THE BAPTISTS
Key people involved in forming a Baptist identity
Volume 1, Beginnings in Britain (first of three volumes)
By Tom Nettles
Mentor. 392 pages. £17.99
ISBN 1 85792 995 0
The first observation is that the 11 biographies and the spiritual battles described in this book should edify and inspire all Christians, not Baptists only.
Tom Nettles is Professor of Historical Theology at Southern Baptist Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. He is ideally equipped to write this valuable treatise. It is a marvel that he is teaching at Southern Seminary. This, the oldest of the six major Southern seminaries in the USA, was founded in 1858. The modernist ‘tsunamis’ of the late 19th and early 20th centuries destroyed seminaries and denominations in its wake. Southern Seminary was among those taken over by modernists. During the last 15 years there has been an upgrade. Southern Seminary is now back to where it began in 1858, firmly based on the Reformed Philadelphia Confession of Faith. Compared with the tiny colleges in the UK, such as Bryntirion in Wales and London Theological Seminary, Southern Seminary is huge. Its library building alone would dwarf the little colleges we have in the UK. The restoration of Southern Seminary to biblical integrity is one of the wonders of the contemporary evangelical world.
