Kingdom People

In December, I hope to graduate with a Masters of Divinity from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It has taken 4 1/2 years to meet all the requirements, but the Lord has been good to us, and the end is in sight.
Seminaries today are offering a variety of ways to take classes. If you are [...]

Published by Oxford University Press, historian Greg Wills’ book, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009 is now the definitive resource for understanding the history and identity of the oldest of the six Southern Baptist seminaries.
The research in these 500+ pages is groundbreaking. Over a period of several years, Wills combed through more than a million pages [...]

James Slatton has done Southern Baptists a service by offering us a fascinating portrayal of one of the Southern Baptist Convention’s most notable (and notorious) leaders.  W.H. Whitsitt: The Man and the Controversy recounts the fascinating story of Whilliam Whitsitt, the third president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a leader who found himself at the center of a controversy that raged [...]

The history of Southern Seminary fascinates me. I am intrigued by the stories of its founding, its survival through the Civil War era, its emergence as an important theological institution during the early 1900’s, and its late last-century liberalism which then gave way to a resurgent conservative theology.
Southern Seminary students and professors (or anyone else [...]

I am excited about the new series being published by Broadman and Holman called “Studies in Baptist Life and Thought.” With Dr. Michael Haykin at the forefront of this project as the series editor, Broadman and Holman promises to deliver a series of insightful books on Baptist history.
The first installment of this new series is devoted to the man who [...]

In 1959, Southern Seminary professor William Mueller wrote A History of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Nashville: Broadman Press), a chronicle of the seminary’s first one hundred years.
Mueller’s A History begins with a description of the need for a seminary. In desperate need of theological education, the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention desired an affordable, accessible institution of Christian education for [...]

Southern Seminary has always held a prominent position in Southern Baptist life. As the oldest and most prestigious of the Southern Baptist seminaries, Southern has long promoted high academic standards and a strong emphasis on pastoral training for local churches. Since 1993, the Seminary has been guided by the leadership of Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., a prominent evangelical thinker and cultural commentator.
Though conservatives are [...]

My recent visit to the graves of famous Southern Seminary presidents and professors helped me put some things in perspective.
1. Our heroes are just people.
The resurgent emphasis on the Puritans in recent years has given young evangelicals the opportunity to connect with the past by reading and researching the lives of the Puritan faithful. And [...]

John R. Sampey (1863-1946)
John Sampey was Southern Seminary’s fifth president (1928-42) during the difficult years of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. Sampey served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention three times. He often contributed to the Convention’s Sunday School literature and devotional material.
Active as an evangelist, Sampey recalled [...]

Edgar Young Mullins (1860-1928)
Southern Seminary’s fourth president (1899-1928) stands as one of the most important theologians in Baptist history. During his presidency, the seminary experienced dramatic growth in enrollment and faculty. It was during Mullins’ tenure as president that the seminary moved to its current location in Louisville. (Mullins’ office is now occupied by the [...]