From the very beginning, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has been a confessional institution. Every professor must sign our confession of faith, the Abstract of Principles, agreeing to teach “in accordance with and not contrary to all that is contained therein.” This pledge has remained unchanged since 1859, but the history of Southern Seminary is a history with many twists and turns.

We live in a society marked by secularization. And when I use that term, I’m talking about the sort of secularism that we’ve only experienced in the wake of the Enlightenment and the advent of modernity; we live in a society where theism has lost its binding authority. I’ve lived long enough to watch it happen, and it still surprises me.