Both proclaimers of the gospel and moral reformers

Not long after his conversion, William Wilberforce (1759–1833), at the time a member of Parliament, wrote to the evangelical minister John Newton (1725–1807) on December 2, 1785, wanting to visit him for spiritual advice about his career, for Wilberforce was contemplating leaving the realm of politics. For a number of eighteenth-century evangelicals, particularly the Methodist followers of John Wesley (1703–91) and those outside of the Anglican fold like the Baptists, politics was a “worldly” occupation from which the believer was best to separate himself or herself [see, for example, Murray Andrew Pura, Vital Christianity: The Life and Spirituality of William Wilberforce (Fearn by Tain, Ross-Shire: Christian Focus/Toronto: Clements Publishing, 2003), 37–8]. Anglican evangelicals like Newton, however, did not view their Christian discipleship in such a counter-cultural light and Newton wisely encouraged Wilberforce to stay in the world of politics. Some words that Newton wrote to him a couple of years later well capture the essence of his advice to the young convert: “It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of His church and for the good of the nation.” [cited John Pollock, Wilberforce (1977 ed.; repr. Eastbourne: Kingsway, 2001), 38]. Newton was well aware of the challenge of being a Christian and a politician. As he wrote of Wilberforce to his good friend William Cowper (1731–1800) the year after Wilberforce came to see him: “I hope the Lord will make him a blessing both as a Christian and a statesman. How seldom do these characters coincide!! But they are not incompatible.” [William Hague, William Wilberforce (HarperCollins, 2007), 88].

Nor did Newton simply direct Wilberforce into the calling God had chosen for him, but over the next couple of decades Newton proved to be the ablest and most devoted of spiritual mentors. For example, in 1796, Newton wrote to Wilberforce: “I believe you are the Lord’s servant, and are in the post which He has assigned you; and though it appears to me more arduous, and requiring more self-denial than my own, I know that He who has called you to it can afford you strength according to your day” [cited Hague, William Wilberforce, 88]. Newton also helped Wilberforce by recalling those in Scripture who had served in the political realm: “May the wisdom that influenced Joseph and Moses and Daniel rest upon you. Not only to guide and animate you in the line of political duty—but especially to keep you in the habit of dependence upon God, and your communion with him, in the midst of all the changes and bustle around you.” [John Newton, Letter to William Wilberforce, 18 May [1786] (Bodleian, MS Wilberforce c.49, fol. 9)].

The meeting between Wilberforce and Newton in 1785 would be a true turning point in the religious, social and political history of Great Britain. Thanks be to God Wilberforce did not consult Wesley—though Wesley would encourage him to persevere in the fight against slavery shortly before his death in 1791—or a London Baptist leader, who would have told the young convert to get out of politics. And glad in this sense that he was not living today when he might have visited one of any number of pietistic Evangelical leaders in the Anglophone world, who conceives of the advance of the kingdom to be solely a matter of the recruitment of preachers. To be sure, we need such: the advance of the kingdom of our glorious Captain is tied to his infrangible and indelible Word. But we also need moral reformers with the mettle of Wilberforce.

Reflecting on "Cathedral" by Crosby, Stills & Nash

Listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash. Love so much of their stuff. Their “Long time gone” (1969) defined so much about my life in that era when it was written. Of course, as with so much of the music of that era, the tunes and lyrics were both remarkable, almost classic as soon as they were crafted. But the deeply resonant tunes often cloaked philosophical approaches that would prove destructive to occidental cultural structures. Take “Cathedral,” for example. The drug theme—the mention of “flying” and being high—reminds one of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” (from their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band). But half-way into the song, there is this—words that echo the attitude of so many in the sixties and that shaped so many in the days following that heady era:

“I’m flying in Winchester cathedral. All religion has to have it’s day Expressions on the face of the Saviour Made me say I can’t stay.”

“Open up the gates of the church and let me out of here! Too many people have lied in the name of Christ For anyone to heed the call. So many people have died in the name of Christ That I can’t believe it all.”

