I have never been to the annual meeting of The Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). This year it is being held in Baltimore from November 19-21. The theme is biblical authority. Traditionally the ETS meets a few days before the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion(AAR). I just learned this today.
Since I may need to go to Baltimore for the AAR (Baker Academic wants to shoot some promotional video for Why Study History?), I thought I would check out the ETS program to see if any papers caught my eye. A few did. And here they are:
John Wilsey, “American Pietas: Considering the Theological Problem of American Exceptionalism”
Gary Steward, “The Development of American Evangelicalism and the American Revolution: Insights from Reformed Political Thought”
Peter Enns, “Abandoning Inerrancy is Necessary for Evangelical Integrity”
Kevin Vanhoozer, “Augustinian Inerrancy: A Well-Versed Account”
John Woodbridge “The Biblical Inerrancy Historiography: A House of Cards Ready to Tumble”
Todd Mangum, “The Co-Development of Inerrancy and Dispensational Premillennialism in Early Fundamentalism”
Miles Mullin II, “When Inerrancy Failed: Twentieth-Century Evangelicals and Race in America”
Nathan Finn, “John R. Rice, Bob Jones Jr, and the ‘Mechanical Dictation’ Controversy: Finalizing the Fracturing of Independent Fundamentalism”
Gregory A. Wills, “Southern Baptists, Southern Seminary, and the Battle over Inerrancy”
Richard Pierard, “Problems Besetting the Evangelical Left: Why the ‘Moral Minority’ Could Not Become a Majority: Observations of a Participant Observer.”
Chris Gehrz, “The Global Reflex: An International Historian Appraises David Swartz’s Moral Minority.”
Douglas Sweeney, “Jonathan Edwards on the Character of Scritpture (and Its Readers).
A couple of observations after reading this program:
1. I did not realize that the whole debate over biblical inerrancy that raged within evangelicalism in the 1970s and 1980s has not disappeared, although it looks like a lot of evangelical church historians have chosen to examine this debate as a historical phenomenon rather than as a theological issue.
2. I was really struck by just how white and male the ETS is.
I'm surprised that Pete Enns is even allowed to speak at ETS, and wasn't booted out. I wish I could go.
Hope to see you there, John.
Wish I could be there, Miles. Too early in the week for me to justify. I may be at the AAR on Saturday to do some stuff with Baker. I hope the paper goes well.
I don't know much about Enns or his scholarship, largely because I am not a biblical scholar and usually don't follow these debates too closely. I did meet him last year while he was adjuncting at Messiah College.