Andrew Fuller | |
|---|---|
 Fuller, stained-glass portrait | |
| Born | 6 February 1754 (1754-02-06) Wicken, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Died | 7 May 1815(1815-05-07) (aged 61) Kettering,Northamptonshire, England |
Andrew Fuller (6 February 1754 – 7 May 1815) was an EnglishParticular Baptist minister andtheologian. Known as a promoter ofmissionary work, he also took part in theological controversy.
Fuller was born inWicken, Cambridgeshire, and settled atKettering, Northamptonshire. During his life, Fuller pastored two congregations –Soham (1775–1782) and Kettering (1782–1815), which is now theFuller Baptist Church, He died on 7 May 1815 at Kettering. His son, J. G. Fuller established a printing company in Kettering, and tookWilliam Knibb as an apprentice. Knibb later became a Baptist missionary in Jamaica.[1]
Fuller is best known in connection with the foundation of theBaptist Missionary Society, to which he for the most part devoted his energies.[2] His work in promoting the missionary enterprises of the Baptist church began about 1784. A sermon published by him then,The Nature and Importance of Walking by Faith, with an appendixA Few Persuasives to a General Union in Prayer for the Revival of Religion, indirectly stimulated the movement. The Baptist Missionary Society (initially "Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen")[3] was formed at Kettering in 1792.William Carey, impressed by Fuller's workThe Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, became the first missionary. Fuller took on the work at home.[4]
Fuller, aParticular Baptist, was a controversialist in defence of the governmental theory of the atonement againsthyper-Calvinism on the one hand andSocinianism andSandemanianism on the other.Abraham Booth accused him of giving up trueCalvinism.[5] Fuller debated theology with theGeneral BaptistDan Taylor, but they remained on good terms.[6]
According toChristianity Today, "'Tall, stout and muscular, a famous wrestler in his youth,' this self-taught farmer’s son became a champion for Christ, 'the most creatively useful theologian' of the Particular Baptists. His bookThe Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, 1785, restated Calvinist theology for Baptists influenced by theEvangelical Revival. HisDoctorate of Divinity was bestowed byBrown University,Rhode Island."
Fuller wrote:[4]
Fuller also wrote pamphlets, sermons, and essays. He contributed toCharles Edward de Coetlogon'sTheological Miscellany, theEvangelical Magazine, theMissionary Magazine, theQuarterly Magazine, theProtestant Dissenters' Magazine, and theBiblical Magazine.John Ryland, in hisLife of Fuller, enumerated 167 articles that Fuller had contributed. Editions of hisComplete Works appeared in 1838, 1840, 1845, 1852, and 1853.Joseph Belcher edited an edition in three volumes for the Baptist Publication Society of Philadelphia, and his major publications were issued with a memoir by his son inBohn's Standard Library, 1852.[4]
Fuller kept shorthand notes of his earlier sermons and these remained undeciphered until 2019.[7]
Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: "Fuller, Andrew".Dictionary of National Biography. London:Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "Fuller, Andrew".The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.The eight volume "The Works of Andrew Fuller" includes volumes from the 1820, 1824, and 1825 editions.
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