J. Oliver Buswell


James Oliver Buswell, Jr. was a Presbyterian educator, institution builder, and fundamentalist Christian.

Education

Buswell was born in Burlington, Wisconsin. He received an A.B. from the University of Minnesota, a B.D. from McCormick Theological Seminary, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. from New York University.

Professional life

He served as a chaplain in the 140th Infantry during World War I. After pastorates in a Presbyterian church in Milwaukee and a Reformed church in Brooklyn, Buswell became president of Wheaton College from 1926 to 1940. He then served as president of the National Bible Institute of New York City, and its successor, Shelton College, in Ringwood, New Jersey from 1941 to 1955. And finally, in 1956, he became dean of Covenant College and Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. The libraries at both Wheaton College and Covenant Theological Seminary bear his name.

Tenure as President of Wheaton College

In January 1926, the young Rev. Buswell was on the campus of Wheaton College to deliver a week's worth of chapel sermons. Within weeks, college trustees invited Buswell to become Wheaton's third president. He was the youngest college president at 31 years old. Over the next 14 years, Buswell oversaw a significant period of growth in both numbers and academic rigor. He guided the college through the process of accreditation, bolstered its curriculum, increased the percentage of full-time faculty with Ph.D.'s from 24% to 49%, and saw the enrollment grow from 400 to 1,100. However, Buswell's staunch Calvinism, fundamentalist separatism, and his reportedly difficult temperament made his tenure at Wheaton an uneasy one. After years of contentious relations on campus, the Wheaton board of trustees fired Buswell.

Doctrinal Distinctives

Although not a dispensationalist, he was a premillennialist who believed in what pre-tribulationists call a "mid-tribulation rapture." He authored dozens of articles and eleven books, most notably, A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion, 2 vols., now out-of-print. Peculiar beliefs of Buswell include his theory that Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ and that God's omnipresence does not mean that His existence extends throughout the universe—one may think of the universe as in God's lap.

Fundamentalist Churchman

Buswell was a staunch Calvinist who held to the Westminster Standards and Covenant theology. He was considered a fundamentalist, given his firm stand against the modernist accommodation within mainline Protestant denominations and his insistence on holding to the historic fundamentals of Christian doctrine.
In 1936, he was dismissed from the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. for the part that he played in the Independent Mission Board controversy, and became a figure in the founding of what would become the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The following year, he joined another fundamentalist Carl McIntire in forming the Bible Presbyterian Church. He would later participate in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod.

Personal life

Buswell married Helen in 1918 and together they had four children, Jane, James, Jr., Ruth, and John. His grandson and namesake is the virtuoso violinist, James Buswell IV.

Works

Thesis

Books

Buswell, James Oliver III