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New associate deans,
theology conference announced
School of Theology
By Jeff Robinson
Southern Seminary’s School of Theology has
two new associate deans and will soon host
an annual theology conference.
Russell D. Moore, Dean of the School
of Theology and Senior Vice President for
Academic Administration, announced the
appointments of Donald Whitney as senior
associate dean and Gregory A. Wills as associate
dean for the division of theology and tradition.
Moore also announced a forthcoming
Southern Seminary Conference of Theology,
to be led by Professor Bruce Ware.
The theology
conference will begin
after Ware’s tenure
as president of the
Evangelical Theological
Society and will be
held on the Southern
Seminary campus.
Ware, who formerly
served as senior associate
dean, will now
serve as director of
the conference,
launching a biannual
conference
designed to engage
contemporary issues
from the standpoint nt
of confessional
conviction.
Moore said Ware
is a natural choice to
lead the conference
because of
his scholarly
engagement
of numerous
issues within the evangelical lworld. Ware has
opposed open theism in books such as God’s
Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open ism and God’s Greater Glory: The Exalted God
The-
of Scripture and the Christian Faith and has
defended the historical doctrine of the Trinity
in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships,
Roles and Relevance.
“Bruce Ware is the Athanasius of contemporary
evangelicalism, confronting error, be it
open theism or evangelical feminism, with the
glorious truth of Scripture,” Moore said.
“Professor Ware is the natural choice to lead
the Southern Seminary Conference on Theology.
He is respected all around as one of the
most significant thinkers in American Protestantism
today. He understands the issues. And
he has the courage and conviction to speak to
issues others may find controversial or uncomfortable.
I look forward to working with Professor
Ware on leading a conference that doesn’t
just address ideas, but changes lives.”
Donald Whitney, who serves as professor
of biblical spirituality
and director of applied
ministry, has been promoted
to senior associate
dean of the school
of theology. Whitney
is the author of several
books, including Spiritual
Disciplines for the
Christian Life and Ten
Questions to Diagnose
Your Spiritual Health.
“The School of
Theology is not about
programs
or initiatives; it is
about being part of a cosmic
war plan
against the Serpent
of Eden,” Moore said. “It is
about
sending out pastors of
churches that are countercultural
outposts of the
Kingdom of Christ.
“With that the case,
nothing is more important
than discipleship and spirituality. Don
Whitney is the right man to serve with me as
we lead this School toward the sending out of
thousands of pastors and preachers into the
mission fields of North America and around
the world.
“He is a seasoned pastor, a respected
scholar, and the preeminent scholar among
Baptists and evangelicals
on issues
of spirituality and
discipleship. Years
before I knew him,
the Lord used Don’s
Spiritual Disciplines
for the Christian
Life to transform my
own walk with Jesus.
It is a joy to labor
with him every day
in a task in which
churches, souls, and
lives are at stake.”
Gregory A. Wills,
who serves as professor r
of church history and
director of the Center
for the Study of the
Southern Baptist
Convention, has
been promoted to
associate dean for theology
and tradition in the School of Theology.
He is the author of Democratic Religion:
Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline
in the Baptist South 1785-1900 and is currently
writing a history of Southern Seminary.
“Greg Wills, perhaps better than any
scholar alive, understands why the point of
a theological education is healthy churches,”
Moore said. “Professor Wills possesses a keen
mind and a pastoral heart and will serve with
distinction.”
The Southern Seminary community marked
the beginning of another academic year with
the Fall Kickoff Festival. Photos by John Gill
page 28
Fall 2007 | Southern Seminary Magazine