| June 11, 2001 |
Contact: Lance
Wallace |
Macon, Ga. Ð Mercer University is launching the Center for Baptist Studies Ð a new initiative designed to foster better understanding of Baptist identity, promote scholarly study of Baptist history and provide a resource for interpreting contemporary Baptist issues. The Center will be led by Executive Director Walter "Buddy" Shurden, Th.D., the Callaway Professor of Christianity at Mercer, and will be housed in Mercer's Christianity Department.
"Mercer has had a long and deliberate relationship with Baptists from around the world since 1833," said Shurden, who is relinquishing the chair of Mercer's Christianity Department after 18 years but will continue to teach in the department. "In a very real sense, the Center represents President (Kirby) Godsey's vision of communicating the history of Baptists in the broadest tradition." The author of such notable works as "The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms" and "Not a Silent People: Controversies That Have Shaped Southern Baptists," Shurden is a leading Baptist historian and scholar.
"I can think of no one better suited or more qualified to lead such an effort than Walter Shurden," President Godsey said. "He is a Baptist scholar in the truest sense, having pastored Baptist churches, studied Baptist history, written on Baptist issues and taught in Baptist seminaries and colleges for more than 35 years."
Shurden, who earned his bachelor's degree from Mississippi College and his master of divinity and doctor of theology degrees from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, has pastored four churches and served as an interim pastor for more than 20 others. Prior to coming to Mercer, Shurden was dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he served as a professor of church history. He has taught at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; and Carson-Newman College where he was chair of Southern Baptist Studies.
"The Center will exist to sponsor and encourage the scholarly study of Baptists, especially in North America, through instruction, research, publication and collection of historical pieces," Shurden said. "The Center will seek to strengthen the Baptist people's understanding of their very important place in the broader Christian church. It will also make an effort to interpret contemporary issues in Baptist life."
Shurden said he envisioned the Center hosting conferences utilizing Mercer's Macon and Atlanta facilities on a variety of topics including an annual gathering of Baptist scholars to study some dimension of Baptist life, identifying and rewarding with scholarships young Baptist scholars, sponsoring all-expenses-paid sabbatical study programs for Baptist ministers and serving as a resource to local churches for Baptist history curriculum to teach in church training-type programs.
"In all of this, I'm hoping to get people to see that we as Baptists are not a denomination unto ourselves but that we belong to and are deeply indebted to the universal Christian tradition," Shurden said. "We come out of that tradition and have benefited from that tradition. We also enrich that tradition. Baptists need to rediscover their connection with the Christian church." Richard F. Wilson, Ph.D., the Columbus Roberts Professor of Christianity and Dean of the Chapel at Mercer University, has been named the new chairman of the Christianity Department.
Wilson, who earned his bachelor's degree from Mississippi College and his master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has been on the Mercer faculty since 1988. Prior to joining the Department of Christianity in Mercer's College of Liberal Arts, Wilson was assistant professor and assistant dean of academic affairs at Gardner-Webb College in Boiling Springs, N.C.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Wilson is widely published and served as general editor of "The Mercer Commentary on the Bible" and as an assistant editor of "The Mercer Dictionary of the Bible." He is executive secretary-treasurer of The National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion since 1993.
A frequent preacher and teacher in Baptist churches, Wilson is actively involved in the Baptist World Alliance as a member of the Theological Education Work Group and as a member of the Ethics Commission.
Founded in 1833 in Penfield, Ga., Mercer is the only independent university of its size in the country to offer programs in liberal arts, business, engineering, education, medicine, pharmacy, law, theology and nursing. With more than 7,400 students and 600 faculty members on campuses in Macon and Atlanta, Mercer is one of the largest Baptist-affiliated institutions in the world. Led by President R. Kirby Godsey, Mercer has been ranked among the leading colleges and universities in the South by U.S. News and World Report for 11 consecutive years.
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