New collection provides access to primary sources from Conservative Resurgence

FORT WORTH A new collection in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary library’s digital archive, titled “The Paige Patterson SBC Conservative Resurgence Collection,” allows users to see and interact with materials pertaining to Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson’s role in the Conservative Resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention. Materials include letters, pamphlets and audio recordings of conference presentations and debates significant to this period of Southern Baptist history.

“Dr. Patterson is one of the persons most closely identified with the Conservative Resurgence,” says Dean of Libraries Craig Kubic. “His impact and his directing of the process is captured in this collection. One really cannot fathom the breadth and depth of the experience without reading his life history as it is reflected in these materials.”

The Conservative Resurgence was an effort spanning the 1970s-1990s in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to take a strong stand for the inerrancy of the Bible as well as to ensure that this position would be propagated in the convention’s seminaries. Paige Patterson, then president of Criswell College, was one of the architects of this movement along with Houston Judge Paul Pressler.

The new collection in Southwestern’s digital archive contains materials tracing the history of this significant movement. One such item is a letter from Patterson to Adrian Rogers, dated June 15, 1976, encouraging him to accept the nomination as SBC president. Also significant is an audio recording of a 1980 debate between Patterson and well-known Texas Baptist Cecil Sherman on the topic of biblical inerrancy. These and other resources offer unique insight into this tumultuous period in the SBC.