J
OHN HENRY NEWMAN is credited with saying that no great movement was ever begun or carried forward by a commit- tee or a system. To substantiate his assertion the brilliant Oxford graduate and later cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church"pointed with strange audacity to Luther and the Reformation as an example."
Newman's observation applies to James P. Boyce, of whom Professor W. W. Barnes has fittingly said:
It is he who will ever remain in Baptist history as the founder of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Others prepared the way, and great men labored with him, but his was the leadership that called the institution into being and gave it permanence. Under a sense of divine call, he held on through war, reconstruction, indifference, and even opposition from the brethren. When he was ordained, a mem- ber of the presbytery asked him if he proposed to give his life to preaching. He replied: "Yes, provided I do not become a professor of theology." That sense of vocation continued to abide with him to the end, culminating in victory.l
James P. Boyce was born January 11, 1827, at Charleston, South Carolina. He was the son of a wealthy cotton broker and banker, Ker Boyce. On both his father's and mother's sides Boyce came from sturdy Scotch-Irish stock. His ancestors had all been Presbyterians, and the first member of the clan, John Boyce, had landed in America in 1765. This John Boyce, about whom hair- raising escapades are reported, took an active part in the Ameri- can Revolution. His son, Ker Boyce, born in 1787, in spite of a limited education and many adversities, climbed the ladder of
1 Barnes, op. cit., p. 129.
•
JAMES P. BOYCE, FOUNDER
success until he became the wealthiest man in South Carolina.
James P. Boyce was the first son born to his father's second wife, the former Amanda Jane Caroline Johnston. She was a deli- cate woman, attractive and full of charm. Under the preaching of Dr. Basil Manly, Sr., she was won to Baptist views in 1830, and she joined the First Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina, by baptism.
The childhood and youth of Jimmy Boyce, as he was called, were set in the most favorable circumstances. He received the finest education that Charleston could provide. At first he at- tended Professor Bailey's school, then the city high school.
Young Boyce was an omnivorous reader. At times he even neglected the prescribed studies in favor of his passion for read- ing. When, still in his teens, he refused to return to school, his resolute father made him go to work in a wholesale dry goods store in which he had a controlling interest. Each morning Jimmy had to get up at six o'clock and work as hard as the rest. After six months of this wholesome corrective, young Boyce was cured and gladly went back to school. When he graduated from Charleston High School, he received a silver medal for original work in algebra. Then followed two years of study at Charleston College, where Dr. W. T. Brantley, a Baptist preacher, was presi- dent. Boyce, who was full of pranks and mischief, was spotted one day by Dr. Brantley, who exclaimed, "There is Boyce, who will be a great man, if he does not become a devil." 2
As a youth Boyce was not given much to sports except arch- ery. But he seemed to excel at the waltz in dancing school, as John A. Broadus, his later colleague, has whimsically pointed out.
Possibly his barrel-shaped figure inclined him to avoid the more exacting sports and explains his wide and often excessive reading in literature and history.
In 1845, at the age of eighteen, Boyce entered Brown Univer- sity at Providence, Rhode Island. Here he studied under several rather excellent teachers, among them Alexis Caswell, in mathe-
2 Broadus, op. cit., p. 28.
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A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
matics; John L. Lincoln, the Latinist; and James R. Boise, profes- sor of Greek language and literature. One of his classmates was George Park Fisher, who in 1854 became the first church history professor at Yale Divinity School-"a mellowed Puri- tan," as Roland H. Bainton has called him. Francis Wayland, Jr., son of the president of Brown, later distinguished himself as professor of law at Yale University. James Burrell Angell was for many years the head of the University of Michigan, while Benjamin Thomas became "the apostle to the Karens" in far-off Burma.
Boyce had gone to Brown without being a committed Chris- tian. During the spring recess of 1846 he was converted under Richard Fuller's preaching in his home church. On April 22, 1846, he was baptized by the visiting preacher into the fellowship of the First Baptist Church of Charleston.
