The seminary and piety: a surrejoinder

If we define a faithful minister of the Word along the lines of Acts 6, a man devoted to the Word and prayer, it seems to me that in the twentieth century faithful orthodox seminaries have done fairly well in training men in one half of this equation: the Word. But what of the other? Well, I think many leaders in former generations expected these things to be caught by osmosis even though Jesus responded positively to the disciples’ request that he teach them how to pray. Spirituality needs to be “taught” and handed on. And while all professors in a seminary need to approach their specific subjects with an answerable spiritual frame, it is not wrong for some to focus on spirituality. Given the fact that spirituality and spiritual formation are increasingly huge engagements for both our larger cultural “moment” and within the boundaries of the Church, it is not unrealistic to ask certain men to specialize in the praxis of spirituality and the history of biblical spirituality.

As an historian, I feel the latter is very important: during the course of the twentieth century for a variety of reasons many of those who loved the Scriptures as the inerrant Word of God and faithfully upheld biblical orthodoxy failed to pass on the rich piety of their forebears in the Reformation, Puritan, Pietist and early Evangelical traditions. And surely this is one of the reasons why certain communities within the broad stream of twentieth-century English-speaking Evangelicalism became enamoured of the Spirit and talked as if they were the first to discover him since the Pentecost: they looked around and saw a tradition that seemed to have little place for piety, experience, and dare I say it, rapture (no I am not talking about an eschatological item!). Incidentally, here is where a man whom Carl has been writing about in recent days, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, is so helpful: his balance of Word and Spirit is admirable (re other matters Carl has raised about the Doctor, this is not the place to go into those, though I agree with Carl that the recent collection of essays on the Doctor is by and large a welcome addition to the books on that remarkable servant of God).

Maybe, I need to take up Carl’s offer and we can do a book together on this subject of the seminary and piety—and maybe Dr Lucas, if he is so inclined, could also be involved!

Audio interview with Dr. Haykin on The Reformers and Puritans as Spiritual Mentors

Dr. Haykin was recently interviewed on the podcast of the "New Books in Christian Studies" website. The subject of the interview is Dr. Haykin's recent book, The Reformers and Puritans as Spiritual Mentors (Joshua Press, 2012). The interview has been posted here and is available on iTunes as well.

Posted by Steve Weaver, Research Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

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.”

Christian classics: a list

This past week I had the privilege of teaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary a course on Christian Classics. I was asked at one point for a list of key works that I consider every Christian should read. Such lists are always eclectic to some degree. The following is no exception: I doubt many others would list Samuel Pearce’s memoirs by Fuller or Ann Griffiths. But here is my current list of Christian classics arranged chronologically. 

  1. The Odes of Solomon
  2. Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit
  3. Augustine, Confessions
  4. Augustine, On the Trinity
  5. Macarius, Spiritual Homilies
  6. Ailred of Rievaulx, On Spiritual Friendship
  7. Thomas Cranmer, The Book of Common Prayer
  8. John Calvin, The Institutes
  9. John Owen, On the Mortification of Sin in Believers
  10. Jonathan Edwards, On Religious Affections
  11. The Hymns of Charles Wesley
  12. John Newton and William Cowper, The Olney Hymns
  13. The Hymns and Letters of Ann Griffiths
  14. Andrew Fuller, The Memoirs of Samuel Pearce
  15. Adolphe Monod, Les Adieux
  16. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
  17. C. S Lewis, The Weight of Glory
  18. John Piper, Desiring God

Honoring the Fundamentalists

The term “Fundamentalism,” for many in our culture a word with entirely negative associations, was birthed in the 1910s and 1920s in connection with a desire to affirm the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith in the face of the 19th- and early 20th-century liberal denial of various orthodox doctrines. As such, Fundamentalism points us to the important task that confronts the Church in every generation, namely, the vigorous assertion without compromise of such key truths as the Trinity, the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, his bodily incarnation and resurrection from the dead. A passion for Truth gripped the early Fundamentalists, and Evangelicals need to be thankful to God for those men and women who affirmed the Faith when so many professing Christian leaders were engaged in Esau-like compromise. Alongside a passion for the Truth, early Fundamentalism was also shaped by a desire to know the reality of that text in Ephesians 5, where we read that Christ’s great work includes the sanctification and purification of the Church (verses 25–26). Early Fundamentalists were keenly aware that purity of doctrine was a key part of our Lord’s sanctifying and purifying work and that Christians cannot walk hand in hand with those who flagrantly deny the essentials of the Faith. In this connection, they were also desirous of heeding another related text, namely, that “pure and undefiled religion in the presence of God, even the Father, is this…to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27). These desires—seeking purity of doctrine and church reform as well as living holy lives—should also be central to our Christianity.