What seemed patent to so many in the sixties, the seeming bankruptcy of western Christianity with its lies and death-dealing, has faded in the forty years between then and now. Why? Because Jesus Christ is greater than his Church. No doubt Christians have lied and dealt death in the name of the Lord of life. But their failures are not to be ascribed to Jesus. And in the light of the fallout of the sixties and the realization that the heroes of that era—Che and John Lennon, Krishna and Herbert Marcuse, Danny the Red and Eldridge Cleaver, Cher and RFK—were but clay, choosing to follow the pure-hearted Jesus is but wisdom.

When this song was penned I too would have said, “Open up the gates of the church and let me out of here!” But five years later, I came to love Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Expressions on his crucified and risen visage made me say, “Here is where I want to stay and nowhere else.”

The W Conference: A Special Conference for Women

For 15% off, use PROMO CODE: SBTS

The W Conference: Simplifying Womanhood in a Complicated World

November 19-20 at Southern Seminary Worship Leaders: Mary Kassian and Heather Payne

Breakouts on multicultural relationships, girl-girl relationships, girl-boy relationships, balancing, time management, wise spending, spiritual fitness, God’s call, and the P31 wife.

Learn to minister to young women! Bring young women! Learn to be wise in a world gone crazy.

DISCOUNT CODE: SBTS for 15% off!

Register online now: http://events.sbts.edu/wconference

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

A Morning with Robert Hall, Jr.: A Free Mini-Conference at SBTS

The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies is sponsoring "A Morning with Robert Hall, Jr." on Wednesday, October 27th from 9 am to  11:30 am on the 3rd floor of the Legacy Center at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

This event will feature lectures from British pastor Austin Walker and SBTS Ph.D. candidate Cody McNutt.

Robert Hall, Jr. was very influential in the launch of the modern missionary movement in the 18th century.  He was friends with such men as  William Carey and Andrew Fuller.  The first 25 students in attendance will receive a free copy of the new B&H title Andrew Fuller: Model Pastor-Theologian by Paul Brewster.

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

"Baptists and the Cross" Conference Audio Now Available

The audio for this year's conference "Baptists and the Cross: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives" is now available online.  Plenary sessions include lectures by Tom Schreiner, Stephen Wellum, David Bebbington, Glendon Thompson, Maurice Dowling, James Fuller, and Danny Akin.  There also twelve parallel sessions an hymn-fest, and a bonus discussion between Drs. Haykin and Bebbington.  View the complete schedule and listen online or download MP3s here.

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

Baptist ministers in the 18th century: a further reflection

Standing at the far left of the picture of the Baptist ministers we have been considering is Samuel Pearce (1766-99), one of my Baptist heroes. Immediately to his right is William Steadman (1764-1837), who played a central role in Baptist renewal in the North of England. Steadman far outlived Pearce, but the two had been close friends during their time together at Bristol Baptist Academy, where they both studied in the late 1780s. Whoever drew this picture must have known of their friendship for their being placed together is not fortuitous. It corresponds to two other groups of friends that we will consider at a later point. Pearce was widely known to be a friend of Andrew Fuller and John Ryland, both sitting in the picture, but the friendship with Steadman was not as widely known, which makes this point quite interesting.

Baptist ministers in the 18th century: a continuing rumination

Looking at the previous post and its picture: is it significant that the only two clearly visible figures holding Bibles are Hall and Kinghorn? As mentioned in the previous post, a bewigged Dan Taylor also has a Bible, but he is obscured by Hall. Hall and Kinghorn, of course, had a very well known debate in the nineteenth century about open and closed communion (for the record, my sympathies and convictions side with Kinghorn). Does the prominence of Hall, standing not seated like Kinghorn, say something about the sympathies of the artist of this picture? I would not be led down this track, if it were not for the presence of two General Baptists in this picture: Dan Taylor (bewigged and in the back row) and next to him, on his left, John Deodatus Gregory Pike (1784-1854), a man much admired by C.H. Spurgeon. Does their presence bespeak an open attitude towards the General Baptists that came to typify many English Baptists by the end of the century, which would befit the ecumenical Hall more than the Reformed catholic Kinghorn?

Pike's presence also probably helps us to date the picture: post 1854. But not too many years after that date, for which English Baptist could resist including Spurgeon if the picture were being done in the late 1860s or the 1870s, unless he wanted to create a period piece?

