Volume 7 Issue 2

It is no secret that our movement, known these days as the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, has always favored Alexander Campbell as our intellectual and theological forefather. Perhaps this is because he has left us a massive collection of archived journals, like Millennial Harbinger and the Christian Baptist, or because he participated in riveting debates that were published and can be examined for his thoughts on matters still today. Nevertheless, it is appropriate—even long overdue—that we turn our attention this year to Barton W. Stone.

On June 28, 1804, Barton Stone and five others signed the document known to us as the Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery (printed in its entirety in the front of this issue), marking out what all restoration historians consider to be the first, official, public document of the restoration movement. So we are celebrating this date as the 200th anniversary of the movement with our first "Special Issue" of SCJ: Celebrating 200 Years: From the Last "Will" to the First Encyclopedia. We also are trying on a new "look" for the occasion.

This title and the contents of this issue contain five presentations from the Third Annual SCJ Conference, held March 26–27, at Cincinnati Bible Seminary. Over 130 attendees gathered to celebrate, fellowship, and be stimulated by the presentations of our three plenary session speakers, Randall Balmer, Doug Foster, and Newell Williams, and over 20 parallel sessions. I am delighted that we are able to make these three sessions, plus two parallel session presentations (Mark Krause and Tyler Howe) available to SCJ subscribers and others who could not attend the conference or who did attend and will value having these presentations available in published form.

Other events this year have celebrated the significance of this 200th anniversary. For nearly fifteen years, Doug Foster, Newell Williams, Paul Blowers, and Tony Dunnavant, had their sights set on June 28, 2004, to release the first ever Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement. This 800-page volume published by William B. Eerdmans, with over 200 illustrations (many never before available), involving well over 300 authors from all three streams of the movement, Stone-Campbell Journal 7 (Fall, 2004) 161–163 Editor's Preface  will not be officially published until about the time this issue of SCJ is available. However, a solemn dedication ceremony of this volume occurred as part of the official 200th anniversary of the Last Will and Testament, held at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, on the grounds of the famous meeting-house, June 26-28. An especially fitting tribute was given to Tony Dunnavant, who tragically died in 2001 before the project was completed and was laid to rest in the Cane Ridge cemetery.

On July 7, 2004, Stone-Campbell Journal presented Newell Williams as a Special Guest Lecturer at the North American Christian Convention in Phoenix. In a cast from a recent tennis injury, he spoke without notes on key factors in Barton W. Stone's life that contributed to his signing the Last Will and Testament, almost identical to the printed lecture in this issue of SCJ. Two points he made during the question-and-answer period struck me as highly significant. First, he observed that the most enduring influence from Stone seen in churches of Stone-Campbell heritage today is our practice of the Lord's Supper: all believers in attendance—and not just church members—are invited to participate in the Lord's Supper each week. Second, he noted that for Stone, the unity of Christians lies in the simple NT confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. This strikes me as something we can build upon as we interact with believers of many persuasions in our various endeavors.

Looking ahead to 2005, on April 15-16 Cincinnati Bible Seminary will host the Fourth SCJ Conference with the theme: It Still Speaks: Engaging the Old Testament Today. Special Guest Lecturer Danny Carroll, Professor of OT, Denver Seminary, will lecture on the topic of The Prophets and Social Ethics, seeking to answer two questions: "Can the prophets shed light on worship wars?" and "What does being 'Left Behind' have to do with ethics?" Three other speakers will round out the main sessions: Jesse Long, Jr. (Lubbock Christian University), "Kings"; Gary Hall (Lincoln Christian Seminary), "Deuteronomy and the Psalms: The Theological Unity of Torah and Worship in the Old Testament"; and Chris Rollston (Emmanuel School of Religion and an editor for SCJ, "Scribal Education in Ancient Israel: Biblical and Epigraphic Evidence." An open invitation is extended to all subscribers and readers to attend and to offer papers for parallel sessions. Those with interest in OT studies should see this as their year and take advanSCJ 7 (Fall, 2004): 161–163 162 tage, but parallel sessions are always open to all topics. They are intended to encourage scholarship from students as well as professional academics. Topics should be sent to me no later than January 10, 2005. Check the web site and your mail for further information.

Looking back, Fred Norris, Emmanuel School of Religion, sent me a note after reading my preface to 7.1, which commented on the lives of Carl Henry and Robert Fife. He helpfully observed that Henry and Fife did likely meet when Milligan College hosted Henry as a guest lecturer in the early 1960s or at least when Henry taught a summer course at Emmanuel in the late 1970s.

Unfortunately, three more notable scholars among us have died in the past six months. Byron Lambert, Professor of Philosophy, FairleighDickenson University, died on March 16. One of the great joys in the earlier days of SCJ was the encouragement Byron gave me when I met him in 1997. His article in SCJ 1.2 (Fall, 1999) stands as tribute to his lifelong interest in C.S. Lewis. Lewis Foster, Distinguished Professor of NT, the heart and soul of NT studies at Cincinnati Bible College and Seminary for over fifty years, died on March 25. Reuben Bullard, Professor of Biblical Archaeology and Science, Cincinnati Bible Seminary, who helped energize the deep interest in archaeology among those of us in the Christian church (independent), died on July 3.

William R. Baker, Editor