Yet, as Fundamentalism pursued these passions, all too frequently it found itself getting sidelined in debates about tertiary issues and becoming a movement that fostered schism rather than reformation. At times it seemed to forget that theological orthodoxy in and by itself cannot revitalize Christian communities: the coals of orthodoxy are vital, but there must be the life-giving flame of the Spirit as well.

In recent days, though, it appears to this historian that Evangelicalism would like to conveniently forget the important role that Fundamentalism played in preserving the Faith in the early years of the twentieth century. Just as, up until very recently, the work of the British Empire’s Bomber Command was conveniently forgotten in the plaudits being handed out to those who made incredible sacrifices during world War II, so Fundamentalists have been conveniently put to one side and Evangelicals have sought to live as if they did not act as conduits of their Faith. But we cannot do this, and nor should we. We may not agree with all that Fundamentalism represented, but honor needs given where honor is due.

"Andrew Fuller & His Friends" Conference Website Now Live

Overview

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.

Conference Audio Posted for "Religious Liberty and the Cross"

Audio of our most recent mini-conference, "Religious Liberty and the Cross: 1662 and the Persecution of the Puritans," is now online on the conference page. I have posted the links to the audio files below.
Audio from previous conferences can be accessed on the respective conference pages found here. Registration will be opening soon for our sixth annual two-day conference. See the Schedule and Call for Parallel Session Papers.
Posted by Steve Weaver, Research Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

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.

Christmas 1677 & 1679

While working through the Wapping Church minute book, I discovered this festive account from 1677. The church had voted to withdraw fellowship from Okey in June of the year. Apparently that was not okay with Okey. Okey had responded by praying for God to kill the pastor, Hercules Collins. The church took the following further action on Christmas Day 1677.

At the Church Meeting in ole Gravell Lane the 25th of December 1677 was John Okey Cut off and Excommunicated from all the priviledges of the gospel for the sin of lying and Revilling and for Refusing to hear the Church: together with his Invocating the God of Heaven to cut off and destroy Bro: Collings and saying also that he would be Revenged.

On a bit more pleasant note than the Christmas 1677 meeting, the Wapping Church took up a special collection for London pastor Benjamin Keach on December 25, 1679 in response to his recently having been robbed.

December 25th 1679 The Congregation in old Gravell Lane Did then Raise and give to Bro. Benj. Keach when he was Robed the Sum of Three pound five shillings

The church ultimately gave 3 pounds and eight shillings to Keach. On December 30th 1679, it was recorded in the minute book that: “Bro. Collings gave to Bro. Keach the Sum of three pound Eight Shillings which was gathered for him of the Church.”

The above was posted last week on my personal blog and the Hercules Collins site.

Posted by Steve Weaver, Research Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

Remembering C.H. Spurgeon’s success and spirituality

In many ways, C.H. Spurgeon's ministry was nothing less than amazing: the crowded auditories that assembled to hear the "Cambridgeshire lad" in the 1850s and that continued unabated till the end of his ministry in the early 1890s; the remarkable conversions that occurred under his preaching and the numerous churches in metropolitan London and the county of Surrey that owed their origins to his Evangelical activism; the solid Puritan divinity that undergirded his Evangelical convictions-something of a rarity in the heyday of the Victorian era during which he ministered for that was a day imbued with the very different ambience of Romanticism; and finally, the ongoing life of his sermons that are still being widely read around the world today and deeply appreciated by God's children. What accounts for all of this? Numerous reasons could be cited, many of which may indeed play a secondary role in his ministerial success. For example, in a fairly recent biography of Spurgeon, Mike Nicholls emphasizes the importance of Spurgeon's voice to his success as a preacher.  He possessed, Nicholls writes, "one of the great speaking voices of his age, musical and combining compass, flexibility and power."(1) Augustine Birrell (1850-1933), the son of one of Spurgeon's fellow Baptist pastors and who served as the Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916, testifies to this fact. Birrell records that when he went to hear Spurgeon preach once, the only seat he could find was in the topmost gallery, in what the English call "the gods." He was squished between a woman eating an orange and a man sucking peppermints.  Finding this combination of odours unendurable, he was about to leave, when, he said, "I heard a voice and forgot all else."(2) But Spurgeon himself looked to quite a different source for the blessings that attended his ministry.  In a speech that he gave at a celebration held in honour of his fiftieth birthday in 1884, the Baptist preacher forthrightly declared that the blessing he had enjoyed in his pastorate "must be entirely attributed to the grace of God, and to the working of God's Holy Spirit... Let that stand as a matter, not only taken for granted, but as a fact distinctly recognized."(3) In other words: behind Spurgeon's successes as a minister of the gospel was his walk with God.

