Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky : 1859-)

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Baptist seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, where it was at first housed on the campus of Furman University. The seminary has been an innovator in theological education, establishing one of the first Ph.D. programs in religion in the year 1892. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to a newly built campus in downtown Louisville and moved to its current location in 1926 in the Crescent Hill neighborhood. In 1953, Southern became one of the few seminaries to offer a full, accredited degree course in church music. For more than fifty years Southern has been one of the world's largest theological seminaries, with an FTE (full-time equivalent) enrollment of over 3,300 students in 2015.

SBTS was founded by James Petigru Boyce (who served as its first president), John A. Broadhus, Basil Manly, Jr., and William Williams. Basil Manly, Sr. (a long-time advocate for a southern seminary to train ministers) was a founding chairman of the board of trustees of the SBTS. When it opened in 1859, 26 students were enrolled. The seminary offered eight areas of study: Biblical Introduction, Interpretation of the Old and New Testaments, Systematic Theology, Polemic Theology, Homiletics, Church History, and Church Government. In later years, the seminary added a class focused on study of the English Bible, the first of its kind in an American seminary. Two years after the school opened it was forced to close because of the U.S. Civil War. It reopened in Louisville, KY in 1877 with 89 students.

The faculty carried out constant fundraising efforts in the 1880s and traveled extensively to solicit donations. Notable successes included fifty thousand dollars from U.S. Senator Joseph E. Brown of Georgia and twenty five thousand dollars from prominent Baptist oilman J. D. Rockefeller. On the strength of these gifts, the seminary constructed its first major building, New York Hall, in 1888 in downtown Louisville. The building housed 200 people and had room for classes, dining, and personal study.

In 1889, John A. Broadus became the seminary's second President. Attendance and enrollment continued to grow and the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) began to be offered as graduate degrees starting in the early 1890s. Under Broadus, the seminary drew a talented group of professors that constituted the second generation of Southern faculty. The group included A. T. Robertson, professor of New Testament and Greek; E. C Dargan, professor of Homiletics and Latin Theology; W. J. McGlothlin, assistant professor of Old Testament Interpretation; H. H. Harris, professor of Biblical Introduction and Polemic Theology, W. O. Carver, professor of comparative religion and missions; John Sampey, professor of Old Testament Interpretation; and F. H. Kerfoot, professor in systematic theology.

In 1890, the seminary named James L. Sampey, father of professor John R. Sampey, the seminary’s first salaried librarian. Sampey administered a collection of fifteen thousand volumes, a large portion of which came from the estate of James P. Boyce, who gave five thousand books and pamphlets to the Seminary upon his death. Fellow founder Basil Manly, Jr. also gave a personal library of thirty-five hundred books to the seminary. Dr. Sampey tended the collection in the seminary’s first library, Memorial Library, following its construction in 1891.

In 1895, William Whitsitt was elected third President of SBTS. After a difficult tenure along with controversy dealing with Landmarkism amongst Baptists during that period, Whitsitt resigned and was succeeded by E.Y. Mullins. Under Mullins, the seminary reached an endowment of an estimated 1.8 million dollars. Women began to be admitted to classes during the early 1900s but could not register as official students. SBTS provided women's education through the Woman's Missionary Union Training School (later becoming the Carver School of Church Social Work). During Mullins tenure, several new faculty were added: Gaines S. Dobbins, professor of Church Efficiency and Sunday School Pedagogy; W. O. Carver and C. S. Gardner, professors of Sociology.

Old Testament Professor John R. Sampey was elected president in 1929 and led SBTS through the Great Depression, refinancing the seminary's debt through Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of New York. Sampey enlisted faculty to aid with seminary administration, rather than operate as a chief executive. Sampey resigned in 1941.

Sampey was succeeded by Ellis A. Fuller, an alumnus of SBTS, as its president. Fuller's tenure included a series of building projects, including the Alumni chapel, and the rapid growth of faculty from 11 full-time positions to 15 in the School of Theology alone. New faculty included Dale Moody, professor of New Testament Interpretation and Wayne Oates, professor of Pastoral Theology. Faculty members J. B. Whitherspoon and E. A. McDowell advocated for SBTS to revise its racial policy excluding African-American enrollment and in 1944, SBTS broke Kentucky state law awarding Garland K. Offutt his Th.M. degree. President Fuller died of a heart attack while preaching in California in 1950.

In 1951, Duke McCall was elected president and under his leadership the School of Religious Education was established to prepare students for education and secretarial work. He reorganized the academic program into three schools: School of Religious Education, School of Theology, and the School of Music. McCall oversaw the formation of a school for wives in the late 1950s and the construction of the James P. Boyce Memorial Librarian. Leo Crimson served as the first librarian in the new building. A chair in evangelism was dedicated to the American evangelist Billy Graham in 1966. SBTS began offering the Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) program in 1970. Enrollment under McCall reached an estimated 1,500 students. Boyce College (known as Boyce Bible College at the time) was established as an adult education program in 1974. McCall retired in 1981.

Roy Honeycutt succeeded McCall as the 8th President of Southern in 1982. During his tenure, the seminary opened the Carver School of Church Social Work directed by Anne Davis (the first female departmental dean at SBTS) and reached an all-time peak in enrollment of students in 1986. Honeycutt also oversaw the leadership of the seminary during a tumultuous time within the Southern Baptist Convention, now known as the Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence. After the election of Adrian Rogers as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention, the school began to slowly return to its traditional theological positions such as the inerrancy of Scripture. Honeycutt retired in 1992.

The seminary Board of Trustee's then elected R. Albert Mohler as the 9th President of SBTS in 1993. Under Mohler's leadership, every member of the faculty was required to sign the confession of the seminary known as the "Abstract of Principles" and the "Baptist Faith and Message". They were also required to believe that the Bible is without any error. Boyce Bible College, then an adult education program, was reorganized and established as an undergraduate college.