The Evolution of Homiletic Instruction at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary From John Broadus to Charles Gardner

Abstract

This thesis describes the evolution of homiletic instruction at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary across the tenures of its first three preaching professors, John Broadus, Edwin Dargan, and Charles Gardner, and argues that there was a significant shift away from Broadus’s original conception of the course toward early twentieth-century modernism and psychology under Gardner’s leadership. Chapter 1 surveys the relevant literature related to the early School of Homiletics at SBTS and the current void in the literature. The next three chapters present the tenures of Broadus (chap. 2), Dargan (chap. 3), and Gardner (chap. 4), describing the School of Homiletics under each professor’s leadership by analyzing the school’s catalogs, each professor’s works, and the required reading for homiletics. Chapter 5 draws together elements associated with change from across the tenures of the first three professors of homiletics, with attention given to their relation to the stability or instability of Broadus’s original vision.