EDITOR’S NOTE: Before A.T. Roberson published the first edition of his monumental A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in Light of Historical Research in 1914, Southern Seminary faculty had already produced four influential works that would shape the character of the Southern Baptist Convention. Seminary historian Gregory A. Wills, dean of the School of Theology, provides a summary of the seminary’s magisterial works published between 1870 and 1910.

John A. Broadus, A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, 1870

Broadus introduced a new model of preaching that was at once less formal and more careful to understand the biblical text faithfully. On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons became the standard textbook for three generations of students in Baptist seminaries, and it shaped the best Southern Baptist preaching down to the present. Broadus’ classic work exceeded Robertson’s grammar in terms of broad influence, and was impressive in its scholarship also. Broadus and Robertson are the two greatest scholars of the seminary’s first century.

James Petigru Boyce, Abstract of Systematic Theology, 1887

This book is deeply important also because it represents the basis of the spiritual and moral power of an extraordinary man of God whose sacrifices and accomplishments extend their powerful influence down to the present day. Boyce accomplished what no other man had been able to accomplish, though many others had tried: he led Southern Baptists to support the establishment of a theological seminary designed to serve the whole denomination. And he did what no other man could have done. He kept the seminary from dying when there was no realistic hope of its survival. His vision, his courage, and his relentless determination to preserve the seminary derived from his conviction of the truth and power of the teachings of the Bible collected and explained in this volume.

Basil Manly Jr., The Bible Doctrine of Inspiration, 1888

This volume was the fitting capstone of a critically important effort in the 1880s by the faculty of Southern Seminary to halt the advance of religious liberalism in the Southern Baptist Convention. Controversy over inspiration raged for several years, but Boyce, Broadus, and Manly led the denomination to reaffirm orthodox views of inspiration. Their success, and the arguments and testimony of this book, played a significant role in the success of a later generation of Southern Baptists, who in the 1980s similarly battled the advance of liberalism.

Edgar Y. Mullins, The Axioms of Religion, 1908

Mullins sought a new basis for establishing orthodox Christianity, and he looked to William James’ new empiricist philosophy grounded in psychology and human experience. His Axioms of Religion represents how he applied this new approach of Baptist life and thought. The book captured the thought of leading Southern Baptists and dramatically shaped Baptist identity in the 20th century.