Currently enrolled, on-campus Southern Seminary students are eligible for free registration to this year's Andrew Fuller Center conference. Due to the generosity of friends, there are a limited number of free registrations available on a first come, first serve basis. To receive this free registration you must sign up for in person at the Events Production office on the campus of Southern Seminary. All you need is your Shield student ID card. For details about the conference or (if you are not a current SBTS student) to register, please visit events.sbts.edu/andrewfuller.
Attend Andrew Fuller Conference for Credit
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is offering a "History of the Baptists" (26100 MD) Hybrid course in conjunction with this year's Andrew Fuller Center conference. The course, which will be taught by Dr. Michael A. G. Haykin with Steve Weaver, will include registration for the 2012 conference. The class will meet for four hours on Thursday evening before the conference and for two hours on Saturday afternoon after the conference ends. Supplemental video lectures will be watched online via Moodle before and after the class meets on campus Septemer 20-22, 2012. To view the syllabus, click here. SBTS students can sign up for the class on Moodle using course # 26100 MD. For more details about the conference, please visit events.sbts.edu/andrewfuller.
Baptists and knowing the times
For Baptists, faithfulness to the Gospel in England during the period from 1660 to 1688 meant outright conflict with the Anglican Church and inevitably persecution and imprisonment for Baptist leaders. Not surprisingly, this produced a legacy of animosity between the two bodies of churches: to the Baptists, the Church of England was a false church; to the Anglicans, Baptist congregations were guilty of the sin of schism. Fifty years after the Act of Toleration, when revival began to come to the Church of England, Baptists understandably viewed things through the prism of their history of dealings with the Anglicans and either acted as if the revival was a “flash in the pan,” as we say, or rejected it out of hand. Far too many Baptists sought to hold the line against the revival, and one of the results was hyper-Calvinism, and Andrew Fuller’s famous quip that the Calvinistic Baptist denomination would have become “a very dunghill in society” (Works [1845], III, 478) if God had not brought renewal into their ranks. Nota bene: this revival of the Baptists did not take place till the 1780s, a full fifty years after the revival began in Anglican ranks.
There is a tremendous lesson in all of this: the form that our loyalty to the Gospel takes can never be divorced from the historical circumstances in which we find ourselves and thus we need to be astute as possible in “knowing the times.”
"Andrew Fuller & His Friends" Conference Website Now Live
Registration is now open for our 2012 conference "Andrew Fuller & His Friends." The conference website features a conference description, plenary schedule, list of parallel sessions (which look superb!), registration and accommodation details. As always, several free books will be given away at this year's conference. The conference includes a fabulous banquet meal and all the amenities of the beautiful campus of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. We think it's a no-brainer. Register here.
Exciting News about the Works of Andrew Fuller Project!
It is with deep gratitude to God that The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies announces that the publishing house of Walter de Gruyter, with head offices in Berlin and Boston, has committed itself to the publication of a modern critical edition of the entire corpus of Andrew Fuller’s published and unpublished works. Walter de Gruyter has been synonymous with high-quality, landmark publications in both the humanities and sciences for more than 260 years. The preparation of a critical edition of Fuller’s works, part of the work of the Andrew Fuller Center, was first envisioned in 2004. It is expected that this edition will comprise twelve to fourteen volumes and take seven or so years to publish. Read the full details here.
New Audio of Recent Bible Conference
Dr. Haykin spoke over the weekend (May 19-20, 2012) in Dalton, PA at Grace Baptist Church's Spring Theology Conference. Audio is now online of the four lectures which Dr. Haykin gave at the conference.
The God who draws near: An introduction to biblical spirituality
Saturday, May 19 2012
“Andrew Fuller: Life and Legacy—A Brief Overview” in The Works of Andrew Fuller
Saturday, May 19 2012
Zaspel Speaks on Andrew Fuller
Fred Zaspel recently gave a talk entitled “Andrew Fuller: The Man Who Rescued The Baptists From Hyper-Calvinism” at Calvary Baptist Seminary in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. According to Fred, “It was very well received, and we’ve begun a tradition now—a series of these kinds of “Baptist Heritage” lectures each semester.” Here is the talk on Fuller.
