Chalk this up under “interesting theological conversations.”  Dr. Roger Olson recently visited my alma mater, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS), upon the invitation of SWBTS President, Dr. Paige Patterson, to discuss soteriology or the doctrine of salvation.  This is a rather interesting development as Dr. Olson is generally considered to be a moderate Baptist (he himself has recently and helpfully distinguished between moderate Baptists and liberal Baptists here, here, and here) and SWBTS is generally considered to be a bastion of fundamentalist Christianity.  Of course, Dr. Patterson, its President, is one of the key architects of the conservative resurgence within the SBC.  So this was an interesting meeting.  Dr. Olson, in his concluding statement, referred to it as even somewhat historic in opening up new avenues of conversation between moderate Baptists and more conservative Baptists.

Why did the meeting happen?  The simple answer is that Dr. Patterson invited Dr. Olson.  Furthermore, the conversation was part of SWBTS’s “Grindstone” series of conversations which are “sharp, theological discussions on topics that matter.”  However, it is almost certainly the case that Dr. Patterson and Dr. Olson’s shared rejection of Calvinism and their shared agreement over the alleged Anabaptist origins of Baptist life played a large part in this.

Regardless, it was a very interesting conversation and I’m glad it happened.  I am offering the video here not because I consider myself an Arminian.  I remain fairly uncomfortable with all labels involved in this debate.  I will say that I agree with Dr. Olson that classical Arminianism as represented in the person and writings of James Arminius is quite different than what most people envision when they say “Arminianism.”

If you would like to hear a soteriological conversation from an Arminian perspective, here is an interesting one.