  1. C. H. Spurgeon: The Pastor Evangelist (Didcot, Oxfordshire: Baptist Historical Society, 1992), 37.
  2. Cited E.J. Poole-Connor, Evangelicalism in England (London: The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, 1951), 226-227.
  3. C.H. Spurgeon's Autobiography, compiled Susannah Spurgeon and J.W. Harrald (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1900), IV, 243.

Henry Coppinger

Lavenham parish church is reckoned to be one of the most beautiful Anglican church buildings in the entire county of Suffolk, something that I can attest from personal experience, having visited the church last September. For a hundred years, from 1578 to 1679, the church was served by a succession of Puritan pastors, the last of whom was the famous William Gurnall, the author of The Christian in Complete Armour (1661). Now, the first Puritan leader in the Suffolk town was Henry Coppinger, Lavenham church's longest-serving pastor, who was there from 1578 to 1622. When his father, also Henry Coppinger, was dying, he asked the younger Coppinger, one of eleven sons, what course of life he would follow. When the latter told him he intended to be a minister of gospel, the elder Coppinger was immensely pleased, for he said, "what shall I say to Martin Luther when I shall see him in heaven, and he knows that God gave me eleven sons, and I made not one of them a minister?"

PS One of the great joys at Southern, where I teach, is serving with Dr Mark Coppenger. Drafting this mini-post I was obviously struck by the similarity of his name with that of Henry Coppinger (a difference of an i/e, easily accounted for). Maybe I am serving with a descendant of this Puritan leader who helped prepare the way for the great Gurnall!

Free PDF Lecture on the Making of the KJV

Dr. Michael Haykin recently gave the Staley Lectures at Charleston Southern University on the history of the King James Version of the Bible.  These lectures were given in commemoration of the 400 year anniversary of the publication of the King James Version in 1611.  Dr. Haykin's lecture notes are now being made available here for free download.  They will be available in the future on the Papers page of this website.

Posted by Steve Weaver, Research and Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

Theological education: the fruit in history speaks for itself

There has been a lively interchange going on regarding theological education on my facebook page. This will be my final post on the issue of theological education (though I do intend to write, DV, a small book on the issue).

 

In the early Church context about 12%-15% of the Graeco-Roman world were literate. All of the Church Fathers were drawn from these ranks. They had to have been to be able to use and preach the Word of God.

 

It is very telling that the Reformation leaders were all men trained in the universities. And it is also very telling that the Puritans, all of them apart from Bunyan and Baxter, were university men, with MAs in theology. Very telling indeed. And the impact of the Puritan literature on the 18th century men is well known: it is a major stimulus for revival. And none could accuse the Reformers or the Puritans of not being lovers of the church and ardent pastors.

 

And then the 18th century leaders of the Evangelical awakening: which of them had not been to university? Well, there is Newton and some of the key Baptists like Fuller and Carey. But both of the latter were geniuses.

 

And do we really think in this complex world we will be best served in the church by men without such formal training? We are whistling dixie (no offence to my Southern brothers!) And we all know what happened to Dixie.

Seeking models for imitation: a biblical reason for studying church history

Pace the canons of contemporary historiography, a key reason presented by the Word of God for the study of Church History is to find models for imitation. In Hebrews 13:7, the preacher of this tremendous holy text urges his hearers to “remember [their] leaders, who spoke the Word of God to you. Pondering carefully the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith.”

 

How is the Christian community to view such preachers/teachers of the past?

 

First, they are to “continue to remember” such men/teachers/preachers. The use of the present imperative stresses continual remembrance.[1] What is the nature of this remembrance?

 

It is summed up first in the participle anatheōrountes. This word has the basic idea of looking at something again and again, examining and observing it carefully.[2] One source defines it thus: “to closely view with attention, to scrutinize closely.”[3] Now, how is the participle being being used here? Is it imperatival, thus indicating a command in addition to remember?[4] Or is it the means by which we remember?[5] Either way, it is strong directive to spend time reflecting on the lives of past leaders in the church.

 

What especially is to be scrutinized? Their “way of life”—“the “sum total” or “achievement” of their day-to-day behavior, manifested in a whole life.”[6] Note what this says is required of leaders: godly lives and, to some degree, transparent lives. See also in this regard 2 Timothy 3:10–11. And what is required of Christians in general? This is nothing less than an admonition to be familiar with history of Christian leadership.

