Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 07:1 (Summer 2016)
Article: Introduction To The Volume
Author: Benjamin L. Merkle

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STR 7:1 (Summer 2016) p. 1

Introduction To The Volume

Benjamin L. Merkle

STR Editor

Introduction

As the new editor of the journal, it is privilege to introduce this volume of Southeastern Theological Review (STR). I am grateful to the leadership of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary for offering me this position which I accepted with both fear and trembling but also with joy and thanksgiving. I am grateful to Dr. Heath Thomas, who now serves as the dean of the Herschel H. Hobbs College of Theology and Ministry and associate vice president for church relations at Oklahoma Baptist University, for his outstanding leadership of the journal over the past four and a half years. Under Dr. Thomas’s leadership the journal has continued to thrive and fulfill its mission “to equip the Church to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and fulfill the Great Commission.” I also wish to express gratitude to Ant Greenham who will continue to serve as the book review editor and to the new editorial board that consists of Bruce Ashford, Chip Hardy, George Robinson, Benjamin Quinn, and Ray Van Neste.

The Present Volume

The focus of this volume is applied theology. Although STR is not technically a “themed” journal, we often receive essays that can be grouped together to produce an issue that has some coherence. Such is the case with this volume. In our first essay, Bruce Ashford, Provost of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and professor of Theology and Culture, offers a theological vision for higher education. He proposes that Scripture is the norm for all life, including the teaching and learning that takes place in higher education. After surveying several views concerning the Bible’s relationship to life in general and to teaching in particular, he argues for a grace renews nature perspective. That is, although this world has been affected by the Fall, the creational realm has not been corrupted ontologically. One day God will restore and renew this world and therefore our educational philosophy should seek to reflect this reality.

The second essay is by David Jones, professor of Christians Ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. In this essay, Jones discusses conflicting moral absolutes and then employs the story of Rahab in Josh 2:1–24 and her moral dilemma as a test case. After presenting the three main evangelical models for resolving conflicting moral absolutes (conflicting absolutism, graded absolutism, and non-conflicting absolutism),

STR 7:1 (Summer 2016) p. 2

Jones then explains how each of these positions handle the case of Rahab. In the end, Jones thinks that non-conflicting absolutism is the best v...

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