During his junior year Boyce concentrated on physics, chem- istry, physiology, Greek and Latin poetry, French, logic, and history. The senior year was taken up with astronomy, geology, political science, intellectual and moral philosophy, Plato, the American Constitution, and Christian evidences.
At the Brown commencement in 1847 Boyce stood seventh in a class of thirty-five graduates. Just a few months before his graduation Boyce had announced to his parents his intention of becoming a gospel minister. This was quite a disappointment to his father, who had dreamed of his gifted son's becoming a law- yer, statesman, or manager of his large business interests. Ker Boyce was never a member of any church, although, strangely, he was for many years chairman of the board of trustees of the Charleston Baptist church to which his wife belonged. Even- tually, however, like Martin Luther's father before him, he was reconciled to his son's desire to become a servant of God.
Brown University, its scholarship and spiritual atmosphere, and particularly President Francis Wayland, proved to be a decisive influence in the life of James P. Boyce. Wayland had come to the presidency of Brown in 1827 when things were at a low ebb, but conditions began to change for the better under his leadership.
z
JAMES P. BOYCE, FOUNDER
Theologically a staunch conservative, Wayland was a preacher of merit, a fine teacher, and an administrator with original ideas.
He had no use for lazy students or sleepy professors. His explor- ing, probing mind encouraged those whom he taught to think matters through to their very roots. His forte as a teacher lay in his careful analysis of facts and movements.3
Three things Boyce carried from his studies at Brown Uni- versity into his work as a theological teacher: first, Wayland's method of analytical recitations in the classroom; second, the idea of the elective system of study; and third, certain views of theological education which Boyce developed in his inaugural ad- dress in July, 1856, as professor of theology at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.
In November, 1847, Boyce had been licensed to preach by his home church, and about a year later, on December 20, 1848, he married a charming young lady with whom he had fallen head- long in love at the wedding of a friend. Although she had at first repulsed him, his usual determination finally won her heart and hand. Boyce's wife was the daughter of Dr. Fielding Ficlden of Washington, Georgia. The good doctor, in addition to his medical practice, was also a successful planter and therefore in good fi- nancial circumstances. His daughter Lizzie had received a fine education in a private school in Washington. In this same city Jesse Mercer, first pastor of the local Baptist church, founded in 1833 The Christian Index, which is still the Baptist journal of Georgia Baptists.
Shortly before his marriage Boyce became editor of The Southern Baptist. Though only twenty-one at the time, he served in this capacity with considerable success. In the issue of March 28, 1849, there appeared "a leader of unusual length favoring the e.stablishment of a 'Central Theological Institution' for all Bap- tISts of the South." 4 This was a significant omen of Boyce's fu- ture career as Seminary teacher and administrator.
P 3 Austen Kennedy de Blois, Fighters for Freedom (Philadelphia: Judson re4ss, 1929), pp. 412-13.
Broadus, op. cit., pp. 61-62.
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A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
The youthful editor had to engage at times in serious rebuttal of personal attacks made on him because of certain positions he had taken. But he came out of these ordeals unscathed and unem- bittered.
In the spring of 1848 James P. Boyce and his friend H. A. Tup- per went to New York state to enrol at Madison University (now Colgate). But they learned to their dismay that three months of Hebrew had to be made up in about three weeks in order to qualify for entrance into the theological course. Boyce had to desist from his plan to enter, since his arduous studies at Brown had injured his eyes. He was at first at a loss as to what he should do next. Must he give up the ministry he so ardently coveted to pursue?
