A Baptist at the Crossroads

“The sustained attack on orthodox Christianity by the Enlightenment and its advocates in the long eighteenth century forced a rethinking by Christian authors of a number of loci of Christian doctrine. Among the loci revisited in this crucial era in the development of Western society was the nature of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. In this new study, Obbie Todd examines how one Baptist thinker, the South Carolinian Richard Furman, pastor of the oldest Baptist church in the South—First Baptist, Charleston—sought to combine classical confessional thinking about the cross with new perspectives derived from Jonathan Edwards and Andrew Fuller. The result is an enthralling study of how an extremely influential Baptist leader sought to make biblical Christianity attractive and relevant to his fellow Americans. A tour de force of intellectual history.”


—Michael A. G. Haykin, chair of Church History, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary





“The thought, theology, and pastoral style of Richard Furman come alive in this excellent work by Obbie Todd. In this fine synthesis of primary and secondary source work, Todd has successfully presented Furman as an ‘eclectic theologian.’ . . . In particular, Todd carefully crafts Furman’s understanding of the elements of truth in the moral government theory without sacrificing the doctrines of propitiation and substitution emphasized in the Charleston Association Confession of Faith. Todd shows that Furman operated under the assumption that these treatments were not mutually exclusive, but could be partially blended with some nuancing of the strict peculiarities of each. . . . An admirable model of historical theology, as well as a careful engagement with intellectual history.”


—Tom J. Nettles, professor of Historical Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary





“Richard Furman sought to meld into a unified view the strengths of both the moral governmental and the penal substitutionary theories of the atonement. This work is a thorough treatment of the intricacies and nuances of Furman’s eclectic view of the atonement, including the influences upon him and the context in which he was living. Furman’s contributions and failings are presented with a rich vocabulary in this engaging work.”


—Lloyd A. Harsch, director, Institute for Faith and the Public Square