May 15, 2000
COMMENTARY:
The Mullins Blip
___ By William L. Hendricks
___ After 43 years of teaching Baptist theology to Baptists, I am bemused (and certainly not amused) about some contemporary discussions concerning E.Y. Mullins' place in our Baptist heritage. A wise way to know the thought of another is to go to the source--thewritings of the person being so freely interpreted by others.
E.Y. MULLINS
___ Let Mullins speak in his own words. His major books are "The Christian Religion in its Doctrinal Expressions," "Why is Christianity True?," "The Axioms of Religion," "The Life in Christ" and "Baptist Beliefs." Let Mullins make his own connections. His systematic theology ("The Christian Religion in its Doctrinal Expression)" is dedicated "to the memory of President James Petigru Boyce, Great Administrator and Teacher of Theology, whose inspiring vision made possible the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary by his grateful pupil and successor in office."
___ Mullins also expresses gratitude to one of his pupils, "The author desires to express his appreciation of valuable suggestions based on a careful reading of the manuscript from a former student who is professor of theology in the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at Fort Worth, Texas—Rev. W. T. Conner, D.D."
___ From the 1850s to 1970, these three influential Baptist thinkers helped to shape Southern Baptist life. I am thoroughly convinced Mullins stood closer to Boyce than some contemporary interpreters claim. I can only opine that Mullins was closer to Boyce's thought than many of my students are to mine. Moreover, the contributions of W.T. Conner to Southern Baptist theology are not to be overlooked. There is a certain arrogance neither Boyce nor Mullins would own in current discussions of our heritage.
___ Good authors state their presuppositions in the introduction or first chapter of their work. Anyone reading the introduction and first five pages of Mullins' "Christian Religion" will discover Mullins' ultimate allegiance is to God, through Jesus Christ in the Spirit. No Baptist should fault that as a statement of authority.
___ Mullins acknowledges Christian experience is important to his theology. "Another method of dealing with the doctrines of the Christian religion is that which gives prominence to Christian experience. It is the method adopted in this work."
___ If one bothered to read the next pagem a host of questions should be put to rest. "But we speak of making experience explicit in expounding the doctrines of Christianity, we are by no means adopting that as the sole criterion of truth. He would be a very unwise man who should attempt to deduce all Christian doctrine from his own subjective experience. As we shall soon see, Christianity is a historical religion. Jesus Christ is its sole founder and supreme authority as the revealer of God. The Scriptures are our only source of authoritative information about Christ and his earthly career. These are fundamental to any correct understanding of our religion."
___ The authority of the Christian faith is succinctly stated by Mullins: "We may now sum up a general way the factors which must be taken into account if we are to understand the Christian religion and the doctrinal teachings which arise out of it.
___ "First of all, we must recognize Jesus Christ as the historical revelation of God to men . … But Christianity is bound up indissolubly with the facts of the historical Jesus.
___ "Secondly, we must assign to their proper place the Scriptures of the New Testament as the indispensable source of our knowledge of the historical Jesus and his work for our salvation.
___ "In the third place, we must recognize the place and work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men. He continues the work of Christ. It is through him that we are led to accept Christ. It is in and through him that the meaning of the Christian facts is brought home to us.
___ "Fourthly, we must seek to define and understand the spiritual experiences of Christians as subject to the operation of God's Spirit revealing Christ to them. The history of doctrine will aid in this, but we must make also a direct study of experience itself.
___ "Now it is in the combination and union of all these factors, and not in any one or two of them taken by themselves, that we find what we seek when we undertake a systematic study of the Christian religion and its theology."
___ This is Mullins' part of our Baptist heritage, and no revisionist history or attempt to excise his influence is needed. All three (Boyce, Mullins, Conner) would be aghast at the attempt to divinize the theology of any one of them. Moreover, and without being unduly pious, one must wonder what Christ thinks about our contemporary wounds to his body.
___ We must acknowledge with gratitude the work of these spiritual forefathers in shaping our heritage. But we must also move on under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who is getting short shift in all of this fruitless discussion.
___ William L. Hendricks is director of the Baptist studies program at Texas Christian University's Brite Divnity School in Fort Worth. He has taught theology on the faculties of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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