David Allan Hubbard (April 8, 1928–June 7, 1996) was the 3rd President of
Fuller Theological Seminary
Fuller Theological Seminary is an Evangelical seminary in Pasadena, California, with regional campuses in the western United States. It is egalitarian in nature.
Fuller has a student body of approximately 2,300 students from 90 countries and ...
and an Old Testament scholar. Under his leadership, Fuller became the world's largest multidenominational seminary and an important center for mainstream evangelical thought.
Education and early career
Native Californian Hubbard earned a B.A. from
Westmont College
Westmont College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Montecito, California, United States. It was founded in 1937.
History
Ruth Kerr, owner and CEO of the Kerr Glass Manufacturing Company, established the school as the Bible Missiona ...
in
Santa Barbara and
B.D. and
Th.M. from Fuller. He went to
St. Andrews University in Scotland for his doctoral work, where he wrote a dissertation on ''The literary sources of the
Kebra Nagast
The Kebra Nagast (, ), or The Glory of the Kings, is a 14th-century national epic of Ethiopia, written in Geʽez by the nebure id Ishaq of Aksum. In its existing form, the text is at least 700 years old and purports to trace the origins of the ...
''.
Hubbard taught at Westmont College from 1957 to 1963 and quickly became the chair of the department of biblical studies and philosophy.
Presidency at Fuller
At the age of 35 in 1963, Hubbard became president and chancellor of Fuller Theological Seminary. He was also appointed as a professor of the Old Testament. He served in that role for 30 years, during which the seminary added a School of Psychology and a School of World Mission (now called the School of Intercultural Studies) to its original School of Theology and experienced the growth in enrollment and influence that led it to identify itself as the world's largest interdenominational seminary.
He led the seminary through several controversial decisions, including opening an Office of Women's Concerns, mandating use of inclusive language, and changing the wording in the seminary's statement of faith with respect to
biblical inerrancy
Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible, in its original form, is entirely free from error.
The belief in biblical inerrancy is of particular significance within parts of evangelicalism
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelic ...
.
David’s leadership enabled the seminary to grow from 300 students in the 1960s to over 3,500 in the 1990s.
Other activities
Hubbard authored 36 books, including four commentaries on books of the Old Testament. He was a general editor of the
Word Biblical Commentary
The Word Biblical Commentary (WBC) is a series of commentaries in English on the text of the Bible both Old and New Testament. It is currently published by the Zondervan Publishing Company. Initially published under the "Word Books" imprint, t ...
series at the time of his death.
Hubbard was an ordained Baptist minister. He succeeded
Charles E. Fuller as speaker on ''The Joyful Sound'' radio program, which evolved from the ''Old Fashioned Revival Hour'' broadcast following Fuller's death.
He served on the California Board of Education from 1972 to 1975.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubbard, David
1928 births
1996 deaths
People from Stockton, California
American Christian theologians