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New Testament professor Steve Taylor said there is also a larger debate over how strictly professors must hold to the Westminster Confession. He is leaving to teach at Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, because he feels that the seminary is too restrictive in its reading of the Westminster Confession. He and other professors feel that the faculty vote was completely disregarded in the board meeting.

"For the 12 [who voted for Enns], it's very frustrating, because either our competency or our orthodoxy has been called into question. This is why we're demoralized," Taylor said. He believes the debate has fractured the school. "People are using language that the feeling of the campus is so oppressive that it's almost a demonic oppression."

Westminster master of divinity student Art Boulet is trying to transfer to Princeton Theological Seminary after three years at the seminary because Enns was suspended.

"It's like watching divorced parents. You know they are nitpicking at each other, you know there are problems, but you don't exactly know why," Boulet said. "There is this tension and there is a dividing line almost like, 'What team are you on? Show me your card.'"

The seminary, located near Philadelphia, lists about 600 students in its phone directory and 21 professors on its website. Westminster began in 1929 as an alternative to Princeton Theological Seminary because its founder, J. Gresham Machen, felt Princeton was departing from its Reformed theological roots.

"I think it's really important for seminaries that serve particular church bodies to realize that they are not simply academic institutions, but that they are accountable to the church to whom they are preparing ministers and missionaries," said Michael Horton, theology and apologetics professor at Westminster Seminary in California.

University of Notre Dame historian and Westminster alumnus George Marsden said challenges arise for institutions with confessional statements because it can be difficult to interpret the documents for specific cases.

"Westminster has always wanted to be strictly consistent with the Presbyterian, Westminster standards and also be a place that defends traditional Christianity with the highest sort of scholarship," Marsden said. "It's impossible to anticipate where those conflict with each other."

Historically, the difference between evangelical and non-evangelical Christian movements has been an emphasis on boundaries, such as confessional statements, says Mark Noll, University of Notre Dame Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History.

"It's a delicate problem for theologians and Bible people who are saying whether what is true and what is right," Noll said. "They just have a more difficult life to lead when it comes to these questions."

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Westminster Seminary explains its mission statement.

Westminster alumnus Brandon Withrow has compiled several links to reviews and websites about the controversy.

The Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics provides the full text of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

Gregory Beale reviewed Enns's book for the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society.

Susan Wise Bauer reviewed Enns's book for Books & Culture.

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April (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52