The Diminishing Influence of John Owen upon Andrew Fuller (original) (raw)

Obituary: Duncan Fuller 10 January 1972 - 3 October 20081

2009

Duncan Fuller wasn't just an immensely valued colleague; he was also a close friend, my partner in crime, my comrade in arms. In the classroom and in the field we were like a double act, we knew instinctively what each other were thinking and what our next moves or 'lines' would be. But like all good double acts we were actually so very different. Duncan graduated from Hull University with a first class honours degree in Geography in June 1994 and was appointed as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) in the same department a few months later. Duncan began his Ph.D. on Financial Exclusion and Credit Unions under the guidance of Dave Sibley, Andy Jonas and Andy Leyshon whilst working as a GTA at Hull and completed it soon after joining us at Northumbria in May 1998.

The Evangelical Liberalism of Andrew Fuller

Fuller (1754-1815), once a Particular Baptist who departed radically from the faith of his fathers, is becoming quite a name amongst churches and para-church movements that once taught the doctrines of grace. Though at best a Calminian and at worst an absolute heretic, Fuller is being proclaimed by the evangelical Reformed Establishment as the Luther of the Baptists 1 and as the man that fanned the smoking wick of the Evangelical Awakening into a blaze 2. He is seen as the reformer who rescued Calvinists from the dunghill of their fathers in the faith 3 and is now presented as the greatest theologian of the 19th century, a genius whose work was epoch-making 4. No praise seems to be too high or too exaggerated for this sturdy contender of the system of rationalism now known as 'Fullerism' and one writer of fairly recent years has even dubbed him a 'prophet of evangelical Calvinism 5 .' Fuller's followers, though they disagree amongst themselves on minor aspects of Fuller's teaching, are all quite unanimous in proclaiming that no true evangelism is possible unless one adopts the doctrines and practices of Andrew Fuller 6 .