Samuel Eugene Balentine (2024)

Lisa JanesJune 26, 2024 at 12:26 pm - Reply

Bob LeeJune 26, 2024 at 3:19 pm - Reply

William B. RogersJune 26, 2024 at 3:39 pm - Reply

When I breathe in, I breathe in peace. When I breathe out, I breathe out love. William B. Rogers (faculty colleague)

Rick JordanJune 26, 2024 at 6:09 pm - Reply

When I went to Midwestern Theological Seminary in Kansas City as a first year student, I was the youngest student on campus. All of my professors began teaching there the year the school was founded, 1958 – the year I was born. I was graced with having as my faculty advisor Dr. Samuel Balentine, a fresh graduate from Oxford, much closer to my age. Much smarter, though. I met with Sam fairly regularly, and we saw each other regularly at Second Baptist Church in Liberty, MO, where we were both members.
Sam persuaded me, in spite of my arguments, that I should take at least one full year of Greek and Hebrew. None of the Baptist schools required that much language study, including MBTS. I think Sam hoped that I would become a pastor-scholar. So, I took languages, including Hebrew, which Sam taught. It was a small class. I couldn’t bluff my way through or hide behind other students’ quick answers. Languages are hard for me. Sam also taught courses on the Psalms, Job and on Lamentations. I loved his Bible classes so much that I took all that were offered, but I audited most of them. His grading scale was very tough. I made D’s in Hebrew, but they would have been B’s or C’s in another professor’s grade scale. I was not going to become a PhD pastor with those D’s on my record. Still, I learned so much from his teaching that I wanted to absorb as much as possible.
Eventually, I went on staff at 2BC as a part-time youth minister. I needed to have a professor as a reference. I chose Sam. Later, I invited Sam to join me as a chaperone for some events, but Sam was clear that he wasn’t called to youth ministry. Some years later, as I was leaving Missouri to do CPE in South Carolina, I was given my personnel file. I read Sam’s recommendation, which included something like, “Ricky [I went by Ricky back then] would be a great scholar if he didn’t spend so much time with people.” It may be the greatest sideways compliment I ever received.
Sam left MBTS to teach at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in NC. My sister, Cindy, was a student of his there. Unlike me, Cindy was a wizard in Hebrew. Cindy was also the Balentine’s babysitter. I kept up with Sam and him with me mostly through her.
When the disaster of the fundamentalist takeover happened, all current Bible professors in colleges and seminaries were suspect. It was horrible to watch and must have been terrible to live through. Sam, of course, was fired. When I heard, I went to Southeastern to visit him. I don’t know what I thought that would accomplish. I had no power to fight the fundamentalists, no influence to help Sam find another place to serve. All I could do was say, “I’m sorry. You don’t deserve this. How can I help?’ It turns out he was packing his books, so I helped him do that. From that hour or so together, I gained several life-lessons.
“Ricky, never sell your soul to an institution. They can’t be trusted. They don’t have your best interest in mind, only their own survival and success. I’ve given my life to institutions. Never again.” He modeled for me a way to love and serve the Church in a way that honors the Call and preserves the soul.
I asked what he was going to do next. He had no immediate professional plans. This severance was quick. “I love baseball. I plan to spend the next few months going to every professional baseball park to watch at least one game.” I don’t know if he accomplished that goal, but it taught me that it is okay to have interests other than the Church. I, for one, needed that permission – but it took a very long time for it to become a reality for me.
In the classroom, Sam taught me about the roles taken by Job’s friends. They started off well by sitting with Job in silence. There was mutual mourning of ordinary human beings. Then, a fix-it religion took over, a we’ve-got life-all-figured-out religion, a religion that switched from sit with the victim to blame the victim. Here, I attempted to live the best of what Sam taught me about Job’s friends’ visit. Sit in silence. Shrug off easy answers. Be present. Allow appropriate swearing.
Years later, I began my DMin at Union Seminary in Richmond, VA. It happened that Sam was now teaching at the Baptist Theological Seminary, across the street from UTS. We got together a few times. He was now a “Who’s-Who” in Baptist life and in the broader Old Testament scholarly world. I was a relative nobody in either of those worlds. It seemed silly for me to tell him that I was proud of him. But I did. He accepted my compliment with grace and a grin.

Charles B PuskasJune 26, 2024 at 6:29 pm - Reply

During one week that I worked with Sam on the New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible at Abingdon Press. He was one of our OT editors. It was during the NCAA basketball playoffs and we had on a TV nearby so that Sam could watch his beloved Furman Paladins play! I regarded him as Walt Brueggemann’s successor.