An ocean journey from New York to Charleston brought release to his eyes and restored him to full health. For a short time he acted as agent of the Southern Baptist Publication Soci- ety, whose secretary was the able Dr. A. M. Poindexter.5
Finally, in September, 1849, Boyce entered Princeton Theo- logical Seminary, where he remained until 1851. Here he was deeply impressed by the scholarship, the full-orbed system, and the stern orthodoxy of Charles Hodge, then at the peak of his powers. Here, as at Brown, Boyce found congenial fellow stu- dents, most of them Presbyterians, who in later life made their mark in God's kingdom. Among the Southern Baptist students were men like Alfred Bagby; Andrew Fuller Davidson; James K. Mendenhall, Boyce's intimate friend; and Joseph W. Warder from Kentucky, who from 1875 to 1880 served as pastor of the Walnut Street Baptist Church of Louisville and then as state sec- retary of Kentucky Baptists.6
While a student at Princeton Seminary, Boyce worked accord- ing to a carefully laid out plan, since he had decided to finish the three years' course within two years' time. He left Princeton in May, 1851, before commencement and hence without receiving his diploma.
5 I bid., pp. 57-58, 62.
6 Ibid., pp. 67 ff.
JAMES P. BOYCE, FOUNDER
Boyce had thought of going to Germany for further study at Halle University if no sphere of service opened to him. In October of that year, however, a small Baptist congregation at Columbia, South Carolina, called him as its pastor.7 Here in a city of only seven thousand people the young minister had a most happy pastorate. Diligently he visited his flock in their homes;
carefully he prepared his sermons; and he also found time to continue his studies in theology. In the spring of 1852 Boyce was granted a three months' leave to raise funds for a new church edifice. During a vacation he went north to attend the annual class reunion of Brown University. At this time he secured the M.A. degree as the reward of his previous studies.
In 1854 Ker Boyce died, and James P. Boyce temporarily gave up his church duties in order to manage his father's large estates and business interests. He was then twenty-seven years of age. In the fall of that year Boyce became moderator of the Charleston Baptist Association, the second oldest in the United States. Mean- while, Furman University tried to secure his services as professor of theology. Boyce, therefore, resigned from his church and ac- cepted the Furman offer. His career as a theological teacher of which he had spoken at his ordination had begun.
Boyce, however, had served at Furman for only two years, 1855-57, when he became more deeply involved in the final stages of the founding of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. But before he relinquished his position at Furman University, in July, 1856, he delivered his famous inaugural address on "Three Changes in TheologicaIEducation." John A.
Broadus in his Memoir of James Petigru Boyce devoted more than thirty pages to this address, which he called "epoch-making in the history of theological education among Southern Bap- tists." 8
When Dr. John R. Sampey was inducted into his office as the fifth president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the fall of 1929, he made the startling assertion that "before 1859 not
7 I bid., pp. 84.ff.
8 Ibid., p. 142.
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A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
one of the twelve Apostles could have secured admittance as a regular student in any of the standard theological seminaries of our country." 9
Briefly stated, in his inaugural address Professor Boyce pro- posed three significant changes in Baptist theological schools:
(1) not only college graduates but men with less general educa- tion, even a common English education, should be offered such opportunities of theological study as they were prepared for and desired; (2) special courses should be provided so that the ablest and most aspiring students might be prepared for service as instructors and original authors; (3) there should be prepared an abstract of principles, or careful statement of theological belief, which every professor in such an institution must sign when in- ducted into office so as to guard against erroneous and injurious instruction.10
It is clear that Boyce was greatly influenced in his thinking, particularly on this first point, by the thinking of his former teacher, President Francis Wayland of Brown University. Per- haps the fullest expression of Wayland's views on ministerial education are contained in a disturbing message on "The Apos- tolic Ministry" which he delivered at Rochester, New York, in 1853, three years before Boyce's inaugural. A comparison of President Wayland's views with those Boyce expressed in his Furman inaugural shows at once how deeply the founder of Southern Seminary was influenced by his great teacher.
Since these suggested changes were incorporated in the basic articles of Southern Baptist Seminary, it is important that they be discussed in some detail at this point. Boyce, anticipating objec- tions to his proposed changes, dealt with these objections in the spirit of fair play and critical acumen.