 

Finally, believers are to imitate (mimeisthe) the faith-informed lives of these men. The idea of imitation has already been mentioned explicitly in Hebrews 6:12 and by implication in Hebrews 11. Here, is nothing less than a key reason for the study of Church History.

 

This is not hagiography for undergirding the command to imitate these men’s faith is the object of their faith: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). It is because Christ Jesus was at the centre of these men’s preaching and living, their lives can be imitated today since He never changes.

[1] William L. Lane, Hebrews 9–13 (Word Biblical Commentary, vo.47B; [Dallas: Word,] 1991), 522, note a.

[2] BDAG3, s.v. See also Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 522, note c.

[3] [Wayne Barber and Spiros Zodhiates et al.], Woodland Park Baptist Church: Constitution and Bylaws (Chattanooga, Tennessee: Woodland Park Baptist Church, 2003), “Appendix I: On Hebrews 13:7”, p.22 (available at: http://www.woodlandpark.org/downloads/wpbcConstitution.pdf; accessed March 20, 2010).

[4] Thus George J. Zemek, “The Modeling of Ministers” in Richard L. Mayhue and Robert L. Thomas, eds., The Master’s Perspective on Pastoral Ministry (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2002), 268, n.61.

[5] Thus Luke Timothy Johnson, Hebrews. A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 346: “ ‘remembering’ through ‘gazing’.”

[6] Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1977), 569. On the interpretation of ekbasis, see especially BDAG3, s.v.; Hughes, Hebrews, 569, n.18; Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 522, note d. Compare the desire of the writer in Hebrews 13:18.

Reading Alexander Maclaren and how not to do history

We Evangelicals have a real problem in the way we do history and remember our own past. We highlight certain figures--the "great men" and the "great women"--in our past and the result is that we fail to understand often what God was doing in the given era which we are studying. For God never acts solely through one individual in the history of the church. We talk about Athanasius contra mundum, for instance, but what about Serapion of Thmuis, and Hilary of Poitiers, and Ossius of Cordoba, and Lucifer of Cagliari and Eustathius of Antioch and Meletius of Antioch and Epiphanius of Salamis. Tell me, why is only Athanasius remembered? Something is very odd here. I could mulitply numerous examples here. To be sure, one reason, for remembering Athanasius is all that he wrote. The other men just listed, apart from Hilary and Epiphanius, wrote little. But church history is not only about books, even though that is the medium by which we have access to it. Our path to the past we have confused with the past itself. Church history is not simply the story of great theologians talking to each other.

My recent excursion down this way of thinking happened recently when reading some of the sermons of Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910). I suddenly realized that the sermonic ability and achievements of CH Spurgeon overshadowed everyone else of that era, including Maclaren. But Maclaren is good, very good. Pick him up and read him.

Articles by Dr. Haykin from 'Reformation & Revival'

Rob Bradsaw of BiblicalStudies.org.uk has posted the contents of several issues of 'Reformation & Revival'. In perusing the articles, I discovered a number of articles by Dr. Haykin contributed to the journal between 1992 and 2000.  These articles are available for download or viewing online in PDF format. JOHN SUTCLIFF AND THE CONCERT OF PRAYER (Summer 1992, 1:3)

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND PRAYER IN JOHN BUNYAN (Spring 1994, 3:2)

JONATHAN EDWARDS AND HIS LEGACY (Summer 1995, 4:3)

THE REFLECTIONS OF A PURITAN THEOLOGIAN ON REGENERATION AND CONVERSION (Summer 1996, 5:3)

POST TENEBRAS LUX MARTIN LUTHER: PATHFINDER OF THE REFORMATION (Winter 1999, 8:1)

HEARING THE WORD: ROBERT HALL'S REFLECTIONS ON HOW BEST TO PROFIT SPIRITUALLY FROM PREACHING (Winter 2000, 9:1)

A SPIRITUALITY OF THE WORD: THE SCRIPTURES IN EARLY BAPTIST LIFE AND THOUGHT (Fall 2000, 9:4)

Posted by Steve Weaver, Research and Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

Petrarch on the pleasures and value of writing

"Nothing weighs less than a pen, nothing is more cheering." And to boot, Petrarch notes, writing will profit others, "sometimes even men of the future, thousands of years away." Thus he concluded: "of all earthly delights none is more noble than literature, none longer-lasting, sweeter, more constant..." He hoped that death would find him "reading or writing, or, if it be Christ's will, praying and weeping" (Letters on Familiar Matters 17.2).