Many questions!

Baptist Ministers in the 18th Century: ruminations on a picture

(Click on photo to enlarge)

This is quite a well-known picture that depicts many of the luminaries of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth- century English Baptist community. Recently, Cody McNutt, a PhD student at SBTS, pointed out to me the central place held by Robert Hall, Jr (1764-1831) in this picture. Cody is doing a much-needed thesis on Hall and that is why his attention was drawn to Hall's place in the picture.

The seated figures in the front row--(from l. to r.) William Carey, Joseph Kinghorn, John Ryland, Jr., Andrew Fuller, and John Foster--were all remarkable figures, but the creator of this portrait seems to have wanted to highlight Hall. He is standing in a posture that surely bespeaks the preacher with a Bible in his right hand. And if the Baptists of that era were about anything it was preaching. As a means of grace, it was second to none as a way of communicating God's will and presence. All of the men in the picture were preachers (except for Foster, who tried to preach but failed miserably in it--his forte was the written essay), why highlight Hall in this regard? Does it reveal the conviction that Hall represents the cream of Baptist preaching? There is no doubt, for many of that era, Hall was the greatest of a great generation of preachers.

Kinghorn also has a book, probably a Bible, but by having him seated it seems he has been depicted in a more prayerful, meditative pose. This depiction of Kinghorn is dependent on the A. Robertson painting of Kinghorn (1813). This painting was popularized through an engraving by the engraver W. Bond. And upon close inspection, Dan Taylor (directly behind Hall and the only bewigged figure in the picture--also one of only two General Baptists, the other is J.G. Pike, on Taylor's left) is also holding a book--probably a Bible? But one has to look very closely to see it. He is definitely overshadowed by Hall.

This is a fascinating picture and a tremendous window into Baptist thinking of that day. Thinking about Hall's place in this picture has sparked further thoughts about the figures in this picture, which I hope to share later.

New Book on Andrew Fuller Provides Solid Model of Pastoral Ministry

Broadman & Holman have been publishing a new series of monographs on the history of Baptists entitled “Studies in Baptist Life and Thought.” These monographs explore Baptist life together and Baptist thought, and are vital reading for anyone who loves the truths that Baptists have lived and died for. Given the many significant changes that the world is undergoing in our day, Baptists are being tempted to divorce themselves from their theological and spiritual roots. Behind this series is the conviction that such would be suicidal and that the volumes in this series will provide a way in which Baptists can learn from the past how to live faithfully for God in the present. The latest volume in the series is Paul Brewster’s Andrew Fuller: Model Pastor-Theologian, has just been released. Brewster, pastor of Ryker’s Ridge Baptist Church in Madison, Indiana, and a PhD from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, examines Fuller as a pastor and theologian and the way in which he was able to frame a theological perspective in the midst of a very busy pastorate.

In recent years, with the upsurge of interest in Reformed theology, there are a number of theologians who have been the focus of attention, Edwards, for example, or some of the Puritans like Owen. But when it comes to a solid model of Baptist ministry, who do we have? Spurgeon, without a shadow of a doubt. Well, after Spurgeon I would suggest that Fuller is a prime example of what a pastor-theologian looks like. Read Brewster’s book and see for yourself!

You can order from Amazon.com for $16.49.

Dr. Haykin Interviewed About Alexander Whyte

Dr. Michael Haykin was recently interviewed on Covenant Radio about his book A Consuming Fire:  The Piety of Alexander Whyte.  They will be replaying the program a few times in the next month or two on their 24/7 internet radio station, Sola5 Radio.  They have also placed a direct link to the audio and brief notes concerning the interview on their blog.  You can also access the interview directly by MP3 download here.

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

Human cultural artifacts and the Empire of the Holy Spirit

"The wise of the world, Aristotle or Plato or Socrates, who were skilled in knowledge, were like great cities, but they were laid waste by the enemies because the Spirit of God was not in them" (Macarius-Symeon, Homily 42.1). This is an astute remark that raises all kinds of questions about the experience of common grace and how Christians relate to culture. I take it as a given that an acultural Christianity is a non-entity. To be involved in the work of saving sinners, Christians must impant themselves in a culture. But what is the value of that culture? Left to itself, I can readily affirm with Macarius-Symeon that any culture will perish. But if indwelt by the Spirit, ah, there is the question? What will be its end result?