The first objection, of course, had to do with Boyce's proposal to admit both college and noncollege men to the seminary.
Would this not contribute to lowering the standards of theologi-
9 John R. Sampey, "The Future of the Seminary in the Light of Its Past,"
Review and Expositor, XXVI (October, 1929), 376.
10 Broadus, op. cit., pp. 119-21. Cf. Barnes, op. cit., pp. 130-31.
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JAMES P. BOYCE, FOUNDER
cal education? Boyce believed it would not. Baptists, he argued, are and have been friends of education. They believe in an edu- cated ministry.
I would see the means of theological education increased. I would have the facilities for pursuing its studies opened to all who would embrace them; I would lead the strong men of our ministry to feel that no position is equal in responsibility or usefulness to that of one devoted to this cause; and I would spread among our churches such an earnest desire for educated ministers as would make them willing so to increase the support of the ministry as to enable all of those who are now forced, from want of means, to enter without the full- est preparation upon the active duties of the work, so far to antici- pate the support they will receive as to feel free to borrow the means by which their education may be completed.l1
One reason that Boyce desired wider opportunities for theolog- ical education was his conviction that the existing Baptist semi- naries-Madison University, Newton Theological Institution, and Rochester Theological Seminary- did not train a sufficient number of ministers to man the churches at home and abroad.
With an unending stream of people pouring into the Middle and Far West, with immigrants from Europe flocking in large num- bers to the United States, with doors opening in Africa and Asia, the sophistry of objection to the proposed scheme simply would not do. With "hydra-headed error" stalking through the land, in- creasing numbers of ministers needed to be trained to cope with the spirit of the age and herald the gospel everywhere . .
Of course Boyce realized that it is God's providence that ever must call forth laborers into the vineyard. But the churches need to be spiritually quickened by God's Spirit if new volunteers for the ministry are to be recruited and sent out to preach. But, asked Boyce in this address, "Have we not disregarded the laws which the providence and word of God have laid down for us? And does he not now chastise us by suffering our schemes to work out
~eir natural results, that we, being left to ourselves, may see
11 James P. Boyce, "An Inaugural Address" (Greenville, S. C.: C. J. Elford,
1956), p. 6.
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A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
our folly, and return to him and to his ways, as the only means of strength?" 12
Wayland, Boyce's teacher, believed in and defended a variety of ministries as well as means to utilize all the gifts that the Lord has promised to his people for the proclamation of the gospel among men. Boyce, like Wayland, considered it a mistaken idea that the work of the ministry should be intrusted only to those who have been classically educated,-an assumption which, singularly enough, is made for no other profession. It is in vain to say that such is not the theory or the practice of our denomination. It is the theory and the practice of by far the larger portion of those who have controlled our institutions, and have succeeded in engrafting this idea upon them, contrary to the spirit which prevails among the churches. They have done this, without doubt, in the exercise of their best judgment, but have failed because they neglected the bet- ter plan pointed out by the providence and Word of God.13
Both Boyce and Wayland deplored the fact that the rigid standards of theological education diminished rather than in- creased the supply of preachers, pastors, evangelists, and mis- sionaries needed in the churches at home and abroad. Boyce moreover recognized that the scriptural qualifications for the ministry do indeed require knowledge but that knowledge "is not of the sciences, nor of philosophy, nor of the languages, but of God and of His plan of salvation. He who has not this knowledge, though he be learned in all the learning of the schools, is incapable of preaching the Word of God."
Is it not true, asked Boyce, "that the mass of vineyard laborers have been from the ranks of fishermen and tax gathers, cobblers and tinkers, weavers and ploughmen, to whom God has not disdained to impart gifts, and whom He has qualified as His ambassadors by the presence of that Spirit by which, and not by might, wisdom or power, is the work of the Lord accom- plished." 14
12lbid., p. 11.
13lbid., pp. 13-14.
14lbid., p. 15.
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