Tennent is Asbury Seminary's new president

Asbury Theological Seminary has selected a fine professor from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary to become its new president.

Dr. Timothy Tennent, a professor of world missions at Gordon-Conwell, will take the leadership at Asbury in Wilmore, Kentucky in July.

I was heartened by a quote from Tennent on Asbury Seminary's website:

"I am alarmed by the growing trend away from serious theological reflection and do not believe that the church will be adequately prepared to face the challenges of pluralism and post-modernism without a more robust theological preparation," he says. "I am also passionate about the emergence of the Majority World Church. I believe that the Western Church continues to have an important role in global missions, in partnership with the increasingly vibrant Majority World Church." The entire news release on the announcement of Tennent's presidency can be read here.

In his 2007 book, Theology in the Context of World Christianity (Zondervan), Tennent explains his choice to use the term, Majority World, versus the terms, Third World and Two-Thirds World:

"This is the best phrase currently available. It is to be preferred because it is simpler and less confusing to students just entering this discussion for the first time, and it helps to highlight the basic point that Africa, Asia, and Latin America are where the majority of the world's Christians are now located."

Dr. Christopher J. H. Wright (whose recent book was noted on this blog February 7), says this of Tennent's book:

"This is the book we have waited a long time for. We have all sampled selections from the growing menu of theological reflection in the Majority World church, but so often these have been viewed by scholars and students in the West as the theological equivalent of ethnic restaurants --- exotic and interesting but not to be taken too seriously in the dining hall of real (Western) theology ....

"This book, organized in the systematic way that Western theology likes, offers teacher and student alike a representative, thorough, constructively critical compendium of some of the key contributors to the task of global theology."

Tennent's chapter titles spell out his approach:

• The Emergence of a Global Theological Discourse
• Theology ... Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammad?
• Bibliology ... Hindu Sacred Texts in Pre-Christian Past
• Anthropology ... Human Identity in Shame-based Cultures of the Far East
• Christology ... Christ as Healer and Ancestor in Africa
• Soteriology ... Is "Salvation by Grace through Faith" Unique to Christianity?
• Pneumatology ... The Holy Spirit in Latin American Pentecostalism
• Ecclesiology ... Followers of Jesus in Islamic Mosques
• Eschatology ... Jonathan Edwards and the Chinese Back to Jerusalem Movement
• The Emerging Contours of Global Theology

Tennent, whose undergraduate work was done at Oral Roberts University, caught my eye with this paragraph in the chapter on Pneumatology:

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"There are, of course, glaring inconsistencies and theological problems within Pentecostalism. The so-called 'prosperity gospel,' which weds an American consumer culture with outlandish interpretations of certain biblical texts, is well known. Moreover, several prominent Pentecostal figures have brought embarrassment and shame not only to Pentecostalism but to the broader cause of Christ in the world. If, in this study, I have neglected the 'mote' in the Pentecostal eye, it is only because I am so painfully aware of the 'beam' in my own eye. In other words, I maintain that despite the incongruities, Pentecostalism remains the most important corrective to the blind spots in our pneumatological theory and practice on the planet today."

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Bill Mounce's website, BiblicalTraining.org, offers six audio courses by Dr. Tennent for free. You can access those courses, which include studies of Buddhism and Hinduism, here.

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The Louisville Courier-Journal's coverage of Tennent's appointment can be read here. Two YouTube videos of his acceptance can be seen here and here, plus the Asbury website has posted a video interview with him that can be seen here.