As a seminary student, R. Alan Streett avoided courses taught by George Wesley Buchanan. It wasn’t just that Buchanan’s courses were difficult. It was that Buchanan had a campus reputation for wandering from the pack.
Forty-five years later, Streett read Buchanan’s autobiography. Buchanan described the difficulty of his time at Wesley and described how his colleagues regularly misunderstood his work. Streett found himself captivated by the memoir.
“Using metaphorical language, Buchanan likened his fellow faculty members to ‘collie dogs’ who spent their time keeping the sheep within the fold and rounding them up whenever they strayed,” explained Streett in a recent CT article. “Their main job was to protect the theological borders of their institutional pasture. By comparison, Buchanan identified himself as a ‘hound dog’ who followed the scent of biblical truth wherever its trail might lead.”
Through Buchanan’s words, Streett recognized his tendency to be a collie rather than a hound dog in his theological pursuits. He broadened his borders, remaining faithful to the creeds while becoming more openhanded with secondary issues. In doing so, he’s grown to better understand and appreciate the historical context of Scripture, which does not undercut the text but instead illuminates it.
As we try to understand God’s Word, may we heed the advice of Buchanan and Streett to “keep [our] noses to the ground and follow the trail of biblical truth.”
