Dr. Vernon Carl Grounds (July 19, 1914 – September 12, 2010) was an American theologian, Christian educator, Chancellor of
Denver Seminary
Denver Seminary is a private, Evangelical Christian seminary with its main campus in Littleton, Colorado, an online global campus, and an extension campus in Washington, DC. It offers Master of Arts (MA), Master of Divinity (M.Div.), Doctor of M ...
, and one of the founders of American
evangelicalism
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...
.
Early life and education
Grounds was born July 19, 1914, in
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. the youngest of three children born to John and Bertha Grounds. He earned his
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
(1937) from
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
. He went on to join the inaugural class of
Faith Theological Seminary
Faith Theological Seminary is an unaccredited evangelical Christian seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1937 in Wilmington, Delaware, moved to Philadelphia in 1952, and then moved to Maryland in 2004.
History
In response to the Pr ...
in
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...
, earning his B.D., and becoming part of a group that included notable evangelical leaders such as
Arthur Glasser
Arthur F. Glasser (September 10, 1914 – December 8, 2009) was a missiologist and missionary who taught at Fuller Theological Seminary, last serving as Dean Emeritus of the School of Intercultural Studies. He also completed five years of missi ...
,
Kenneth Kantzer
Kenneth S. Kantzer (March 29, 1917 – June 20, 2002) was an American theologian and educator in the evangelical Christian tradition.
Life and career
He was born Detroit, Michigan, United States.
Kantzer, having studied at Faith Theological ...
Francis Schaeffer
Francis August Schaeffer (January 30, 1912 – May 15, 1984) was an American evangelical theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He co-founded the L'Abri community in Switzerland with his wife Edith Schaeffer, , a prolific author ...
. On June 17, 1939, Grounds married Ann Barton, with whom he has one child, a daughter, as well as three grandchildren. He went on to earn his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
(1960) from
Drew University
Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...
.
Academic career
While pursuing his degrees, Grounds served as pastor at the Gospel Tabernacle in
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Wayne, New Jersey
Wayne is a Township (New Jersey), township in Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. Home to William Paterson University and located less than from Midtown Manhattan, the township is a bedroom suburb of New York ...
, the Hawthorne Evening Bible School, and King's College (then in
Belmar, New Jersey
Belmar is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated on the Jersey Shore. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 5,794, His full-time teaching career began in 1945, when he became dean and professor of theology and apologetics at
Baptist Bible College & Seminary
Clarks Summit University is a private Baptist Bible college in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. It offers on-campus and online degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels. These include a high-school dual enrollment option, as well as associa ...
in
Johnson City, New York
Johnson City is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Broome County, New York, Broome County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 15,174 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Binghamton, New York, Bin ...
. He served there until 1951, when he moved to Denver to become academic dean at the Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary. He later served as president from 1956 until retiring in 1979. Grounds continued in a teaching and counseling role as president emeritus, and was named chancellor in 1993, where he actively served until his death.
Legacy and death
In 1963, Grounds served a term as president of the
Evangelical Theological Society
The Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) is a professional society of Biblical scholars, educators, pastors, and students "devoted to the inerrancy and inspiration of the Scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ" and "dedicated to the oral excha ...
. A
festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
honoring Grounds, titled ''Christian Freedom'', edited by
Stanley Grenz
Stanley James Grenz (1950–2005) was an American Christian theologian and ethicist in the Baptist tradition.
Early years
Grenz was born on 7 January 1950 in Alpena, Michigan. Grenz graduated from the University of Colorado in 1973. He then earn ...
and Kenneth Wozniak, was published in 1986. His biography, titled ''Transformed by Love: The Vernon Grounds Story'', written by Bruce L. Shelley was published in 2003. Grounds was also awarded honorary degrees from Wheaton College and Gordon College. He died September 12, 2010, at a nursing facility in
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...
. Upon his death,
George W. Truett Theological Seminary
George W. Truett Theological Seminary is a Baptist theological seminary in Waco, Texas. The seminary, named after Southern Baptist preacher George Washington Truett, was founded in 1993 as part of Baylor University and is affiliated with the Bapt ...
professor and
Patheos
Patheos is a non-denominational, non-partisan online media company providing information and commentary from various religious and nonreligious perspectives.
Upon its launch in May 2009, the website was primarily geared toward learning about re ...
blogger
Roger E. Olson
Roger Eugene Olson (born 1952) is an American Baptist theologian and Professor of Christian Theology of Ethics at the Baylor University.
Biography Personal life
Olson was born on February 2, 1952, in Des Moines, Iowa. He is married and he and ...
memorialized Grounds as "a model post-fundamentalist, centrist evangelical".
Publications
Grounds was the author of five books, including:
*''The Reason for Our Hope'' (1945)
*''Evangelicalism and Social Responsibility'' (1969)
*''Revolution and the Christian Faith: An Evangelical Perspective'' (1971)
*''Emotional Problems and the Gospel'' (1976)
*''Radical commitment: getting serious about Christian growth'' (1984) ; later republished as ''YBH - Yes, but how?'' (1998)
Grounds was also a contributing editor for ''
Christianity Today
''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "evange ...
'' and wrote more than 500 articles for '' Our Daily Bread'' from 1993 until 2009.