Augustus Hopkins Strong

1836-1921. American Baptist pastor and educator. Born in Rochester, New York, he graduated from Yale (1857) and Rochester Theological Seminary (1859) and studied at the University of Berlin. Ordained in 1861, he held pastorates in Massachusetts and Ohio. He was elected president of Rochester Theological Seminary (1872-1912) and was also professor of biblical theology. Although clearly conservative in theology, Strong was open to certain trends developing late in the nineteenth century, such as theistic evolution and German idealism. He was always active in the life of the American (Northern) Baptist denomination, serving as president of the American Baptist Missionary Union (1892-95) and first president of the Northern Baptist Convention (1905-10). He toured Baptist mission fields in 1916-17. His major writings include Systematic Theology (13 vols., 1886), Philosophy and Religion (1888), The Great Poets and Their Theology (1897), and Christ in Creation and Ethical Monotheism (1899).