August 28, 2000
Newport called friend and scholar
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___FORT WORTH--Colleagues remembered John Newport as a gracious bridge-builder, renowned scholar and effective apologist for the Christian faith at his memorial service Aug. 21.
___Newport, former vice president for academic affairs and provost at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, died Aug. 18 of complications from a stroke he suffered in June. He was 83.
___Except for a three-year stint at Rice University in the late 1970s, Newport taught theology and philosophy of religion courses at Southwestern for nearly half a century. He began his teaching career in 1949 at Baylor University, where one of his students was the young Russell Dilday.
___Thirty years later, when Dilday became president of Southwestern Seminary, he lured Newport back to Southwestern from Rice, where a chair of religious studies had been established in 1976, causing Newport to leave Southwestern. Upon his return to Southwestern, Newport not only became chief administrator of the seminary's theology school but an influential figure throughout the Southern Baptist Convention and beyond. He retired from administration in 1990 but continued to teach through the remainder of the decade.
___Though much of his tenure at Southwestern was lived out amid fierce denominational conflict, Newport was known as a voice of reason and a friend to people on both sides of the conflict. He was a major force behind organizing the Inerrancy Conferences of 1987 and 1988, an attempt by the six SBC seminary presidents to address in a scholarly fashion concerns about Baptist beliefs about the Bible.
___"He called himself a constructive conservative," Dilday said during the memorial service at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth. "He knew you could be conservative without being cranky."
___Dilday remembered Newport as a "synthesizer and reconciler" who taught and led out of a "practical, church-centered perspective."
___Faculty colleague James Leo Garrett compared Newport to the New Testament figure Barnabas, "ever encouraging students and fellow professors."
___Amid conflicts and controversies, Newport refused to exclude fellow believers and sought ways to call Christians together, Garrett added.
___As a silent testimony to this, the worship program included a list of about 60 names of doctoral students Newport supervised in obtaining philosophy of religion degrees. The list not only included many prominent Baptist names but featured individuals who have taken opposing paths in the denominational conflict.
___Among Newport's doctoral students were Randall Lolley, former president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina; Alan Neely, former professor at Southeastern; Russ Bush, current vice president and academic dean at Southeastern; Ted Cabal, current dean of Boyce College at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky; Ken Chafin, former pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston; Jim Denison, current pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas; Dilday; Steve Lemke, provost at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; Gerald Mann, pastor of Riverbend Baptist Church in Austin; Jerold McBride, pastor of First Baptist Church of San Angelo; Bill Tanner, former president of the SBC Home Mission Board; and Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
___Newport was the kind of person who "invited everyone to the table," said Bruce Corley, professor of New Testament. "John found joy in fellowship with colleagues and students."
___But Newport was renowned for his intellect, voracious reading and ability to speak intelligently on nearly any theological subject, Corley added. "He never met an idea he would not tackle."
___Corley challenged those present to keep the Newport tradition alive. "Who among us will keep together heart and mind as John did?" he asked.
___Newport was the author of 11 books, including "Demons, Demons, Demons," "Life's Ultimate Questions" and "The New Age Movement and Biblical Worldview."
___Several speakers at the memorial service quoted from Newport's own writings about the reality of heaven and assurance of eternal life.
___"John has preached his own message here today, and he is in the city of hope," Dilday said.
___Newport is survived by his wife, Eddie Belle; a daughter, Martha Ellen Newport of New York City; two sons, Frank Marvin Newport of Princeton, N.J., and John Newport Jr. of Nyack, N.Y.; and six grandchildren.
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