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Walter B. Shurden, the founding executive
director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer, retired from
Mercer University on 31 December 2007. Since his retirement he
carries the title of “Minister at Large, Mercer University.” A
native of Greenville, Mississippi, Dr. Shurden served at Mercer for
almost twenty-five years as Callaway Professor of Christianity in
the Roberts Department of Christianity in the College of Liberal
Arts. During eighteen of those years, he served as Chair of the
Roberts Department of Christianity and for almost seven years as
Executive Director of The Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer
University in Macon, Georgia.
Before coming to Mercer University in
August, 1983, he taught at McMaster Divinity College (1965-66) in
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; served as pastor of the First Baptist
Church (1966-69) in Ruston, Louisiana; was Professor of Religion at
Carson-Newman College (1969-1976), Jefferson City, Tennessee; was
Professor of Church History (1976-1983) and Dean of the School of
Theology (1980-1983) at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Shurden has pursued post-doctoral studies
at the University of Tennessee and Princeton Theological Seminary.
He has written or edited fifteen books and
published numerous articles. Among his books are: Not A Silent
People: Controversies That Have Shaped Southern Baptists (1972)
(rev., 1995 Smyth & Helwys); Associationalism Among Baptists in
America, 1707-1814 (1980, Arno); The Sunday School Board: 90
Years of Service (1981, Broadman); The Life of Baptists in
the Life of The World (1985, Broadman); The Doctrine
of the Priesthood of Believers (1987, Broadman); Perspectives
in Theological Education (1989); Proclaiming the Baptist
Vision: The Priesthood of All Believers (1993, Smyth & Helwys);
The Struggle For the Soul of the SBC: Moderate Responses to
Fundamentalism (1993, Mercer Press); The Baptist Identity:
Four Fragile Freedoms (1993, Smyth & Helwys); Proclaiming the
Baptist Vision: The Bible (1994, Smyth &Helwys); Proclaiming
the Baptist Vision: The Church (1996, Smyth & Helwys); Going
for the Jugular: A Documentary History of the SBC Holy War
(1996, Mercer Press); Proclaiming the Baptist Vision: Religious
Freedom (1998, Smyth & Helwys), Proclaiming the Baptist
Vision: Baptism and The Lord’s Supper (1999, Smyth & Helwys),
and Not an Easy Journey: Some Transitions in Baptist Life
(Mercer University Press, 2005.
Distinctively Baptist: Essays in Baptist
History edited by Marc A. Jolley and John D. Pierce is a book of
essays written in honor of Dr. Shurden. A professor since 1969, Dr.
Shurden has received the Distinguished Faculty Award from both
Carson-Newman College and the College of Liberal Arts of Mercer
University. The Board of Baptists Today presented him in 2005
the annual Judson-Rice Award in honor of his denominational
leadership among Baptists. The Baptist Joint Committee awarded him
with the J. M. Dawson Religious Liberty Award in June 2006.
Dr. Shurden has served as President of the
Southern Baptist Historical Society and the National Association of
Baptist Professors of Religion and as Chair of the Historical
Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. One of the founders
of the Southern Baptist Alliance, he led in founding the William H.
Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society. He also was a member of the first
steering committee of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He has
spoken widely at denominational gatherings and college campuses, and
he has served as Interim Preaching Minister of many Baptist
churches.
His wife, Dr. Kay Wilson Shurden, also a
native of Greenville, MS, is a marriage and family therapist,
educator, author and speaker. She retired in 2000 as Associate
Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at
the Mercer Medical School in Macon, Georgia. The Shurdens have three
grown children and six growing grandchildren.
(Email)
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