John Mark Hicks

PDF file of blog here. What is the historic traditional interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:11-14? The complementarian and egalitarian interpretations are both of recent vintage and responses to cultural shifts. In her book An Historian Looks at 1 Timothy 2:11-14: The Authentic Traditional Interpretation and Why It Disappeared (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2012), Joan […]

Essay on Alexander Campbell’s Rejection of Creeds on the 1700th Anniversary of the Nicene Creed Theology Study Group: Stone-Campbell Journal Conference 2025 In a 2024 essay in the Restoration Quarterly, Brad East lamented the loss of catholicity, particularly soteriological ecclesiology and effectual sacramentality, among Churches of Christ within the past fifty years. One recourse, Brad […]

This link downloads a paper I wrote in 2018 for the Stone-Campbell Conference at Johnson University in April, 2018. The title of the paper is: “God has not kept [the Jews] these many years for nothing”:[1] Alexander Campbell on Israel, the Church, and Eschatology The quote that heads the paper is: “The unbelieving Jews were […]

James Gorman, an historian of the Restoration Movement (Stone-Campbell Movement) and Professor at Johnson University near Knoxville, Tennessee, is conducting a series of oral histories about the churches of Christ in the 21st century. These oral histories are available on the ACU website. Jamey asked me a series of questions about my biography and life […]

John Young, an adjunct instructor at Amridge University and a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Alabama, has written a brief history of Churches of Christ entitled Visions of Restoration (Cypress Publications, 2019; 111 pages).  Brevity sacrifices detail and nuance, but that is acceptable when the purpose is to offer something easily digestible […]

This is the report in Nashville’s Republican Banner (April 9, 1857), page 3. Destructive Fire!  CHURCH BURNED!–LOSS $25,000 The cry of fire was raised yesterday morning between 5 and 6 o’clock, by the discovery of flames issuing from a small Carpenter Shop in South Field, near the Depot of the Tenn. & Ala. R. R., […]

Yesterday I received my copy of J. Caleb Clanton’s new book entitled The Philosophy of Religion of Alexander Campbell (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2013). I had previously read the manuscript in early 2012 and am pleased to see it in print. Caleb taught philosophy at Pepperdine for several years but now teaches at Lipscomb.  I am […]

Nancy Koester’s The History of Christianity in the United States (Fortress, 2007) is my current supplementary text in my undergraudate Stone-Campbell Movement course at Lipscomb University. I use it to provide the American context for Stone-Campbell history. I was surprised to read this sentence in the book (p. 61):  “[Alexander Campbell] also rejected the doctrine of Trinity […]

I’m seeking some help regarding G. C. Brewer’s (1884-1956) undertstanding of the earth. Concerning Isaiah 65, 66, 2 Peter 3 and Revelation 21, Brewer wrote (Gospel Advocate [4 April 1946], 314): “The New Testament references describe a condition that will come after the destruction of the present heaven and earth. That this earth—this existing order of […]

While reading parts of the Firm Foundation for a research project, I rediscovered the following article by J. D. Tant (“Looking Back Fifty Years,” Firm Foundation 50.3 [17 January 1933] 2). In this article he highlights how the Firm Foundation had served the church over the past fifty years. In his view, the periodical saved the church from extremes–the extreme […]