Twenty years ago today—March 26, 1993-R. Albert Mohler Jr. (age 33) was elected president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Younger readers may not realize this represented and resulted in an unprecedented transformation of a school from deep theological liberalism to a bastion of orthodox fidelity. George Marsden says the institutional shift is unprecedented in denominational history.
To hear the vision expressed as it was happening, you can read Dr. Mohler’s inaugural convocation address, “Don’t Just Do Something: Stand There | Southern Seminary and the Abstract of Principles.”
You can hear Dr. Mohler tell a portion of the story here in his own words (about 15 minutes, record in the year 2000). You can also listen to these two talks from Dr. Mohler (recorded in 2003) where he goes into more detail and sets the story in its wider context.
For more historical details, see Nathan Finn’s annotated bibliography of the conservative resurgence and Greg Wills’ Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009 (Oxford University Press, 2009).