Beyond the Term Paper

Inspired to attend Trinity because of John Woodbridge (MDiv ’71), I had no idea I would co-author a book with the historian.

By Collin Hansen (MDiv ’10)

I met John Woodbridge as a prospective student trying to figure out whether I should leave my job as associate editor for Christianity Today (CT) magazine and enroll full-time at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. We shared a connection through CT, which he once served as senior editor. But we didn’t know each other until Timothy George, himself a member of CT’s editorial council, recommended I sit down and speak with Woodbridge. As the long-tenured research professor of church history and the history of Christian thought at TEDS, Woodbridge personally knows just about everyone in the evangelical world. You won’t convince me otherwise. I’ve seen him in action.

George told me Woodbridge would offer wise counsel as I considered this decision. But I had no idea what to really expect. I wandered into his office, where the door is often open to prospective students, students, and former students, known and unknown. Three hours later, I had a strong sense that pursuing studies at TEDS would be a good decision. You read that right: Woodbridge, who has taught at Trinity since 1970, spent three hours with me, a prospective student he didn’t know. We talked about life, work, and hobbies. We swapped stories about Northwestern University, where he had once taught and I earned my undergraduate degree. I chose to enroll at TEDS in no small part because I wanted to study with distinguished, caring faculty such as Woodbridge.

But Woodbridge didn’t sell me on TEDS by selling himself. Rather, he spoke in glowing terms about his faculty colleagues, especially in the church history department. He advised me to take classes with Douglas Sweeney (MA ’89), a renowned expert on Jonathan Edwards and his theological successors. Woodbridge encouraged me to get to know Scott Manetsch, who chairs the department and teaches a highly regarded class on John Calvin’s theology. Entering TEDS with a love for history, I was especially excited to study with these three professors, and they did not disappoint.

Little did I know, however, that my education in church his- tory would extend beyond the classroom. Indeed, Woodbridge invited me to co-author a book with him about the historical importance and contemporary relevance of revivals. Lest I regard myself as the exception, both Sweeney and Manetsch have worked with students to write books, too. The humility displayed by these scholars to publish with students has given us a memorable educational experience we couldn’t possibly have expected when we enrolled.

Almost Too Good to Be True

Owen Strachan worked under Sweeney as managing director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding. Sweeney also serves as Strachan’s adviser in the PhD program.

As he writes his thesis, Strachan teaches Christian theol- ogy and church history at Boyce College, the undergraduate school of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He teamed up with Sweeney to write a five-volume set, The Essential Edwards Collection, published by Moody Publishers in early 2010.

“It almost sounded too good to be true to write about America’s greatest—and my favorite—theologian with an Edwards specialist who marries his knowledge with warm-hearted appreciation,” Strachan said.

Strachan and Sweeney sought to make Edwards’s theol- ogy accessible to a popular audience. This is no small task when dealing with Edwards, regarded by many scholars to be America’s greatest theologian. But Strachan and Sweeney singled out five aspects of Edwards’s teaching—on the good life, beauty, true Christianity, love for God, and heaven and hell—for attention.

“The process of working with Doug was seamless,” Strachan remembered. “He provided over- sight, intuition, and the kind of critical assessment that inevita- bly improves writing. He always had answers at the ready, though I had a wealth of information from his seminar on Edwards that I and seemingly every other TEDS student took (and take). Having been taught by his lectures and his many books, I knew how he approached and understood Edwards and could thus work more efficiently with him than with other pairings. Foremost in our shared perspective was a gratitude to God for the life and thought of a fallen man like the colonial pastor.”

Powerful and Probing

Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends was one of the first to be co-authored by students and professors. It was published by Baker Academic in 2007. Former TEDS students Charles Anderson (MDiv ’04) and Michael Sleasman (MDiv ’02, PhD ’08), who is now managing director of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, worked with professor Kevin Vanhoozer to edit essays submitted for his popular class, Cultural Hermeneutics.

Memorable classes continue to provoke students and professors to collaborate. Tim Baylor studied with Manetsch in his course on John Calvin. But Baylor began the class with serious reservations. Calvin doesn’t have the best reputation, even among seminary students. And like many great theologians, he’s more often referenced than actually read.

“Though I had called myself a ‘Calvinist’ for years prior to reading the Institutes, I anticipated Calvin’s writings to be dry and cerebral, like that of many of his name-sake’s,” Baylor said. “But when I actually began to acquaint myself with his writings first-hand, I found myself warmed by his rever- ence. His theology was thoughtful and probing, as Christian theology should be, but it was also unrelentingly pastoral, and I felt that he was speaking to my soul more than once.”

Drawing on what he learned about Calvin’s theology of “union with Christ,” he wrote a thesis under Manetsch and gradu- ated with a Master of Divinity from TEDS in 2009. He now serves as a campus pastor for The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Baylor has continued to use what he learned from Calvin to design a study for The Orchard. Church members read Calvin’s writings and discussed them together. The response was tremendous as people read the Genevan reformer for the first time and enjoyed rich, God-exalting theology.

In fact, Baylor was so encouraged by the response that he approached Manetsch about a book project. They drew up plans for a book tentatively called Calvin Comes to Small Group, which would spread the spiritual warmth of Cal- vin’s writings. The book would introduce unfamiliar read- ers to Calvin and walk them through primary readings. It would also provide aids for using the book in small groups. Manetsch and Baylor are currently circulating a book pro- posal in hopes of finding a publisher.

‘A God-Sized Vision’

I was talking with Woodbridge about a different book pro- posal when he suggested instead that we write about revival. He had been testing this book idea in classes for many years.

Woodbridge uses church history to encourage students to consider what God can do. Is it possible that we don’t see God working in dramatic ways today in the West because we don’t ask him to do these mighty works? Woodbridge asks students, whether first-year MDivs or experienced pastors pursuing their Doctor of Minis- try degree.

The question stuck with me. I realized that my theology didn’t match my prayer and practice. I believed God can and does do great things. But I rarely sought him in prayer to ask for him to do these works. I loved reading about revivals, when God endows the church’s ordinary min

istry with extraordinary power. I drew great encouragement from reading about the travels of George Whitefield through- out colonial America. The great evangelist befriended Benjamin Franklin and preached to common farmers. But I didn’t pray for such outpourings of grace in our own day. That is, until Wood- bridge helped me to understand the God of yesterday is also the God of today and tomorrow. We can and should pray that God would glorify his only Son, Jesus Christ, by pouring out the Holy Spirit in such a way that our churches would be revived and many unbelievers would be gathered to God by grace.

I devoted the summer between my second and third years at TEDS to learning about the men and women used by God to bring revivals. The result was A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir, published in fall 2010 by Zonder- van. While researching and writing, I grew to know Pandita Ramabai, a gifted Indian woman so touched by reports of the Welsh revival in 1904 and 1905 that she prayed to see the same

among the widows and orphans rejected by Hindu society. I came to admire Marie Monsen, a Norwegian missionary who survived capture by Chinese pirates to see God send revival to Shangtung Province in the 1920s and 1930s.

These and many other remarkable Christians became my friends by faith during seminary. But I never would have been encouraged by their devotion to God unless John Woodbridge introduced them to me. He’s just one of several professors who make Trinity a unique place to study. They don’t just tell us students which books to read. Sometimes they even ask us to write the books with them.

Collin Hansen (MDiv ’10) is editorial director for The Gospel Coalition.