Baptist
Theologians by Timothy George and David
S. Dockery
Essential
is
hardly to strong a word to describe this book for
anyone who wants to understand Baptists.
Baptist
Theologians is a veritable encyclopedia of the
people God has used through the centuries to mold
and motivate Baptists of many different persuasions.
Chapters cover the life, preaching, and theology of
a different Baptist and are ordered chronologically.
Preachers and theologians covered are:
- John
Bunyan
- Benjamin
Keach
- John
Gill
- Isacc
Backus
- Andrew
Fuller
- Richard
Furman
- John
L. Dagg
- J.M.
Pendleton
- P.H.
Mell
- J.R.
Graves
- C.H.
Spurgeon
- Augustus
H. Strong
- B.H.
Carroll
- E.Y.
Mullins
- William
Bell Riley
- Walter
Rauschenbusch
- W.O.
Carver
- H.
Weeler Robinson
- W.T.
Conner
- Herschel
Hobbs
- W.A.
Criswell
- Eric
Rust
- George
Elton Ladd
- Frank
Stagg
- Carl
F.H. Henry
- Dale
Moody
- George
R. Beasley-Murray
- Bernard
Ramm
- Edward
John Carnell
- James
Deotis Roberts
- Millard
J. Erickson
- Clark
H. Pinnock
Baptist
Theologians focuses more on Southern Baptists
than others and is strongest in its dealings with
the early Baptists. The book is worth its price for
the first chapter entitled The Renewal of Baptist
Theology. Here, Timothy George makes some timely
remarks concerning the need for a restoration of doctrinal
teaching and preaching in Baptist churches.
Baptist
Theologians, Broadman Press, 1990, 704 pages.
Timothy
George is founding Dean of Beeson Seminary.
David
S. Dockery is Editor of Broadman Press
|
. |
We
have lost touch with
the great historic traditions which have given us our
vitality and identity ... we find ourselves awash on
the sea of pragmatism ... indifference, and theological
vacuity. The results are all around us: Church rolls
stuffed with so-called 'inactive members' ... trendy
sermons which lack both biblical depth and spiritual
power ... shallow worship services geared more to the
applause of man than to the praise of God ... (p.13)
At
the turn
of the century, J.B. Gambrell observed that 'heresies
have their habitation in cold hearts and cold churches.
The awakening that must come will have its start in
local congregations where there is an atmosphere of
hospitality to the truth. (p. 24)
Without
his (Andrew
Fuller) courage and doctrinal integrity in the faces
of what he considered to be theological aberrations,
the Baptist mission movement might have been stillborn.
(p. 133)
Would
Spurgeon
with his Calvinistic theology be effective in today's
urban, secular world? ... Spurgeon would have been most
effective in the present era - and for the very reasons
he was effective one hundred years ago, as were the
Puritans in their age...He ... ministered to people
where they actually were in life. (p.
286).
Carl
F.H. Henry ...
chided Baptists for their 'theological amnesia' (p.
531).
|
