Dwight Eshelman Stevenson

I have read histories of a number of colleges and seminaries associated with the Stone-Campbell religious heritage and this one ranks with the best. Kentucky is a key state when it comes to Stone-Campbell history and Lexington Theological Seminary (named College of the Bible for most of its first 100 years) is especially important as it is the first seminary of the Disciples of Christ.

The author provides excellent details relating to numerous persons associated with LTS. His treatment of John W. McGarvey (1829-1911) is excellent, with details provided that are found only in this book. McGarvey was intimately involved with the school from its beginning in 1865 until his death in 1911.

The author narrates the two major separations within the Disciples of Christ from the "liberal" point of view, and on at least a couple of occasions refer to the Disciples who became "independent" as "fundamentalists" and "anti-intellectual" (see p. 368f for an example).

Bacon College, Transylvania University, and Kentucky University (and other various names) are all intertwined and discussed along with the College of the Bible. Page 42 provides a useful chart which helps the reader see what happened when.

My reading of the book is 2013, nearly 50 years after it was written. Much has changed with LTS since. For example, it was recently reported that LTS is to sell its Lexington campus to the University of Kentucky, as it is now primarily an on-line seminary!

The book is well-researched, documented, and proofread. It includes an excellent bibliography and index. I have a hard copy and PDF copy of the book.… (más)