He served as a chaplain in the 140th Infantry during World War I. After pastorates in a Presbyterian church in Milwaukee (1919–1922) and a Reformed church in Brooklyn (1922–26), Buswell served as president of Wheaton College from 1926 to 1940. He then served as president of the National Bible Institute of New York City, and its successor, Shelton College, in Ringwood, New Jersey from 1941 to 1955. And finally, in 1956, he became dean of Covenant College (1956–1964) and Covenant Theological Seminary (1956–1970) in St. Louis, Missouri. The libraries at both Wheaton College and Covenant Theological Seminary were named in his honor, though the Wheaton board of trustees voted in 2023 to remove Buswell's name because of his refusal to admit Black students in the 1930s.[2]
Tenure as President of Wheaton College
In January 1926, the young Rev. Buswell was on the campus of Wheaton College to deliver a week's worth of chapel sermons. Within weeks, college trustees invited Buswell to become Wheaton's third president (and first ever not named Blanchard). He was the youngest college president at 31 years old. Over the next 14 years, Buswell oversaw a significant period of growth in both numbers and academic rigor. He guided the college through the process of accreditation, bolstered its curriculum (especially in the sciences), increased the percentage of full-time faculty with Ph.D.'s from 24% to 49%, and saw the enrollment grow from 400 to 1,100.[3] However, Buswell's staunch Calvinism, fundamentalist separatism and his reportedly difficult temperament made his tenure at Wheaton an uneasy one. After years of contentious relations on campus, the Wheaton board of trustees fired Buswell.[4]
Doctrinal Distinctives
Although not a dispensationalist, he was a premillennialist who believed in what pre-tribulationists call a "mid-tribulation rapture." (Actually, he believed that the Bible term tribulation only applies to the 2nd half of Daniel's 70th week; thus a so-called "mid-tribulationist" may well call himself a "pre-tribulationist.") He authored dozens of articles and eleven books, most notably, A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion, 2 vols. (1962–63, out-of-print). Peculiar beliefs of Buswell include his theory that Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ and that God's omnipresence does not mean that His existence extends throughout the universe—one may think of the universe as in God's lap.
Fundamentalist Churchman
Buswell was a staunch Calvinist who held to the Westminster Standards and covenant theology. He was considered a fundamentalist given his firm stand against the modernist accommodation within mainline Protestant denominations and his insistence on holding to the historic fundamentals (basics) of Christian doctrine.
Buswell married Helen (née Spaulding) in 1918 and together they had four children, Jane, James III, Ruth, and John. His grandson and namesake was the virtuoso violinist, James O. Buswell IV (Dec. 4, 1946 - Sept. 28, 2021).[5]
Works
Thesis
Buswell, James Oliver (1924). The Order of the Material in the Fourth Gospel (MA). University of Chicago, Divinity School. OCLC44747920.
Buswell, James Oliver (1949). The Philosophies of F. R. Tennant and John Dewey (PhD). New York University.
——— (1962). A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion, in 2 volumes. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. ISBN978-0-310-22190-6. OCLC692264631.—originally published in 2 volumes
Works by children of J. Oliver Buswell, Jr.
Buswell, James Oliver III [12 January 1922 - 8 August 2011]
——— (1964). Slavery, Segregation, and Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. OCLC188229.
——— (1965). Genesis, the Neolithic, and the antiquity of Adam. St. Louis, MO: Covenant Theological Seminary. OCLC40837933.