Let me make my beliefs plain: I look forward to that day when all that is best and good and true in the kingdoms of this world will be transformed into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus and become the Empire of the Holy Spirit.

Reading Macarius/Symeon

Central to the closing of the late fourth-century debate about the deity of the Holy Spirit was the argument of the Greek theologian Basil of Caesarea (c.329–79) that the Spirit must be divine if, through his indwelling of both angels and humans, he makes them holy beings. As the One who ultimately provides all of the holiness experienced by rational creatures in the universe, the Holy Spirit must be holy without qualification. And as such he cannot be a creature, but has to be ontologically inseparable from the Father and the Son.[1] The source of this argument was both Scripture and Basil’s experience as a monk. In the early monastic movement Basil had been exposed to a rich charismatic environment that convinced him that genuine progress in a life of virtue was deeply dependent upon the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

Another monastic leader who shared this conviction, but who expressed it in quite a different fashion, is the author of four major collections of homilies, discourses and letters known as the Macarian corpus. I have long been interested in this author ever since in 1979 I heard a brilliant lecture by Reinhart Staats on the glorification of the Spirit in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed and his brief discussion of some disciples of Macarius who were present at the Council of Constantinople. And so am reading and thinking about the Spirit in the II collection of Macarian homilies.[2] It is a truly amazing slice of Patristic literature. Macarius’ grasp of the Spirit’s work in the context of human sin is largely very biblical.

All of this is preparation for a paper I have to give at an academic confernce this coming Friday at SBTS, the conference is entitled "Human and Christian Agency" and is sponsored by the Society for Christian Psychology, and I am looking at the Spirit and the sturggle against sin in Macarius/Symeon.

 

[1] Basil of Caesarea, Letter 125.3; 159.2; On the Holy Spirit 19.48. See also J. Verhees, “Die Bedeutung der Transzendenz des Pneuma bei Basilius”, Ostkirchliche Studien, 25 (1976),299–300.

[2] For discussion of the four collections, see Marcus Plested, The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 9–12. See also Stuart K. Burns, “Pseudo-Macarius and the Messalians: The Use of Time for the Common Good” in R.N. Swanson, ed., The Use and Abuse of Time in Christian History (Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press for The Ecclesiastical History Society, 2002), 3, n.7.

Thinking about Carey's love of Bengali literature

When William Carey went to India, he began a lifelong program of learning about the culture and history of India. So enamoured did he become of Indian literature that he eventually engaged in a systematic re-printing of much of their classical literature. And today he is partly remembered in eastern India as one of the figures responsible for a renaissance of Bengali litertaure. Not surprisingly, some of his close friends in England, like Andrew Fuller, under whose patronymic I serve in part, were surprised and somewhat nonplussed. They had sent Carey out to be a witness to the Christ among the millions of the Indian subcontinent and here he was wasting time on literature. But Carey was wiser than they. He realized that for the gospel to make any headway in his adopted Indian culture, there had to be some understanding of that culture, and the best way to do that was to systematically study the world of India.

I personally do not think Carey's strategy mistaken. A careful examination of the history of mission would show that this strategy was usually far more successful than any alternatives. One of the reasons for the ongoing strength of the Patristic witness, for example, was the amazing ability of the Fathers to transplant the gospel into the soil of Hellenism, a transplant that by and large was accomplished without major compromise of the Faith, though there were many temptations to so compromise.

New Book by Dr. Haykin Helps Rediscover Church Fathers

Justin Taylor has posted an interview with Dr. Michael Haykin offering advise on reading the church fathers.  This affords a good opportunity to mention that Dr. Haykin has a new book on Rediscovering the Church Fathers, due to be released by Crossway on March 31, 2011. Dr. Haykin described the purpose of the book in his interview with Justin as:

The book seeks to stimulate a thirst for the Fathers and to reveal how rich the Fathers are in theology and piety. As such, it is not an exhaustive study of the Fathers. Rather, it presents six Fathers/patristic texts that reveal key themes of that era of church history and hopefully stir up interest and make the Fathers increasingly a known land.

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