Call for Papers for 2012 AFCBS Conference
We are currently accepting paper proposals for this Fall’s conference (September 21-22, 2012). We have a limited number of spaces, so please respond quickly if interested. These papers should be about 3,000-4,000 words in length and able to be delivered in approximately 20-25 minutes. Those interested in presenting need to e-mail the Center (andrewfullercenter@sbts.edu) with a title and brief outline of their proposal as well as a brief resume. The topic of papers for the parallel sessions must fall within the theme of the conference, namely, “Andrew Fuller and His Friends.” The plenary session schedule is available here. Parallel sessions may focus on Fuller's relationship with others or some aspect relating to one of Fuller's "friends." Some examples of papers already accepted are:
- Dustin Benge: “When a Friend Dies: A Funeral Sermon for Andrew Fuller by Joseph Ivimey.”
- Paul Brewster (SBC Pastor): “William Staughton: Andrew Fuller’s American Baptist connection”
- Jimmy Burchett: “Andrew Fuller as a Husband and Father”
- Chris Chun: “Fuller’s Friendly Lapsarian Debate with Samuel Hopkins”
- Roger Duke: "A Rhetorical Reading of Andrew Fuller's Sermon 'The Nature and Importance of an Intimate Knowledge of Divine Truth.'"
- Chris Holmes: “ ‘Not the Exact Model of an Orator’: J. W. Morris's Assessment of Andrew Fuller's Preaching Ministry”
- David Pitman: “Fuller’s Forgotten Friends: A Sketch of Andrew Fuller’s Non-Ministerial Friends”
- Dave Schrock: "James Haldane and the Particular Efficacy of Global Missions"
Submission of a proposal does not guarantee acceptance. The presenters of papers accepted for the conference will be notified promptly.
Presenters must register for the conference (details forthcoming) and are responsible for their own transportation, lodging, and meals.
This conference is held annually on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.
6th Annual AFCBS Conference: "Andrew Fuller and His Friends"
I just posted the schedule for our 6th annual conference. The theme this year is "Andrew Fuller and His Friends." As usual, a stellar line-up of speakers are slated to speak on a range for interesting topics related to our conference them. Please watch this website for more details about the conference, including registration details. Information about and audio of previous conferences are available here.
Posted by Steve Weaver, Research Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.
Is the study of Andrew Fuller and Fullerism worthwhile?
Why devote a significant amount of one’s academic career to focus on a figure, namely, Andrew Fuller, who is nowhere near as well known as say, Athanasius, Anselm, Calvin, Owen of Edwards? Is it worth doing? A comment by the great historical theologian Geoffrey Bromiley has never left me in the many years since I read it: As a Christian academic, pour your energy into what is worthwhile. Is the study of Fuller and Fullerism worthwhile? The unequivocal answer is yes! Fuller exemplifies for me the best in Baptist thought and piety. He was rigorous in defence of the Christian faith and an unashamed Baptist (he did, after all, argue for a closed communion over against his close friends William Carey and William Ward). He knew that piety was the vital fire to ignite the coals of doctrine. His love for his family and friends was remarkable: Carey’s three words when he heard of his death sum it all up, “I loved him,” he said. He was catholic and reformed in the best sense of those terms, and could well be described as a reformed catholic theologian, as Owen and Benjamin Keach have recently been so described. He was the main disseminator of Edwardsean theology in the UK in the nineteenth century, and true to his mentor, Edwards, passionately missional. Little wonder, Spurgeon rightly commented to his son that Fuller was the greatest theologian the Baptists had in the nineteenth century.
Did he get everything right? No. But that does not diminish from his greatness. Spending time elucidating his thought is time indeed well spent.
Why I love Pearce, Carey, Fuller, and their friends
Why do I love Samuel Pearce and William Carey and Andrew Fuller? For the very same reason that William Ward did:
“I cannot describe to you what pleasure I feel in communion with brethren Pearce, Fuller, and the Northamptonshire ministers in general; I love them, not only because of their views of the gospel, but on account of their being thoroughly given up, in heart and soul to Jesus Christ, and to promote the eternal welfare of their fellow creatures.”
Further on Andrew Fuller's ordination sermon for his friend William Carey
Did you notice what Fuller said about the way God would dwell among his people? " 'Will God indeed dwell with men?' He will; and how? It is by the means of ordinance and ministers. A church of Christ is God’s house, and where anyone builds a house it is a token he means to dwell there.” (Importance of Christian Ministers considered as the Gift of Christ inThe Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller [Repr. Harrisonburg, Virginia: Sprinkle Publications, 1988], I, 522).
