Journal: Journal of Transformative Learning and Leadership
Volume: JTLL 01:1 (Fall 2023)
Article: The Life And Theological Method Of Lewis Sperry Chafer Part 1 (Introduction And Historical Background)
Author: David W. Gunn

The Life And Theological Method Of Lewis Sperry Chafer
Part 1 (Introduction And Historical Background)

David W. Gunn

Introduction

Although the extent of his contributions is not always acknowledged or appreciated, it would be difficult to imagine a figure more instrumental in shaping twentieth-century American evangelical Christianity than Lewis Sperry Chafer. The influence of dispensational theology and Dallas Theological Seminary played a crucial role in the development of modern American evangelicalism and fundamentalism. In turn, the development of dispensational theology and the legacy of Dallas Theological Seminary owe much to Chafer’s efforts. Zachariades lists Lewis Sperry Chafer, John Nelson Darby, and C. I. Scofield as the three most famous and influential propagators of dispensationalism.1 Walvoord identified Chafer’s eight-volume magnum opus, Systematic Theology, as the “first consistently premillennial systematic theology ever written,” and further asserted of the work, “For the first time modern Fundamentalism has been systematized in an unabridged systematic theology.”2 As the founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary, Chafer profoundly shaped DTS’s identity and core values. And Chafer’s direct influence on American evangelicalism is probably eclipsed by his indirect influence: many of his students—chiefly J. F. Walvoord, J. D. Pentecost, and C. C. Ryrie—imbibed Chafer’s theological instruction and then proceeded to contribute significantly to the shape of American evangelicalism at both the popular and

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scholarly levels. In all these ways, Chafer made a profound contribution to the development of American evangelical and fundamentalist thought.

At times, Chafer’s influence has been minimized and his motivations misconstrued. Some would cast Chafer as simply a passive recipient and regurgitator of the Darbyite tradition.3 While Chafer was indeed deeply influenced by the teachings of prominent dispensationalists (chiefly C. I. Scofield), such a linkage of Chafer and Darby is overly reductionistic. This article will argue that Chafer is best understood first and foremost as a Biblicist, not as a defender of any theological system as such.

Joseph Boles takes a slightly different tack in his interpretation of Chafer. He writes, “Chafer’s scheme is more rationalistic than biblical.”4 (Strangely, this charge comes only one page after Boles discusses Chafer’s self-restriction in the field of Anthropology to intra-biblical sources and his outright dismissal of ...