I’m still thoroughly enjoying—and receiving historical instruction from—Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859–2009.
I just got through the major fight liberal-moderate president Duke McCall had in the 1950s with a group of liberal-moderate faculty. McCall won, and because he was not viewed as liberal, rank and file Southern Baptists viewed his victory as a purge of unsound theology from the school. But they weren’t quite right. Wills’ little line at the end of this paragraph is brilliant:
Herschel Hobbs’s assessment prevailed widely: “This was Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s finest hour as she stood in the breach and said to modernism and its kind that it shall go no further in Southern Baptist institutions and life.” McCall’s purge had saved the school and the denomination from liberalism. The orthodox soon discovered, however, that it was not a case of once saved, always saved.
Great find!