meaning the Lord's Supper could be taken only by members of the local church serving the ordinance and not any visitors, whether baptized believers or not.
___Few Southern Baptist churches continue to advocate such ultra-conservative views of the church, both Garrett and Basden said, although there are pockets where the Landmark influence remains.
___Basden noted that at his own Birmingham congregation, "we just received a person from a Church of Christ this past Sunday, and she doesn't have to be baptized. She's been baptized in Jesus' name. We'll have the Lord's Supper on Christmas Eve, and we'll say, 'If you know Jesus, come forward.'"
___ Church leadership. The 20th century has fostered an increasingly popular view of the pastor as the most important leader of the church, Garrett and Basden both noted. This runs contrary to the common belief at the turn of the century, they explained.
___"For all the Baptist talk about congregational votes, most churches are willing to give that up for a really strong leader who doesn't abuse them," Basden said.
___Changing views of church leadership also have created new understandings of the role of deacons, Garrett added.
___Photos used in this series are published courtesy of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Archives, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist Historical Collection
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