Robert George Torbet (1912-Present), Torbet, a seminary dean, professor, and historian, is a native of
Spokane, Washington. Advanced studies have led him to degrees from Wheaton
College, the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the University of
Pennsylvania. During the past thirty years, he has served or the faculty of
the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (1934-1951), and on the American
Baptist Board of Education and Publications (editor and department director,
1951-1958), and on the faculty of Central Baptist Theological Seminary
(Professor of Church History and Dean, 1958-Present). Torbet is a member
also of several historical societies. Besides serving on the Board of
Education and Publications, he has also served as President of the American
Baptist Convention (1965-1966). Although Torbet has produced several
historical works, chief source for this study is A History of the Baptists.
According to Robert G. Torbet three classifications of
Baptist theories of origin have emerged in Baptist historiography:
(1)
the successionist theory
(2)the Anabaptist spiritual kinship theory
(3)
the English Separatist descent theory.
