In the first decades of the twentieth century, there was a reaction to the modernist movement among some conservative Protestants. They issued a call to return to the "fundamentals" to restore the emphasis on inerrant and authoritative teachings of the Bible to its former wide acceptance. A number of factors following World War I resulted in a general public reaction in the 1930s against the "Fundamentalists," as they came to be called, and subsequent withdrawal of conservative believers into a closed circle of independent congregations, para-church, and professional groups with increasingly less contact and interaction with mainline Christian denominations. Post-World Was II years produced a rising concern among conservative scholars of the necessity to counteract this withdrawal of conservatives from the wider world of scholarly activity. While many Fundamentalists tended to be anti-intellectual, some conservatives, calling themselves Evangelicals, began to challenge liberal solutions.

The Evangelical Theological Society arose out of a long-standing and keenly perceived need for interaction and wider dissemination of conservative research on biblical and theological issues. Conservative, Evangelical scholars were equally concerned that the Bible was no longer being supported as authoritative in many schools and seminaries, among leaders of main-line denominations, or in published research. By providing an Evangelical arena of intellectual interchange and disseminating the results to a larger public, it was hoped that exposition and defense of Evangelical positions could be added to existing scholarly theological literature more liberal in content.

As a result of many informal conferences in schools and seminaries, faculty members of Gordon Divinity School, Boston, Massachusetts, decided to take the first step toward organization of a group of like-minded scholars into a society having as its purpose publication of such research and the provision of a forum for discussion and support between its members. A series of twenty-four letters to individual professors of approximately twenty conservative colleges and seminaries was sent out early in 1949 to gauge interest. Responses from these encouraged the committee, under the chairmanship of Edward R. Dalglish of Gordon, to proceed with further arrangements. A list of those originally contacted can be found on a separate page of this guide. Consensus of meeting time and place resulted in the first gathering of the Society in Cincinnati, on December 27 and 28, 1949. Meetings were held in the YMCA and were attended by sixty scholars, representing at least twenty different denominations. The group elected R. Clarence Bouma (Calvin Seminary) as President and appointed an Executive Committee to carry on the continuing business. Membership, Editorial, and a Standing Committee were established, the latter for program arrangements. A complete list of original officers and committees will be found on another page of this guide. A list of papers read at this meeting is also given.

The decision was made to form a society composed of independent individuals of conservative, Evangelical conviction with one common denominator: scholarship based on the concept of biblical inerrancy. These individuals were not required to be affiliated with schools and seminaries and were not to be limited to specific denominational or theological traditions. For these reasons, the creedal statement was limited to one sentence: "The Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is the word of God written, and therefore inerrant in the autographs." It was also decided that papers should not be limited to biblical and exegesis studies but were to range the entire field of theological disciplines.

A constitution and by-laws were drawn up at this meeting, with the stated purpose of fostering "conservative Biblical scholarship by providing a medium for the oral exchange and written expression of thought and research in the general field of the theological disciplines as centered in the Scriptures." Eligible for membership were possessors of a Th.M. degree or equivalent; subsequent by-laws set up an Associate membership without voting rights for those without this degree. Also added was a Student Associate status granted in 1951 to those of college level or beyond, requiring only subscription to the creedal statement and payment of dues. Member and Associate dues were used to fund the cost of publications. At the end of 1950, ETS had grown to one hundred members.

Annual meetings were scheduled in December after Christmas and held at colleges and seminaries across the country. These institutions, and others, were encouraged to defray the expenses for their faculty members who wished to attend. Meetings consisted of formal sessions at which prepared papers, addresses, and panel discussions were presented. Informal discussion periods in group meetings, at meals, and in devotional sessions also provided interaction of like-minded scholars, as well as those of varying points of view, to gain understanding, definition, and solution to their mutual concerns. This structure was aimed at articulating a biblically-based faith, subjecting it to discriminating criticism, and disseminating the results.

In 1952, ETS authorized the formation of four sections: Eastern, Southern, Midwestern, and Far Western. Each section conducted at least one annual meeting in its own territory in addition to the regular annual meeting in December. The first meeting outside the United States was held in Toronto at Toronto Bible College in 1967. The Evangelical Theological Society of Canada became a Canadian section in 1969. A year later, The Evangelical Theological Society of Japan was formed, maintaining contact but not becoming part of ETS. By 1982 there were seven sections: Eastern, Midwestern, Far Western, Southeastern, Southwestern, Northwestern, and Foreign.

In 1957, ETS consisted of 252 members and 110 associates, including leading conservative scholars in the U.S. and Canada, as well as some in mission work or study abroad. The twentieth anniversary, 1968, was celebrated at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, with the theme, "An Evangelical Review of Old Testament Studies." There was a total membership of 818, 280 of whom were associate or student memberships. A silver anniversary meeting in 1973 convened at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, and ETS membership on that date was 812; the focus of the study papers was on the New Testament. By 1980, the membership was up to 1,378, 780 with the required Th.M. degree.