In other words, the ordinances, including baptism and the Lord's Table, are means by which God dwells among us. This is in line with Baptist thought from the 17th and early 18th centuries but a distinct challenge to us today. On the other hand, Fuller's close friend, John Sutcliff, argued that Christ was absent from his ordinance of the Table. Yet, they were close friends. This is glorious--I mean their friendship despite such differences.
What should I read first in Andrew Fuller?
A friend just asked me: “before jumping in and trying to read the whole of Andrew Fuller’s works, what would you recommend to start with?”
Well, without being self-promoting I would first of all recommend reading my edited The Armies of the Lamb: The spirituality of Andrew Fuller (Dundas, Ontario: Joshua Press, 2001). This is a great entry point into Fuller: there is a small bio, an essay on his piety (the heart of all of his writing, preaching, and living), and a judicious selection of his letters. Letters are always a tremendous way to understand a person.
Then, assuming you have access to the three-volume Sprinkle reprint [The Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller (Harrisonburg, Virginia: Sprinkle Publications, 1988)], you need to read the following to begin:
1. The “Memoir” by Fuller’s son Andrew Gunton Fuller in vol. I (pages 1–116): this is fabulous for the diary extracts. The whole diary is not there—we hope to have this in the new critical edition—but there is enough to reveal the tenor of his life and thought.
2. The nine circular letters that Fuller wrote for the Northamptonshire Baptist Association on key theological and practical issues: vol. III, 308–66. These would were an annual custom where the association would ask one of her ministers to draft such a letter on behalf of the association and it would be sent to all of the churches in the association.
3. Strictures on Sandemanianism (vol. II, 561–646). A rebuttal of a significant theological error. But in the course of it, Fuller explores a lot of theological ground.
4. The Atonement of Christ, and the Justification of the Sinner, edited Andrew Gunton Fuller (New York: American Tract Society, n.d.): this is a compilation of Fuller’s thoughts on two key issues.
5. Sample his sermons in vol. I of his Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller.
Blessings on you as you read!
William Vidler, eighteenth-century Universalist
Just read F.W. Butt-Thompson’s study of William Vidler (1758–1816), a nemesis of Andrew Fuller, and by successive degrees a Calvinistic Baptist who turned Universalist and then Unitarian. His church, Butt-Thompson tells us, eventually became “an Ethical Society without any distinct Christian bias” [Transactions of the Baptist Historical Society 1 (1908), 42–55, quote at page 54]. I am looking forward to Chris Chun’s treatment of the controversy between Vidler and Fuller—that has so much contemporary significance—at ETS this November in San Francisco.
Baptist catholicity
Why do I love Andrew Fuller and his circle of friends? There are many reasons. One of them is this: their profound sense of belonging to a catholic body. Lest some of you think I think they were Roman Catholics, that is definitely not what I am saying. What I am saying is this: through friendships with men like John Newton, John Berridge, Thomas Scott--all of them Anglicans--Thomas Chalmers and John Erskine--Scottish Presbyterians--the New divinity heirs of Edwards in New England--all of them Congregationalists--and even Hyper-Calvinists, like William Button and Arminian Baptists like Dan Taylor--these men had a balance in their Christian lives that is enviable. They knew they were Baptists and gloried in that heritage. They were Calvinistic and would not surrender these truths for the world. But their goal in life was not to make men and women Baptists or even Calvinists--it was to make them first of all Christians.
Honestly, it scares me today to see men building little fiefdoms based on secondary issues or even tertiary issues. And whose basic raison d'etre is not the great orthodox, catholic Faith. Oh that the biblical catholocity of Fuller and his friends might be more in evidence!
Addendum (written four hours later): I am a Baptist through and through (even closed communion). I am an unashamed Calvinist (certainly not hyper, nor committed to double predestination--here I follow the 1689). But I am first and foremost a follower of the Lamb. I want him, and his Father and Spirit, to be my all in all.
Addendum 2 (written a day or so later): That is why I am a Baptist, though. I am seeking to follow Jesus in all that he commanded (Matt 28:19-20). But I recognize and love brothers dearly who see things differently. For my position see John Sutcliff's preface to his 1789 edition of Jonathan Edwards; Humble Attempt. It cannot be said better than he says it there.
