Southeastern rejoices in the life of Bush, mourns death of godly man

 

After a two-year battle with cancer, L. Russ Bush III, noted philosopher, apologist, author, professor, pastor and friend of Southern Baptists, went to be with the Lord on Tuesday evening January 23.

Bush, who was born in 1944, spent his life serving the church, the Southern Baptist Convention and the greater evangelical community in a number of capacities. He served most recently at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., as the Director of the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture and as Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Religion.

His time at Southeastern marked a turning point in the leadership of the institution, and his contributions to the academic environment of Southeastern will continue on. When he first began at Southeastern, during the presidency of Lewis A. Drummond, Bush was one of the few conservative voices at the institution. Due in large part to his direction of the faculty, Southeastern was able to band together for the cause of reclaiming a sound theological heritage.

In 1980, at the beginning of the “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention, Bush and (fellow professor at the time) Tom Nettles wrote Baptists and the Bible, a book which called for the return to Biblical inerrancy as a core belief of the denomination.

“Russ Bush was a champion and faithful warrior for the cause of Christ and the Gospel,” said Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern. “His work Baptists and the Bible…was a landmark in the battle for the Bible that engulfed our denomination. Its impact is still being felt today.”

“Their book was timely, urgent, controversial and filled with ample documentation,” said Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “It changed history – quite literally.”

At the time of Bush’s appointment as academic vice president and Dean of the Faculty at Southeastern, Paige Patterson, current president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said Southeastern “was undergoing a metamorphosis as it returned to the faith of its fathers.”

“Bush accepted the responsibility…even though the entire faculty voted against the appointment,” Patterson said. “It was one of the most incredibly difficult times anyone could have ever gone through. He was cursed … and accosted…By the time I arrived at Southeastern some years later, I discovered that he had won over the hearts even of those who were his bitterest enemies.”

David Dockery, president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., said, “No one will ever fully know all that Russ Bush did to keep the doors of Southeastern Seminary open during the turbulent years of transition in the late 1980s and the early 1990s.”

In more recent times, Bush’s guidance was instrumental in developing the Center for Faith and Culture, an initiative to connect culture and the church by being an example of a redeemed community. The Center was named for Bush during its creation in 2006, because he “embodies the vision of, and models the ministry of, this Center.”

In October of 2007, Bush and the Center brought together the culture and the church as Southeastern hosted a conference on “C.S. Lewis: The Man and His Works.” This spring, the Center will be hosting the Carver-Barnes lectures featuring John Lennox, a world-renowned mathematician and philosopher, chaplain at Green College Oxford, member of the Trinity Forum and Senior Fellow of the Whitefield Institute in Oxford.

“He was a giant among Southern Baptists in this generation, as he trained literally thousands of students through his teaching and writing to think well about the Gospel and its implications for all of life,” said David Nelson, who succeeded Bush as Dean of the Faculty at Southeastern. “Russ Bush gave his life to the service of his Lord and the kingdom of Christ…We are truly grieved at his passing, because he was a kind, gracious friend and leader, but of course, because of his faith in Christ, ours is a hopeful grief as we know he is in the presence of the Lord he loved.”

“Russ Bush was my teacher, colleague and friend. He was a man of absolute integrity and a consistent witness to the Christ he loved so dearly,” Akin said. “My love and respect for him goes beyond words. I will miss him, but I rejoice knowing I will see him again in glory.”

Bush is survived by his wife of 39 years, Cynthia Ellen McGraw Bush, and two children, Joshua Russell and Bethany Charis,

Services for Bush will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, January 27 at Binkley Chapel on Southeastern’s campus. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made in memory of L. Russ Bush to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary for the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture.

Please mail any gifts to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Attn: Financial Development, PO Box 1889, Wake Forest, NC 27588.