Volume 9 Issue 1

This preface is not an obituary column. Someday, we plan to create a memorial page on the SCJ website. However, two significant servant-scholars died in 2005 who deserve our respect.

Russell Boatman, 91, died on November 5, 2005. He served as dean and dean emeritus of Saint Louis Christian College (1962-1992) and president of Minnesota Bible College (1945-1962). Teaching just one class a semester at SLCC when I joined the faculty in 1988, Russell was thrilled to be invited to give one of the lectures for the Fellowship of Professors that met at SLCC in 1991. After vigorous interchange following his careful biblical study advocating an annihilationist perspective in eschatology (something for which he had been personally maligned in his earlier days), with misty eyes, he said, “I just wish I could have participated in this kind of open, scholarly discussion when I was a young man.” SCJ and SCJ Conference attempt to advance the very atmosphere for which Russell longed.

Stan Grenz, 55, died March 12, 2005, from a brain hemorrhage. A professor at Carey Theological College (Vancouver, British Columbia) and Mars Hill Graduate School (Seattle), Stan spoke at the Fellowship of Professors at SLCC in 1999 on the Christian response to postmodernity. He also was a respondent on the topic of the church for the 2000 Stone- Campbell Adherents group at Evangelical Theological Society (subsequently published in Evangelicalism & the Stone-Campbell Movement, InverVarsity, 2002). In one of the most memorable moments of those sessions, the audience simply ignored the scheduled time to end as they continued to quiz Stan on his thoughts about the church. The most influential of his twenty-five books was probably Theology for the Community of God (Broadman & Holman, 2000). However, most impactful to me was Renewing the Center: Evangelical Theology in a Post-Theological Era (Baker, 2000). Stan took a lot of heat for his positions from those who believe postmodernity should be opposed rather than embraced and received public criticism (including the question of the legitimacy of his Christian faith) by two speakers at the 2004 ETS to which he was not nor now ever will be allowed to respond. His loss at such a momentous period in evangelical thought leaves a gaping hole in the development of those like me who ten years from now will still want to ask, “I wonder what Stan would say about this.”

Last year (in 8.1) I reported some glowing statistics about the involvement of scholars from the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement at the ETS Annual Meeting. This year was even more exciting because not only did Stone-Campbell Journal # (Spring/Fall, 200x) 1–2 Editor’s Preface our involvement at ETS remain strong, our involvement at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting (both held the week before Thanksgiving in Philadelphia) was more penetrating than I have ever observed. The totals include ten papers and two presiders at ETS, twelve papers, five presiders, and one responder at SBL. The total roll call (my apologies if I missed anyone) in no particular order includes (with some participating in more than one way): Mark Weedman (Crossroads College), Rollin Ramsaran (Emmanuel School of Religion), Mark Hamilton (Abilene Christian Unviversity), Perry Stepp (Kentucky Christian University), Tom Olbricht (Pepperdine University), Tom Thatcher (Cincinnati Christian University), Charles Wanamaker (University of Cape Town), Chris Heard (Pepperdine University), Mark Matson (Milligan College), Robert Seesengood (Drew University), Craig Bowman (Rochester College), Rafael Rodriquez (University of Sheffield), Mark Sneed (Lubbock Christian University), Loren Stuckenbruck (University of Durham), William Baker (Cincinnati Christian University), Lee Fields (Roanoke Bible College), John Wineland (Kentucky Christian University), Paul Kissling (TCM Institute), Lynn McMillon (Oklahoma Christian University), Robert Smith (Roanoke Bible College), Ted Carruth (Lipscomb University), Mark Krause (Puget Sound Bible College), John Mark Hicks (Lipscomb University).

Further exciting news includes the announcement that ACU Press will publish the past five years of presentations given (2001-2005) in the Stone- Campbell Adherents group at ETS. As yet untitled, this will become a sister volume to the previously published Evangelicalism and the Stone- Campbell Movement (InterVarsity, 2002). Publication Summer, 2006, is expected for the fifteen papers and four responses that tackle: God, Christ, the Lord’s Supper, Eschatology, and the Old Testament.

The last bit of news is that Stone-Campbell International has been granted official tax status as a non-profit corporation by the U.S. government and may now receive tax-deductible contributions. Please contact or refer donors to Jeff Derico, Business and Development Manager (1-317- 862-9259).

This new volume includes stimulating articles on wide-ranging topics: Alexander Campbell, foundationalism, preaching, Hosea, the crucifixion, and Christology.

William R. Baker, Editor