Servant Songs Revelations

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                                Vol. X, No. 4, April 1997

There is a remarkable book to which I have referred previously in “Antiheritage,” Servant Songs: Reflections on Southeastern Seminary 1950-1988, Thomas A. Bland, ed. (Smyth & Helwys, Macon, GA, 1994). Its chapters are the individual efforts of a former president, Randall Lolley; the school’s first chaplain, 1984-89, Donna M. Forrester, and nine faculty members. In the light of James P. Boyce’s views excerpted in “Heritage” regarding the vital importance of doctrinal confessions and orthodoxy on the part of seminary, the following contrasting quotes from Servant Songs are instructive. Authors and page numbers are indicated for each quote.

“... To postulate any theory about the Bible as the norm for interpreting the Bible is to put the Bible in second place and to proclaim that certain traditions of the church and some individual opinions are superior to Scripture.

“Theology is thinking about God, and I have given primary attention to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ with the doctrines of the trinity, christology, and pneumatology at the center. The doctrines of creation, humankind, the church, the Christian life, and eschatology have all been interpreted in light of God.” Eddins, p 155

Chapter 4, “The Faculty’s Response to Fundamentalist Control,” by Richard L. Hester, recounts on pp 100-2 that the faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors hired a media consultant to further their battle against “fundamentalist control.” One of the media efforts was an editorial which Hester describes in part the nature of the faculty. “The editorial also held that the faculty was conservative — ‘committed to conserving long-established values in our school, denomination, and society: openness and diversity in the search for truth, inclusiveness of minorities and women in the ordained ministry, and prophetic criticism of all views political or religious that claim to represent absolute truth.”

Can Hester really have been serious when he defines “conservative” as he does? When was ordaining women a “long-established value” of Southern Baptists? “Openness and diversity in the search for truth” clearly implies (1) that God has not clearly revealed the truth and (2) that all paths of spiritual search contain at least some truth. Both of which directly contradict the Bible. Finally and most blatantly, he trumpets “prophetic criticism of all views political or religious that claim to represent absolute truth.” Now no one I know claims that all truth is revealed in the Bible, yet that truth which is revealed is absolutely true. As Jesus said, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:18).

John W. Eddins, Jr., taught at Southeastern for 36 years, 1957-1993. The remaining selections are from his chapter, “Reflections on Teaching Theology,” pp 157-160. Thomas H. Graves [now the president of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond] arrived in the fall semester of 1979... In an interview on 14 December 1993, Professor Graves described his perspective in philosophy, theology, and ethics as a dialogical approach in which there is a sharing of issues as mutual confession. He was greatly influenced by Nikolai A. Berdyaev’s dialogical method in the dialogue between Christians and Marxists. This dialogical method differs radically from ‘apologetics’ as proving the truth of Christianity as opposed to the truth in philosophy. Blaise Pascal and Soren Kierkegaard also shaped Graves’ approach to religion, philosophy of religion, and theology.”

“Robert H. Culpepper was elected tot he faculty in March 1979 ... Professor Culpepper described himself in an interview on 30 December 1993 as more kerygmatic than an apologetic theologian in teaching systematic theology. He remarked that he was not a disciple of anyone, although the influence of Karl Barth and Emil Brunner partially shaped his theology, especially in the realm of christology. ... He took the revelation described in the Bible seriously, but Culpepper was not a literalist or a fundamentalist. He advocated and employed the historical-critical study of scripture as long as the biblical material was not ruled out at a presuppositional level.”

“Dr. Elizabeth Barnes ... came to the faculty in 1984, bringing needed diversity to the theological offerings with her interests in liberation theology as expressed, in particular, from feminist and black perspectives. ... [She] describer herself in an interview on 12 December 1993, as a ‘narrative-liberationist’ or a ‘liberation-narrativist.’ Professor Barnes was influenced by Karl Barth, whose thought she examined in her doctoral dissertation ...”