Ware Elected President of ETS

Bruce A. Ware, a member of the Council on Biblical Manhoodand Womanhood, will today become president of the Evangelical Theological Society at the organization’s annual meeting in Providence, R.I

Ware was elected vice president of ETS by a unanimous vote of fellow scholars at the 58^th annual ETS meeting in Washington, D.C. in 2006. After one year of serving as vice president and one year as president-elect, Ware began his term as president during the 60^th annual meeting of ETS this week at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Ware serves as professor of Christian theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“It is a tremendous honor and privilege to serve in a role of leadership in such a wonderful organization as ETS,” said Ware, who has served as professor of Christian Theology at Southern Seminary since 1998. “The Lord has blessed the organization and I believe continues to do so.”

Ware has been active in the gender debate within ETS and in the broader evangelical world. He has argued staunchly in favor of the complementary roles of men and women in the church and home as set forth in Scripture. In his 2005 book, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance, Ware demonstrated the significance of the roles played by each person of the Godhead in redemption as a model for gender roles in the home and church over against egalitarian arguments to the contrary. But what is the state of the gender debate within ETS? Ware says the two views continue to contend with each other vigorously, but with an increasingly gracious tone.

“I think the debate between egalitarians and complementarians at ETS has, for the most part over the past couple of decades, has been amicable,” Ware said. “There has been no rancor or hostility, for the most part, yet there are strong convictions on both sides. Yet it appears to me that neither side is backing down as it were. Both sides in this debate continue to be quite convinced they are right and th other view is wrong. I don’t anticipate that to change in any significant way in coming years. I think the complementarian view has been represented very well—for which I am grateful. There have been fine papers given, good support for the complementarian view that I think has resulted in more confidence for complementarians. ETS has helped in that process.”

Ware said he is encouraged by a movement he sees developing among younger evangelicals that embraces robust orthodox theology that was recovered during the Protestant Reformation. Complementarianism tends to be apart of this recovery of sound doctrine among younger evangelicals, he said.

 “By and large that movement is also complementarian,” he said. “So, to the extent it is growing, the complementarian movement is growing. What those two have in common is a sincere longing to be faithful to Scripture and that has led people—both on the issue of the doctrines of grace and issues of the role of men and women—that ‘this is what the Bible says and we are going to stick with it and we are not going to let the culture and its values push us into unbiblical views.’”

Ware said he is troubled by a trend among Christian colleges and some evangelical seminaries toward a wholesale embrace of egalitarianism.

 “The tragedy of that is, number one, it is wrong, but it also takes people away from the biblical vision of men and women that is better for them because it’s what God designed. If God designed it, it is wise and good; if we design it, in contrast to what God has, we might think it is wise and good, but it will hurt us and others. So that is the most distressing thing—the drift of Christian colleges toward egalitarianism and to a lesser degree, but a significant degree also, seminaries…The battle is engaged and there is much to be done on many fronts.”