As a result of its convictions and the basic reason for its formation, one of the Society's major activities subsequently became publication. A quarterly Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society was first published in 1958. It contained minutes of the meetings, a roster of those attending, selected texts of papers read at the meeting, book reviews, announcements, and a list of new members, associates, and students. The name was changed to Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society in 1969. The Society also published a directory of members each year from 1953. In 1977, the Newsletter was inaugurated, a house organ which endeavored to keep its members in touch with research in process, announcements of interest to members in various sectional meetings, announcements of other group meetings dealing with areas of research, publications of members, etc.

In 1957, ETS sponsored a symposium, Inspiration and Interpretation, consisting of some chapters written by historical leaders of the church like Augustine and Wesley and others written by members of the Society. The Society also produced a monograph series of six volumes including:

Vol. 1 - Emil Brunner's Concept of Revelation, Paul K. Jewett.

Vol. 2 - Israel and the Arameans of Damascus, Merrill F. Unger, 1957.

Vol. 3 - Darius the Mede, John C. Whitcomb, 1959.

Vol. 4 - Karl Barth's Theological Method, Gordon H. Clark, 1963.

Vol. 5 - Paul, Apostle of Liberty, Richard N. Longenecker, 1964.

Vol. 6 - The Bible: The Living Word of Revelation, Merrill C. Tenney, 1968.

A twentieth anniversary volume, New Perspectives on the Old Testament, 1969, was published by Word Books containing the papers presented at that meeting. A similar volume, New Dimensions in New Testament Study, was issued by Zondervan containing papers from the twenty-fifth anniversary meeting, 1973. Perspectives on Evangelical Theology commemorated the thirtieth anniversary in 1978.

In 1955, ETS began conducting biennial gatherings with American Scientific Affiliation. This organization had as its goal the pursuit of a Christian philosophy of science based on the reliability of scriptural authority, an emphasis which coincided with ETS and its creedal stance. ASA was founded in 1941 and included professors, students, doctors, industrial scientists, and government research workers troubled by attacks on the scientific unworthiness of the Bible. Joint meetings were concerned with such topics as genetic control and theories of man's origin (1966). ASA's membership in that year was fifteen hundred.

A recurring issue in ETS had been its doctrinal statement. Broad denominational inclusiveness within ETS included believers in inerrancy from many traditions, including Reformed, Arminian, and dispensational Evangelicals. Until 1982 there had been in the Society no official action to restate, add to, or delete any part of the statement of inerrancy which all members signed yearly with renewal of membership. In 1962, an ETS survey of its membership had reaffirmed the group's commitment to inerrancy. Two-thirds of those surveyed placed biblical authority as primary for a cohesive, conservative, and coordinated theological offensive. A panel discussion at the December meeting was titled, "Biblical Inerrancy Today." At the same time, however, other ETS members were contending that poetic, or literary, elements should be recognized. In 1968, prompted by a question to the Society about its position on inerrancy, the Executive Committee responded to the effect that inerrancy was valid both as a term and as a concept. In 1972 a discussion was held regarding a possible affiliation with the Council on the Study of Religion but rejected the option because the doctrinal standard of CSR did not coincide with the ETS position. ETS continued to send nonvoting representatives to the meetings. Four years later, 1976, the Executive Committee included in its minutes the sentence that "the statement in its brevity and simplicity is both adequate and sufficient."

Questions continued to be raised over the difference between inerrant or infallible teaching as opposed to inerrant Scripture subject to variants of language and whether or not all ETS members were seriously or wholeheartedly committed to the doctrinal standard. During these years, the Society began to lose a number of members who developed reservations or opinions which they felt could not be reconciled with the doctrinal statement. These losses reflected the concurrent debate during the 1960s and 1970s in Evangelical circles. A polarization developed between those who accepted the biblical records as literal, those who acknowledged the categories of literary and apocalyptic genre, many of which use descriptive nonliteral terms, and those who recognized the possibility of scribal errors in translations or contradictions which methods of textual study revealed. Most of the Evangelical leaders supporting a statement of unqualified inerrancy were to be found within the membership of ETS, including Harold Lindsell, Frank E. Gaebelein, Roger R. Nicole, Kenneth S. Kantzer, and others.

In 1982 three of the papers delivered at the annual meeting dealt with some aspect of inerrancy. As a result, coupled with increasing controversy over precise definition of the term, for the first time in ETS history a committee was appointed to study the issue and report in December 1983. The committee was assigned to examine in particular the question of whether or not methodological criteria for interpretation of scripture should be limited, and if so, whether or not qualifications to this effect should be added to the original statement to ensure its members' adherence to the original intent of the statement.