Гарольд Оккенга: Жизнь и служение американского пастора и богослова.

American pastor and academic

Harold John Ockenga (June 6, 1905 – February 8, 1985) was a leading figure of mid 20th century American Evangelicalism, part of the reform movement known as "Neo Evangelicalism". A Congregational minister, Ockenga served for many years as pastor of Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts. He was also a prolific author on biblical, theological, and devotional topics. Ockenga helped to found the Fuller Theological Seminary and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, as well as the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).

Ockenga was born on June 6, 1905, and raised in Chicago as the only son of Angie and Herman Ockenga. Ockenga's father had German ancestry; the name Ockenga is East Frisian. Harold Ockenga was baptized at Austin Presbyterian Church, and his mother later brought him to Olivet Methodist Episcopal Church of which he became a member at age eleven. As a teenager, he had a strong sense of God calling him to pastoral ministry. He began his undergraduate education at Taylor University, a then Methodist institution in Indiana. After graduating from Taylor in 1927, Ockenga enrolled as a student at Princeton Theological Seminary but did not complete his theological studies there. In the midst of the "fundamentalist modernist controversy" facing Christianity in the 1920s, he and many conservative classmates followed those members of the faculty – such as J. Gresham Machen, Robert Dick Wilson and Cornelius Van Til – who withdrew from Princeton to establish the Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1929. Ockenga graduated from Westminster in 1930, after which he enrolled as a student in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh to research on Marxism. He was awarded the PhD degree in 1939. During his studies at Pittsburgh he met Audrey Williamson, had a whirlwind courtship, and married in 1935.

Ockenga began his pastoral ministry in New Jersey, at two Methodist churches. In 1931 he accepted an invitation from Clarence E. Macartney to become a pastoral assistant at the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. During 1931 both Machen and Macartney recommended Ockenga for the position of pastor at Point Breeze Presbyterian church, in Pittsburgh. Ockenga went to be the associate pastor at Park Street Church, Boston, MA in 1936. In 1937, at the death of Park Street's longtime pastor, Arcturus Z. Conrad, Ockenga was appointed his successor. He continued in that post until 1969. During his pastoral career at Park Street, Ockenga delivered many sermons that later formed the substance of various books he wrote. In all he wrote a dozen books dealing with biblical themes, and pastoral commentaries on biblical texts and bible characters. His congregation thrived during much of his pastorate as he exercised considerable talents as a preacher, evangelist, leader and organizer. In 1950, Park Street Church hosted Billy Graham's (first mid century transcontinental) evangelistic crusade, which was regarded as highly successful. On the strength of that event, both Graham and Ockenga then conducted an evangelistic tour of New England. Ockenga later assisted Graham, Nelson Bell and Carl F. H. Henry in organizing the evangelical periodical, Christianity Today. He served as chairman of the board of the magazine until 1981.

In addition to his pastoral career and writings, Ockenga became a significant leader in a mid twentieth century reforming movement known as Neo Evangelicalism or the New Evangelicalism. Its roots are found in the theological controversy between Protestant Fundamentalists and Protestant Liberals or Modernists in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Much of the controversy centered on questions of the historicity of the Bible, biblical inerrancy, biblical interpretation, creationism and evolution, and various doctrines such as the deity of Christ, the Virgin Birth of Christ, the Atonement, the bodily resurrection of Christ, and the Second Advent of Christ. The reaction of many Fundamentalists to the influence of liberal Protestant theology and modern secular beliefs led to a withdrawal from many of the mainline denominations and institutions. In addition, the Fundamentalists believed that anyone, regardless of religious outlook, could be involved with social action and so they wanted to retreat to deal only with the "Spiritual Gospel." However, Ockenga and some other younger and emerging figures inside those churches felt uncomfortable about the militant isolation from culture. Ockenga also believed that Jesus came to deal with the physical well being in addition to the more serious spiritual well being of the people he met. Alongside of Ockenga were figures such as Carl F. H. Henry, Harold Lindsell, Wilbur M. Smith, and Edward John Carnell.

Towards the end of the Second World War, Ockenga founded War Relief and the War Relief Commission (1944) to deal with the situation abroad. He believed that Neo Evangelicalism would lack credibility if Christians did not meet the physical needs of those who desperately needed assistance and only preached a spiritual Gospel. War Relief later became World Relief.

The first sixteen years of work at Fuller Theological Seminary witnessed the development of two outlooks among staff and students: conservative and progressive evangelicalism. Among the conservatives, such as Ockenga, Henry, Lindsell and Smith, there was some concern that others such as David Hubbard, Paul Jewett and Daniel Fuller held to a different view of biblical inerrancy. Those who differed with the conservatives held to a vision for progressive thought among evangelicals on theological, biblical and ethical issues. With Ockenga's final departure from the role of president in absentia, the seminary shifted into a different phase of growth under the direction of those identified with progressive thinking. Much of the history of these tensions between conservatives and progressives are discussed in George Marsden's history of the seminary. When Ockenga retired from Park Street Church in 1969 he was appointed president of Gordon College and Divinity School. His desire was to recreate on the U. S. East Coast something of the essence of what had been planned for Fuller seminary. In the late 1960s, therefore, Ockenga entered into negotiations to merge two institutions: Gordon Divinity School and the Conwell School of Theology. He collaborated with people such as J. Howard Pew, Billy Graham and Walter Martin in establishing Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. Ockenga served as its president from 1970–79, with figures like Walter Martin sitting on the seminary's board. Ockenga died of cancer on Friday, February 8, 1985. At his funeral service on Monday, February 11, 1985, was an old friend: Billy Graham. "He was a giant among giants," Graham reflected. "Nobody outside of my family influenced me more than he did. I never made a major decision without first calling and asking his advice and counsel. I thank God for his friendship and his life."

Joel A. Carpenter, ed. Two Reformers of Fundamentalism: Harold John Ockenga and Carl F. H. Henry (New York: Garland Publishing, 1988). H. Crosby Englizian, Brimstone Corner: Park Street Church, Boston (Chicago: Moody Press, 1968). Harold Lindsell, Park Street Prophet: A Life of Harold John Ockenga (Wheaton: Van Kampen Press, 1951). Garth M. Rosell, The Surprising Work of God: Harold John Ockenga, Billy Graham, and the Rebirth of Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008). The personal library and papers of Harold John Ockenga are archived at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.