EDITOR'S NOTE: Recently, Midwestern Seminary & Spurgeon College hosted a chapel panel discussion on the topic, “Why We are Southern Baptist.” This article by Jason Duesing expands upon his comments during the chapel session and is based on his course lectures and essays written over the last two decades. Watch the full panel here. Why am I a Southern Baptist? This is one question I ask students taking the required Baptist history class I teach. I ask it because every generation of … [Read more...]
Christians, art, rediscovering John the Baptist
KANSAS CITY – One of the more memorable experiences I have had in an art museum occurred seven years ago. My doctoral supervisor, and then colleague, invited me and one of his soon-to-graduate PhD students[1] to the Kimbell Art Museum to view Caravaggio’s “Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness” (1604). As a part of a study abroad program, the three of us had toured museums in England where our mentor had shown us the merits and benefits of how to enjoy art, and the relationship of … [Read more...]
The hope of Martin Luther King Jr.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BP) – The apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy is believed to be his last. While personalized to Timothy and his work in Ephesus, clearly the teaching of the letter was intended for more readers. At the time of his writing, Paul was in prison likely facing execution, and because of this, as Calvin notes, “all that we read here ... ought to be viewed by us as written not with ink but with Paul’s own blood” for what he was suffering and sacrificing. Timothy was losing … [Read more...]