Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

==Academics, philosophy and faculty==
The seminary's mission statement is: "Under the Lordship of [[Jesus]] [[Christ]], the mission of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is to be totally committed to the Bible as the Word of God, to the Great Commission as our mandate, and to be a servant of the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention by training, educating, and preparing ministers of the gospel for more faithful service."<ref name = "sbts.edu" />

Southern was one of the first seminaries in the nation to offer the PhD degree, beginning in 1892.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}} During the 1970s and 1980s, it had the largest accredited PhD program in religion in the United States. It was the first seminary in the nation to offer courses in religious education, beginning in 1903. This program ultimately expanded into a School of Religious Education in 1953.

In 1907, William Owen Carver founded the Women's Missionary Union Training School, which eventually became the Carver School of Missions and Social Work.<ref>{{cite book | page = 142 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=yl8qy2l9TIAC&pg=PA142 |title=Who's Who in Christian History| format = Google books|isbn= 9780842310147 |last1= Douglas |first1= James Dixon |year= 1992 | publisher=Tyndale House Publishers }}</ref>

In 1910, Southern established the Norton Lectures, a series of lectures on "Science and Philosophy in their Relations to Religion."<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.sbts.edu/resources/category/lectures/norton/page/2/ | title= Norton Lectures |publisher= SBTS | work = Resources | access-date =April 7, 2011}}</ref> Speakers have included conservative scholars [[William A. Dembski]], [[Marvin Olasky]], [[Gregory Alan Thornbury]], and [[Alvin Plantinga]].

In 1953, Southern became one of the few seminaries to offer a full, accredited degree course in church music.

After endowing the Billy Graham Chair of Evangelism in 1965 (the first such professorship in any Baptist seminary), Southern expanded it in 1994 into the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth.<ref>{{cite web| title = Chafin To Fill Graham Chair of Evangelism |url=http://media.sbhla.org.s3.amazonaws.com/2033,27-Mar-1965.pdf | publisher = News Service of the Southern Baptist Convention |date= March 21, 1965}}</ref> It is the first program in the SBC dedicated solely to training missionaries and evangelists.

In the 1980s, Southern became the first seminary or divinity school to establish a school of church social work offering an accredited, seminary-based M.S.W. degree.

In 1993, the seminary's president [[Albert Mohler]] came into office re-affirming the seminary's historic "Abstract of Principles", part of the original charter of Southern created in 1858. The charter stated that every Professor must agree to "teach in accordance with, and not contrary to, the Abstract of Principles hereinafter laid down" and that "a departure" from the principles in the Abstract of Principles would be grounds for resignation or removal by the Trustees.<ref name="Abstract of Principles">{{cite web | publisher = Founders | url = http://www.founders.org/abstract.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/19961104214012/http://founders.org/abstract.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 1996-11-04 | title = Abstracts of Principles With Statement }}</ref>

Mohler, following these instructions, required that current professors affirm, without any spoken or unspoken reservations, the Abstract of Principles. Professors were also asked to affirm the [[Baptist Faith and Message]] (BF&M, the doctrinal statement of the SBC), since Southern is an agency of the SBC and the SBC mandated affirmation of the BF&M as a requirement for continued employment. An overwhelming majority of faculty affirmed the Abstract of Principles, but declined to affirm some of the doctrines stated in the BF&M which had recently been amended to bring it in line with more conservative positions held by the SBC.<ref name="Mohler">{{cite web|url= http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/september/42.32.html?start=3 |title = Young, Restless, Reformed | work =[[Christianity Today]]|date = September 22, 2006 |access-date = April 19, 2009}}</ref> In the wake of the subsequent dismissal or resignation of a large percentage of the faculty, Southern has replaced them with new professors who agree to adhere to the BF&M in addition to the seminary's Abstract of Principles.

In 2005, Southern revised its pastoral care and counseling major. It ended the counseling program which it had been offering since the 1950s, under [[Wayne Oates]] and his colleagues. It replaced it with the "[[Nouthetic Counseling]]" or Bible-based counseling program, championed by [[Jay E. Adams]] since the 1970s. The dean of Southern Seminary's school of theology stated that the change was necessary because a successful integration of modern [[psychology]] and [[theology]] was not possible.<ref>{{Cite journal| last=Winfrey| first=David| title = Biblical Therapy| journal= [[The Christian Century]]| volume= 124 | issue = 2 | pages=25–26| date= January 23, 2007}}</ref>