Volume 5 Issue 1

In June, 2002, InterVarsity Press will publish Evangelicalism & the Stone- Campbell Movement. This is an event that gives me immense personal satisfaction but also has significance for all of us who are involved in the Stone- Campbell Restoration Movement. As editor of SCJ and as editor of this new volume, I have watched both take shape in tandem over the last six years.

SCJ’s first publication appeared Spring, 1998, but we began getting organized a couple of years earlier as a joint effort of scholars in Christian Churches (independent) and Churches of Christ (a cappella). The articles in this new IVP book begin in the same time period and also from Christian Church and Churches of Christ scholars. It represents five years of presentations made at the Stone-Campbell Adherents Study Group, which first met at the 1996 Evangelical Theological Society Annual Meeting in Jackson, MS. Paul Pollard, Harding University, an editor of SCJ, and I were co-conveners of these sessions for the first few years until we expanded to a board which now includes Ed Myers, Harding University, and Bob Kurka, Lincoln Christian College.

Evangelicalism & the Stone-Campbell Movement contains fourteen articles, covering the early and current historical relationship with evangelicalism, issues of difference surrounding conversion theology, and perspectives on the church. Ed Myers (Harding University) and I analyze the historical situations from the vantage point of Churches of Christ and Christian Churches respectively. Jack Cottrell (Cincinnati Bible Seminary) and John Mark Hicks (Lipscomb University) deal with the role of faith in conversion. Tom Alexander (Harding University), Bob Kurka (Lincoln Christian College), and an evangelical responder, Craig Blomberg (Denver Seminary), tackle the role of the Holy Spirit in conversion. Jim Baird (Oklahoma Christian University), Jon Weatherly (Cincinnati Bible College and Seminary), and evangelical responder H. Wayne House develop the role of baptism in conversion. Finally, Everett Ferguson (Abilene Christian University), Bob Lowery (Lincoln Christian Seminary), Gary Holloway (Lipscomb University), and evangelical responder Stan Grenz (Carey Theological College and Regent College) reflect on models of the church.

I encourage you to check out the ad later in this issue and look for this book in your local or college bookstore or order from IVP online (ivpress.com). This book is unique in its careful analysis on issues of importance to those in the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. It could fill a niche as a supplementary text in Restoration History and Restoration Theology courses.

I am also excited about the articles in this issue of SCJ. Robert Hull, respected NT Professor, Emmanuel School of Religion, leads off with an article that challenges readers to take seriously the human ingredient embedded in the Bible as we have it today. Gary Hall, Professor of OT, Lincoln Christian Seminary, provides a much-needed critique from an authority on the OT of the at times perplexing treatment of the OT by Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement leaders of the 19th century. Ralph Hawkins, Calhoun Community College, presents a moderate proposal for viewing those who practice infant baptism, a vexing issue in the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement since the days of Campbell. Ron Highfield, Professor of Religion, Pepperdine University, critiques the argumentation of a growing, evangelical perspective on God, called open theism. SCJ has reviewed key books published in this area, including Greg Boyd, God of the Possible (4.1), John Cobb and Clark Pinnock, Searching for an Adequate God (4.1), John Sanders, The God Who Risks (2.2), Greg Boyd, God at War (2.1). Jon Weatherly, an SCJ editor and Professor of NT, Cincinnati Bible College and Seminary, follows up with an in-depth look at the Jewish background of baptism and offers an intriguing framework for interpreting baptism in Acts.

Gary Hall’s article will be featured at a special SCJ-sponsored event at the North American Christian Convention in Columbus, OH. On Wednesday afternoon, June 26, 3:15-4:30, Gary, along with Paul Kissling (Great Lakes Christian College), will present “The Old Testament in the Stone-Campbell Movement: A Questionable Past but a Promising Future.” If you are coming to NACC, be sure to attend.

Some of you may have noticed renewal and subscription information in the past year coming from Pam Ralls. If you receive a phone call from her, it means you have not returned either the renewal letter sent directly to you or the one in your last issue. Please give her the opportunity to renew you over the phone, so you don’t miss the next issue. Subscriptions are nearing 600, but we want to keep you all as loyal subscribers.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that as of January 1, 2002, I have joined the faculty of Cincinnati Bible Seminary as Professor of New Testament. I remain living in St. Louis for a while. Until further notice, correspondence should be sent to 15668 94th Avenue, Florissant, MO, 63034. I will be gradually shifting my e-mail over from bakerslcc@aol.com to scjeditor@aol.com. Phone contact should be at 314-837-5061.

William R. Baker, Editor