‘Conn’-versation

Harvie M. Conn was professor of missions at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia from 1972 until his retirement in 1998. He passed away in August of 1999 after a long battle with cancer.

Dr. Conn was born in Regina, SK, Canada in 1933, and became an American citizen in 1957. He received an AB from Calvin College in 1953, a BD in 1957, and a Th. M in 1958 both from Westminster Theological Seminary. He was awarded a Litt.D. from Geneva College in 1976.

In 1957, Harvie began a church planting ministry in New Jersey. Later, he went to Korea as an itinerant preacher in churches. He also taught New Testament at the General Assembly Theological Seminary in Seoul for ten years, as well as carrying on a ministry of evangelism there among prostitutes and pimps. He came to Westminster in 1972, and began teaching both apologetics and missions. He became an expert in interpreting popular culture and used this ability to regularly review films in a column for Eternity Magazine.

While teaching at Westminster, Harvie took groups of students on missions field trips to India and Uganda. This led him to become a leader in urban evangelism and missions, which has become one of Westminster’s trademarks at degree levels. Harvie also edited the magazine Urban Mission from 1989-1999.

One of Dr. Conn’s former students made the astute observation that “Conn’s most enduring missiological contribution was his concentration on the importance of the city. He wanted the church to focus on the city, not because it was trendy–it was not–but because he read closely both the biblical material and the demographic data, bridging them together on a third horizon: God’s mission to the cities of the world. No longer, Conn argued, could the world be considered a global village. Instead, it is a global city. This is the church’s context, and to be effective the church would need to sort out urban myth from fact. Not only did Conn help to put the city on the evangelical agenda, but he changed the way we think about the city.”

As a result of requests from urban pastors in Philadelphia, the Westminster Ministerial Institute began in 1973 under Conn’s direction. Saturday classes at Westminster later led to the formation of the Center for Urban Theological Studies. (Information for this biographical sketch taken in part from an obituary for Dr. Conn written by Westminster professor Larry Sibley.)

Below is an incomplete bibliography of Harvie Conn’s writings. We are looking into the possibility of this site hosting some of his unpublished or out-of-print writings in the future. Many of Dr. Conn’s in-print books, and even some of his recorded lectures, are available from Westminster Bookstore (www.wtsbooks.com).

MOST INFLUENTIAL WRITINGS

Eternal Word In A Changing World: Theology, Anthropology, and Missions in Trialogue (New Jersey: P&R; 1984)

Evangelism: Doing Justice and Preaching Grace (New Jersey: P&R; 1982)

OTHER BOOKS

Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City, & the People of God co-authored by Manny Ortiz (Illinois: IVP; 2001)

Contemporary World Theology: A Layman’s Guide (New Jersey: P&R; 1974)

Studies In The Theology Of The Korean Presbyterian Church (Westminster Seminary Bookstore)

The American City And The Evangelical Church: A Historical Overview (Michigan: Baker Books; 1994)

EDITED VOLUMES

Practical Theology And The Ministry Of The Church 1952-1984:Essays in Honor of Edmund P. Clowney (New Jersey: P&R; 1990)

Planting And Growing Urban Churches: From Dream to Reality (Michigan: Baker Books; 1997)

The Urban Face Of Mission: Ministering the Gospel in a Diverse and Changing World (New Jersey: P&R; 2002)

Inerrancy And Hermeneutic: A Tradition, a Challenge, a Debate (Michigan: Baker Books; 1988)

Reaching The Unreached: The Old-New Challenge (New Jersey: P&R; 1984)

Theological Perspectives On Church Growth (USA; Dulk Foundation; 1976)

Missions And Theological Education In World Perspective (Gabriel Resources; 1985)

ARTICLES

“Luke’s Theology of Prayer.” Christianity Today, December 22, 1972: pp. 6-8.

“God’s Urban Surprises.” Urban Mission 14:4, June 1997: pp. 3-6.

“Refugees, the City, and Missions.” Urban Mission 15:2, December 1997: pp. 3-6.

“Blaming the Victim?” Urban Mission 15:4, June 1998: pp. 3-6.

“Looking at Some of Africa’s Urban Challenges.” Urban Mission 16:2, December 1998: pp. 3-6.

“Training the Layman for Witness,” Training for Missions, edited by Paul G. Schrotenboer. (Grand Rapids: Reformed Ecumenical Synod, 1977), 74-103.

“Contextualization: Where Do We Begin?” Evangelicals and Liberation, edited by Carl E. Amerding. (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1977) 90-119.

“Contextualization: A New Dimension for Cross-Cultural Hermeneutic,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 14 (January 1978): 39-46.

“Theologies of Liberation,” Tensions in Contemporary Theology. 3rd Rev. Ed., Stanley Gundry and Alan Johnson, eds. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1979), 327-434.

“Review of ‘Black Theology: A Documentary History, 1966-1979′,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 25 (June 1982): 238-40.

“The Gospel and Culture,” Gospel in Context 1 (January 1978): 19-21.

UNPUBLISHED WORKS

“The Concept of Reason in the Theology of John Calvin.” Unpublished Th.M. thesis submitted to Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1958.