Baylor's Shared Baptist Vision

Roger E. Olson, Professor of Theology

Excerpt

... I am not one of those moderate Baptists who thinks unrestricted freedom is the hallmark of Baptist faith and life, but I do believe that the Baptist witness to the world and to other Christian traditions includes a distinct vision of what it means to be an individual before God within community and what it means for a Christian community to worship and work collaboratively and compassionately without hierarchy. What is more important to me than whether a cathedral stands at the center of the campus is that Baylor preserve and strengthen its respect for individuals, its community spirit of compassion and accountability, and its fierce Baptist independence from government and freedom from even covert forms of episcopacy. The issue here is not, as I see it, denominational affiliations of faculty members or administrators. The issue is more subtle, even as it is more important. It is the issue of culture and ethos. I hope that as Baylor pursues its vision of greatness, it finds ways to highlight and strengthen its evangelical, free church, Baptist heritage and identity without falling into a sectarianism that pretends any denomination has a monopoly on authentic Christianity. One way to do that would be to house within the cathedral at the center of campus a vital, well-endowed, high-profile Center for Baptist and Free Church Studies to which scholars of many different denominations come for sabbaticals, research, teaching, and lecturing. The Center would offer to members of the Baylor community and to the larger church universal conferences and lectureships on what it means to be Christian in the modern and postmodern world and on the uniquely Baptist and free church spin on that.