“To a Wesleyan,” Dockery said, “Southern Baptists are Calvinists because we believe in eternal security, which Wesleyans do not. But to Presbyterians, who hold to a plurality of elders and infant baptism, we are not Calvinists”

Calvinism isn’t a recent phenomenon in Southern Baptist life but instead has deep roots in its history, Union University President David S. Dockery said Saturday (Aug. 4) at a conference on the issue. “There have been Calvinists in the convention since its inception,” Dockery said at the conference sponsored by the Kentucky Baptist Convention called, “Calvinism: Concerned, Confused, or Curious.”

Dockery delivered two lectures, the first focusing on the history of Baptist theology and the second spotlighting the resurgence of Calvinism within Southern Baptist life.
This conversation is difficult, because there isn’t just one theological stream or tradition in Baptist life. There are several. There isn’t just ‘one’ leader, either,” he noted, referencing some denominations, such as Methodists (John Wesley) and Lutherans (Martin Luther), who can look back to a founder or major influencer.

Dockery located the beginning of Baptist life with the rise of English Separatism in England. As Baptist life developed in England in the 1600s, Baptists divided between “General Baptists,” with individuals like John Smyth as their leader, and “Particular Baptists.” The Particular Baptists represented a more Calvinistic understanding of salvation, while General Baptists held to, as the name suggests, a more “general” understanding of the atonement.

At the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention in May 1845, it would have been difficult to find leaders who were not Calvinistic in their theology, Dockery said. He distinguished between a Calvinistic denominational leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention and its less Calvinist laity. At that time, however, the question over Calvinism was not plaguing the newly formed denomination. Dockery drew attention to the Calvinistic leanings of the Abstract of Principles, a document written by James P. Boyce that would serve as a doctrinal weathervane for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which was founded in 1859 in Greenville, S.C., before it moved to Louisville, Ky. Boyce was president of Southern Seminary from 1859 to 1888.

“Writing theologians have influence,” Dockery explained, “and it was the denomination’s Calvinist theologians that wrote, such men as James P. Boyce and John Dagg.”

In his second address, Dockery began by asking the question, “Are Southern Baptist Calvinists?” He answered the question by comparing what “Calvinism” means according to different traditions. “To a Wesleyan,” Dockery said, “Southern Baptists are Calvinists because we believe in eternal security, which Wesleyans do not. But to Presbyterians, who hold to a plurality of elders and infant baptism, we are not Calvinists,” Dockery stated.

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