Walter Thomas Conner (January 19, 1877 in
Cleveland County, Arkansas
Cleveland County (formerly known as Dorsey County) is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its population was 7,550 at the 2020 U.S. census. The county seat and largest city is Rison. Cleveland County is included in the Little Roc ...
[CONNER, Walter Thomas]
in ''Who's Who in America
Marquis Who's Who, also known as A.N. Marquis Company ( or ), is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in A ...
'' (14th edition, 1926); p. 496—1952) was a prominent Baptist theologian and educator on the faculty of the
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is a Baptist theological institute in Fort Worth, Texas. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. It was established in 1908 and in 2005 was one of the largest seminaries in the wor ...
at Fort Worth, Texas, from 1910 to 1949.
He was educated at Baylor University and was a member of the first graduating class of Southwestern Baptist Seminary in 1908 with a Th.B. degree; he also studied at Rochester Seminary (with
A. H. Strong and
Walter Rauschenbusch
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) was an American theologian and Baptist pastor who taught at the Rochester Theological Seminary. Rauschenbusch was a key figure in the Social Gospel and single tax movements that flourished in the United States ...
).
He based his theological systems on those of his teachers,
Benajah Harvey Carroll
Benajah Harvey Carroll Sr, known as B. H. Carroll (December 27, 1843 – November 11, 1914), was a Baptist pastor, theologian, teacher, author, and orator.
Biography
Carroll was born near Carrollton in Carroll County in north central Mississi ...
of Baylor University,
Augustus Hopkins Strong at Rochester Theological Seminary, and
Edgar Young Mullins
Edgar Young Mullins (January 5, 1860 – November 23, 1928) was a Southern Baptist minister and educator, who from 1899 until his death was the fourth president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the flagship school of the Southern Ba ...
, of Louisville. Conner was also influenced by personalism, His theology stressed the moral self consistency of the divine attributes. His writings emphasized the idea of "Christus victor" ("Victorious Christ"). Conner was a moderate Calvinist, but said little about the issue of biblical inspiration. He shifted away from "postmillennialism" to
amillennialism
Amillennialism or amillenarism is a chillegorism, chillegoristic Christian eschatology, eschatological position in Christianity which holds that there will be no Millennialism, millennial reign of the Messianic Age, righteous on Earth. This view ...
. Conner in 1945 depicted "evangelistic and missionary activity" as a sharing of the cross of Christ and treated the bringing of "others
to know and serve Christ" as an aspect of "the Christian's mission and work."
[James Leo Garrett Jr., "Missions and Baptist Systematic Theologies." ''Baptist History and Heritage'' 35.2 (2000): 67+]
online
/ref>
Selected bibliography
* ''The Resurrection of Jesus'' (1926,Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention)
Notes
Further reading
* Draughon, Walter D. A critical evaluation of the diminishing influence of Calvinism on the doctrine of atonement in representative Southern Baptist theologians: James Petigru Boyce, Edgar Young Mullins, Walter Thomas Conner, and Dale Moody. Diss. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1987.
* Garrett, James Leo. "Walter Thomas Conner." in ''Baptist Theologians'' (1990) pp: 419-33.
* Hurst, Clyde J. "The Problem of Religious Knowledge in the Theology of Edgar Young Mullins and Walter Thomas Conner." ''Review & Expositor'' 52.2 (1955): 166-182.
* Newman, Stewart A. ''W. T. Conner: Theologian of the Southwest'' (1964)
* Sampler, Jason Boone. "A Critical Analysis of the Doctrine of Atonement Within the Writings of Walter Thomas Conner". Diss. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conner, Walter Thomas
1877 births
1952 deaths
Southern Baptist ministers
American Baptist theologians
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary alumni
Southern Baptists
Baptists from Texas
People from Cleveland County, Arkansas