Journal of European Baptist Studies, 2017

high ideals and ensuring the quality of the curriculum of the four-year Bachelor of Divinity, to which was added a Master of Theology (ThM in the IBTS nomenclature) after the first ten years of IBTS, there was a ceiling through which no one could pass. This was because the degrees were not recognised by any Governmental Department of Education, a serious problem in Europe where higher education is controlled and monitored by the State. Issues of the recognition in other countries of degrees awarded by IBTS in Switzerland were partly resolved when the University of Zurich Faculty of Reformed Theology agreed that IBTS graduates as ThM in the upper quartile could proceed to enrol for doctoral studies with the University, providing the ThM had covered appropriate courses in line with what the Faculty itself would require. On moving to Praha When the European Baptist Federation (EBF) was given IBTS by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board 14 in an act of confidence and leadership exhibited by the then Director, Keith Parks, and the Area Director for Europe, Issam Ballenger, 15 Baptists across Europe had to reflect on what of whom prefer the Germanic approach of a five-year Magister/Master degree as the entry point, with UK Universities reluctant to entertain the two-year Master’s degree of Bologna. 11 Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is an institution of the Southern Baptist Convention founded in 1859 and was noted for many years as the pre-eminent theological institution within the Convention. It is one of the largest seminaries in the world, claiming to have trained students from 62 countries and all USA States. 12 On early faculty development see Woodfin, pp. 1 Iff. Other notable Europeans to serve on the faculty in the period to 1990 were Gunter Wagner, Thorwald Lorenzen, and Hans-Harald Mallau. 13 Paul Beasley-Murray, Fearless for Truth: A Personal Portrait of the Life of George Beasley-Murray (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2002). 14 Successor to the Foreign Mission Board. 15 Both Parks and Ballenger became embroiled in bitter recrimination by Trustees of the International Mission Board and their involvement was terminated in most distressing ways. On the wider battle, see John W Merritt, The Betrayal: the hostile takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention and a missionary’s fight for Freedom in Christ (Ashville, NC: R. Brent & Company, 2005). For the account from those who 10 Journal of European Baptist Studies 17:1 (2017) the purpose of the seminary was, where it should be located, and what would be the methods of teaching. In the midst of a Europe being re-formed as the Soviet Empire collapsed and countries entered a new period of self- determination and freedom, the expansion of the European Community (later to be the European Union) and many other issues affected decision-making and, indeed, refinement of the programme and purpose of IBTS. So many concerns occupied mee