Fuller first editions, the irksomeness of e-bay, and a precious truth
I recently missed out in bidding for an item on e-bay by Andrew Fuller, a first edition of his sermon Christian Patriotism: or, The Duty of Religious People Towards Their Country. A Discourse delivered at the Baptist Meeting-House in Kettering, on Lord’s-Day Evening, Aug. 14, 1803 (Printed and sold by J. W. Morris, Dunstable, 1803). Measuring 6½ inches x 4¼ inches, it is 34 pages in length. The going price for this piece was $162.00. To be utterly honest, I found the whole experience of bidding for this—watching my bids escalate in price as I tried vainly to outbid the person who bought this item—quite irksome. Why so irksome. Well, here is how my train of thinking ran. Here am I, the director of the Andrew Fuller Center, involved in the publication of the critical edition of Fuller’s works. Why shouldn’t I be given some special access to such works like this at a reasonable price to further the cause of Fuller scholarship? I must admit that such thoughts, essentially unwholesome thoughts, ran through my mind. In fact, they did more than run through it. They lodged there for a few days, and are still there, I fear. But Romans 12:3 calls me to think much more soberly of myself and my calling. My calling may involve me in the editing of some of Fuller’s works, but the world of Fuller scholarship does not revolve around me or this project. Why should I be entitled to some sort of special privilege?
This is even truer on another, far more important level: my place in this universe and my standing with God. This universe is not centred around me. I can lay claim to no special privilege with God. I must come the way of all sinners: seeking mercy through the merits of the stainless life and sweet death of the Lord Jesus.
Andrew Fuller on true greatness
Again, from the pen of Andrew Fuller: "...the way to true excellence is not to affect eccentricity, nor to aspire after the performance of a few splendid actions; but to fill up our lives with a sober, modest, sincere, affectionate, assiduous, and uniform conduct. "
Drinking deep at the fountain of joy: the perspective of Andrew Fuller and the experience of Samuel Pearce
My, reading Andrew Fuller is such a tonic! Here he is on spiritual enjoyments and how these were realized in his dear friend Samuel Pearce: "A little religion, it has been justly said, will make us miserable; but a great deal will make us happy. The one will do little more than keep the conscience alive, while our numerous defects and inconsistencies are perpetually furnishing it with materials to scourge us: the other keeps the heart alive, and leads us to drink deep at the fountain of joy. Hence it is, in a great degree, that so much of the spirit of bondage, and so little of the Spirit of adoption, prevails among Christians. Religious enjoyments with us are rather occasional, than habitual; or if in some instances it be otherwise, we are ready to suspect that it is supported in part by the strange fire of enthusiasm, and not by the pure flame of Scriptural devotion. But in Mr. Pearce, we saw a devotion ardent, steady, pure, and persevering: kindled, as we may say, at the altar of God, like the fire of the temple, it went not out by night nor by day. He seemed to have learnt that heavenly art, so conspicuous among the primitive Christians, of converting everything he met with into materials for love, and joy, and praise. "
Andrew Fuller on the true religion of Christianity
Here is Andrew Fuller comparing true Christianity with other religious systems: "The various kinds of religion that still prevail, the pagan, Mahometan, Jewish, papal, or Protestant, may form the exteriors of man according to their respective models; but where is the man amongst them, save the true believer in Jesus, that overcometh the world? Men may cease from particular evils, and assume a very different character; may lay aside their drunkenness, blasphemies, or debaucheries, and take up with a kind of monkish austerity, and yet all may amount to nothing more than an exchange of vices. The lusts of the flesh will on many occasions give place to those of the mind; but to overcome the world is another thing. By embracing the doctrine of the cross, to feel not merely a dread of the consequences of sin, but a holy abhorrence of its nature—and, by conversing with invisible realities, to become regardless of the best, and fearless of the worst, that this world has to dispense—this is the effect of genuine Christianity, and this is a standing proof of its Divine original. ...this is true religion."
Joy in Samuel Pearce
Love this paragraph by Andrew Fuller describing his close friend Samuel Pearce: "In many persons the pleasures imparted by religion are counteracted by a gloomy constitution: but it was not so in him. In his disposition they met with a friendly soul. Cheerfulness was as natural to him as breathing; and this spirit, sanctified by the grace of God, gave a tincture to all his thoughts, conversation, and preaching. He was seldom heard without tears; but they were frequently tears of pleasure. No levity, no attempts at wit, no aiming to excite the risibility of an audience, ever disgraced his sermons. Religion in him was habitual seriousness, mingled with sacred pleasure, frequently rising into sublime delight, and occasionally overflowing with transporting joy."
May God forgive those brethren have so lived that Christianity appeared to be a thing of gloom and doom!