Stephen J. Wellum is an American

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

theologian. He is Professor of

Christian Theology Christian theology is the theology of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theology, theologian ...

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in Louisville, Kentucky. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, where it was at ...

and editor of the ''

Southern Baptist Journal of Theology ''The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology'' is an academic journal published by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It was founded in 1997, after the seminary had lost control of ''Review and Expositor''. ''SBJT'' is published quarterly. The i ...

.'' Wellum has written numerous academic articles and contributed to books on various aspects of theology. His most known works, however, have dealt with

covenant theology Covenant theology (also known as covenantalism, federal theology, or federalism) is a conceptual overview and interpretive framework for understanding the overall structure of the Bible. It uses the theological concept of a covenant as an organ ...

and issues of

Christology In Christianity, Christology (from the Ancient Greek, Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, wiktionary:-λογία, -λογία, wiktionary:-logia, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Chr ...

. In the former field, he wrote the

systematic theology Systematic theology, or systematics, is a discipline of Christian theology that formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the doctrines of the Christian faith. It addresses issues such as what the Bible teaches about certain topi ...

sections in ''Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical–Theological Understanding of the Covenants,'' and in the latter he has written the Christology volume for the

Five Solas The five ''solae'' (from Latin, ', lit. "alone"; occasionally Anglicized to five solas) of the Protestant Reformation are a foundational set of Christian theological principles held by theologians and clergy to be central to the doctrines of ...

and the Foundations of Evangelical Theology series. In ''Kingdom through Covenant,'' he originally labled his and coauthor Peter J. Gentry's position ''Progressive Covenantalism,'' calling it a subset of so-called

New Covenant Theology New Covenant theology (or NCT) is a Christian theology, Christian theological position teaching that the person and work of Jesus Christ is the central focus of the Bible. One distinctive assertion of this school of thought is that 613 Mitzvot, O ...

. Due to the theological claims among some in New Covenant Theology, particularly regarding a covenant at creation with

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

and the

active obedience of Christ In Protestant theology, the active obedience of Jesus Christ (sometimes called his preceptive obedience) comprises the totality of his actions, which Christians believe was in perfect obedience to the law of God. Christ's active obedience (doing w ...

, Wellum decided to disconnect the movements in his latter work of collected essays titled, ''Progressive Covenantalism: Charting a Course Between Dispensational and Covenantal Theologies'' and in the revision of ''Kingdom through Covenant.'' The various scholars that wrote for the book ''Progressive Covenantalism'' demonstrated just how widespread the movement had become and how connected it was to evangelical academies. This was a substantial difference from New Covenant Theology, which had largely been associated with local pastors. In his works on Christology, Wellum works through the doctrine of the Person of Christ in ''God the Son Incarnate,'' which was his work for the Foundations in Evangelical Theology series, and the doctrine of the Work of Christ in ''Christ Alone: The Uniqueness of Jesus as Savior,'' his work for the Five Solas Series edited by Matthew Barrett. In both works, Wellum aims to reaffirm classic doctrines of Christianity. The former, ''God the Son Incarnate,'' aims to reaffirm Chalcedonian Christology in the modern age, while the latter aims to reaffirm the classic Protestant, and particularly

Reformed Reform is beneficial change Reform may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine *''Reforme'' ("Reforms"), initial name of the ...

, doctrine of the work of Christ. Wellum has also co-authored a lay-level biblical-theological account of Christology with Trent Hunter titled, ''Christ from Beginning to End: How the Full Story of Scripture Reveals the Full Glory of Christ.'' Wellum is married to Karen and has five adult children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wellum, Stephen Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American Christian theologians