The biblical theology of H. H. Rowley, 1890-1969 - Critical Essay

Baptist History and Heritage, Wntr, 2003 by Ronald E. Clements

Harold Henry Rowley was born in Leicester on March 24, 1890, as the fifth of six children born to Richard Rowley, a foreman in one of the shoemaking factories that characterized the most prominent local industry.

His mother was Emma Rowley (nde Saunt), and his early education was at Wyggeston School, Leicester. (1)

Religious Upbringing

During childhood and youth, Harold Rowley attended, along with his parents, Melbourne Hall, the Baptist Chapel in Leicester that had been opened in 1881 under the energetic leadership of the celebrated preacher E B. Meyer. When Meyer left Melbourne Hall in 1888 for a London pastorate, the oversight of the chapel passed to William Young Fullerton. Fullerton had been a student of Pastor's College in London (later renamed Spurgeon's College) founded by C. H. Spurgeon, and in 1907-08 he had accompanied C. E. Wfison on a fact-finding tour of China to assist in planning future mission work. This visit appears to have been directly relevant to the shaping of Rowley's interest in Christian missions in that land. Fullerton remained the senior minister at Melbourne Hall until he was appointed home secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society in 1912. As a result, his ministry overlapped closely with Rowley's years in its fellowship. In the preface to his Louisa Curtis Lectures delivered at Spurgeon's College in 1948 on the subject of "The Biblical Doctrine of Election," Rowley paid particular tribute to Fullerton. He noted his great personal indebtedness to him over an eighteen-year period and expressed his feeling that it created a direct link back to the person of C. H. Spurgeon himself.

Under Fullerton's ministry at Melbourne Hall, the influence of E B. Meyer was still strongly felt since he had become established as an outstanding leader, not only of Baptists, but of all the Evangelical Free Churches. (2) He was a leading figure in the establishment of the Free Church Federal Council in 1896. Cooperation between all shades of evangelical opinion had greatly increased in promoting a wide range of national policies covering education and social action to counter moral abuse and exploitation. United action by all evangelical churches, irrespective of their historic denominational ties, had become an important aspect of this.

Since Rowley himself left no detailed account of his own inner spiritual pilgrimage, it is useful to note those distinctive emphases that both Meyer and Fullerton contributed to Baptist life and thought. They reappear strongly in Rowley's writings.

Meyer was a close friend and associate of the American evangelist Dwight L. Moody--among the closest of his English supporters. The two men had first met in 1873 when Moody preached in the Priory Street Church in York that Meyer served as pastor. This was at the beginning of Moody's first evangelistic campaign in Great Britain.

Meyer shared with Moody a deep distrust of excessively formal, inward-looking, churches where faith was lacking in practical spiritual outreach. Rather than use the title church for the new meeting place of the Christian fellowship in Leicester, Meyer preferred the simple "Melbourne Hall" (it was located on Melbourne Road) when it opened in 1881. The theme of a "servant church" whose commission was a worldwide mission is repeatedly and strikingly taken up in Rowley's writings. His scholarship became uniquely associated with studies of the biblical portrait of the Suffering Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53.

Like Moody, Meyer believed passionately that all true worship should lead to a serious quest for practical holiness. In the late-nineteenth century this conviction led him to take a central role in the growth and development of the Keswick Movement for the renewal and revitalization of Christian spiritual life. (3) As Meyer was responsible for introducing Moody to the Keswick Conferences in England's Lake District, so similarly Moody introduced Meyer to the Northfield Conferences in the United States which were likewise aimed at deepening the spiritual life. A strong bond of friendship and understanding grew between Meyer and Moody, and also with A. J. Gordon, which was to have long-lasting consequences in the twentieth century.

In view of Meyer's emphasis on education and "practical holiness," it is not surprising to find that the word "relevance" appears several times in the titles of the books and articles that flowed from Rowley's pen. He felt keenly the importance of the Bible's message to the contemporary mission of the church and the needs of society. That a continuity of purpose related the message of the Old Testament to the Christian Church of the New provided him with all the justification he needed for directing his scholarly abilities toward seeking a fuller insight into this first part of the biblical canon.

Academic Career

Harold Rowley entered the Baptist College in Bristol in 1910 and graduated B.A. (Theology) in 1913. In parallel with this, he had also entered the lists as an external student of London University and obtained their pass-level B.D. degree in 1912. He was awarded a Baptist Union scholarship, but the outbreak of war in 1914 prevented his venturing abroad to study in Germany, which is what he would normally have been expected to do. Instead, he went to Mansfield College, Oxford and began research there under G. Buchanan Gray. He widened his skills as a linguist, being awarded the university's Houghton Syriac Prize in 1915. During this time, he maintained his association with Melbourne Hall and held firm to his intention of missionary service overseas.