John Albert Broadus
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Baptist pastor and professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...
, one of the most famous preachers of his day. Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a large British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers"...
deemed Broadus the “greatest of living preachers.” Church historian Albert Henry Newman later said “perhaps the greatest man the Baptists have produced.”
Early life
Born in Culpeper County, Broadus was educated at home and at a private school. He taught in a small school before completing his undergraduate studies at Brown UniversityBrown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
under Francis Wayland
Francis Wayland
Francis Wayland , American Baptist educator and economist, was born in New York City, New York. He was president of Brown University and pastor of the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island. In Washington, D.C., Wayland Seminary was established in 1867, primarily to educate...
and later studying for the ministry at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
. Ordained in 1850, he married Maria Harrison, daughter of Gessner Harrison (1807–62), professor of ancient languages at the University of Virginia, and became pastor of the Baptist church in Charlottesville.
Career
In 1859 he became professor of New TestamentNew Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
interpretation and homiletics at the new Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...
(where he later became the school's second president). During the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
he served for a while as chaplain to Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
's army in Northern Virginia.
In 1889 he delivered the Beecher Lectures at Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...
.
Works
- On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons (1870)
- Lectures on the History of Preaching (1876, revised, 1896)
- Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (1886)
- Sermons and Addresses (1886)
- Jesus of Nazareth (1890)
- Memoir of James Petigru BoyceJames Petigru BoyceJames Petigru Boyce served as a Southern Baptist pastor, theologian, author, and seminary professor.- Education and early life :Boyce was educated at Brown University under Francis Wayland, whose evangelical sermons contributed to Boyce’s conversion, and at Princeton Theological Seminary under...
(1893) - Harmony of the Gospels (1893)
Further reading
- David S. Dockery and Roger D. Duke eds., John A. Broadus: A Living Legacy Studies in Baptist Life and Thought, ed. Michael A.G. Haykin. Nashville: Broadman and Holman Academic, 2008. 260 pp.