Baptists through the Centuries provides a clear introduction to the history and theology of this influential and international people. David Bebbington, a leading Baptist historian, surveys the main developments in Baptist life and thought from the seventeenth century to the present. The Baptist movement took root and grew well beyond its British and American origins. Bebbington persuasively demonstrates how Baptists continually adapted to the cultures and societies in which they lived, generating ever more diversity within an already multifaceted group. Bebbington's survey also examines the challenging social, political, and intellectual issues in Baptist historyaattitudes on race, women's roles in the church, religious liberty, missions, and theological commitments. The second edition of this proven textbook extends the scope with chapters on three parts of the world where Baptists have become particularly numerous: Latin America (where Brazilian Baptists number over 2 million), Nigeria (where Baptists are at their strongest outside North America, numbering roughly 5 million), and the Naga Hills in India (where Baptists form over 80 percent of the population). Each chapter also highlights regional issues that have presented new challenges and opportunities to Baptists: holistic mission in Latin America, the experience of charismatic renewal and the encounter with Islam in Nigeria, and the demands of peacemaking in the Naga Hills. Through this new edition, Bebbington orients readers and expands their knowledge of the Baptist community as it continues to flourish around the world.

This book offers a history of three generations of Baptist and Methodist clergymen in nineteenth-century Virginia, and through them of the congregations and communities in which they lived and worked. Unlike previous scholars, who examined Southern Protestantism as only a proslavery and pro-Confederate ideology, Schweiger takes a wider view and finds a broad transformation of the social and cultural context of religious experience in the region. She traces several major themes, such as the contrast between rural and urban experience, or the Methodist and Baptist schisms of the 1840's through the lives and careers of 800 clergy.

This work in practical theology begins with an exploration of the psychosocial issues at play in Australian Baptist churches as communities. Many of those who attend such churches, and those like them in Britain and North America, often find a warm sense of welcome and belonging. What follows builds on this positive subjective experience through the lens of Christian community framed by the rich scriptural narrative of covenantal priesthood. Such corporate priesthood, as demonstrated by our early Baptist forebears, comes to joint expression in worship and sharing God's blessing with his world, and affirms the mutual priestly service of covenanted church community. Endorsements: "Talk of 'community' can be too easy. It appeals as a convenient space holder in ecclesiological debate, with sometimes facile results. Anne Klose has produced a welcome and overdue theology of community which avoids such traps. Speaking from within (and, critically, to) the Baptist tradition she considers the issues from many angles: pycho-social, biblical, historical and systematic. The result is a practical theology which both genuinely advances Baptist debate and takes the questions poignantly into wider dialogue. All current ecclesiological conversation will benefit from taking this study seriously." - Martin Sutherland, Dean/CEO, Australian College of Theology "Anne Klose's book is an important Australian contribution to the global conversation between Baptist theologians around shared understandings and practices of congregation and community. Far from being a merely academic treatise, Klose outlines a theologically rich account of worship, congregational relationships, and the sharing of God's blessings with the wider community. For Baptist readers who might find these emphases unsurprisingly familiar, Klose disconcertingly describes these practices as 'covenantal priesthood'. For Baptists unfamiliar with such language, Klose's book is a necessary corrective to the overly individualistic and reductionist congregational practices that typify too many contemporary Baptist churches." - Rev Dr Darrell Jackson is the Associate Professor of Missiology, Morling College, Sydney. "Baptist historian W. T. Whitley once suggested that "the distinctive feature about Baptists is their doctrine of the Church." Yet this uniqueness is not uniform. It is evident in its diverse manifestations. Anne Klose has written an important book that puts the ecclesiology of Australian Baptists into wider conversations. She argues that one of the contributions that Baptist have to make is their commitment to a church of priests to each other, which resists the degrading influences of modern individualism. It is a word well worth pondering in this age of moral strangers." - Curtis W. Freeman, Research Professor of Theology and Director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke University Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Perhaps no person exerted more influence on postwar white Southern memory than former Confederate chaplain and Baptist minister J. William Jones. Christopher C. Moore's Apostle of the Lost Cause is the first full-length work to examine the complex contributions to Lost Cause ideology of this well-known but surprisingly understudied figure. Commissioned by Robert E. Lee himself to preserve an accurate account of the Confederacy, Jones responded by welding hagiography and denominationalism to create, in effect, a sacred history of the Southern cause. In a series of popular books and in his work as secretary of the Southern Historical Society Papers, Jones's mission became the canonization of Confederate saints, most notably Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis, for a postwar generation and the contrivance of a full-blown myth of Southern virtue-in-defeat that deeply affected historiography for decades to come. While personally committed to Baptist identity, Jones supplied his readers with embodiments of Southern morality who transcended denominational boundaries and enabled white Southerners to locate their champions (and themselves) in a quasi-biblical narrative that ensured ultimate vindication for the Southern cause. In a time when Confederate monuments and the enduring effects of white supremacy are in the daily headlines, an examination of this key figure in the creation of the Lost Cause legacy could not be more relevant.

The Southern Baptist published beliefs from the years 1833 through 2000 and particularly as adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention, 14 June 2000 are reviewed. The questions are asked; "As published do they clearly show the plan of salvation?" and "does the average Southern Baptist know and understand them?" If not, they represent some type of tool for the leadership who in some instances seem to show an almost pathological dedication to them, even overshadowing the Scriptures. (They are "a witness to the world." Baptist Faith and Message 2000, p. 3) The Baptist Faith & Message Statement has always created controversy. The one from the year 2000 created the most, however, not nearly as much as Jesus created. Even Calvin (1509-1564) noted, "Tumult and unrest often accompany the true proclamation of God's word." (Shepherds Notes, Calvins Institutes, Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1998 p.14) These conclusions have come from discussions and written reviews by senior Baptists, some who have, at least psychologically, left the Southern Baptist Convention. I am reminded of the words of Paul, "I am debtor to the barbarians; and both to the wise and unwise." (Romans 1:14) There is no doubt in my mind that if Christ were to return in this century as He did 2000 years ago He would be crucified again; this time probably by Baptists instead of the Jews. Major issues will be discussed. Baptists have always had the right to discuss and compare their beliefs. I can clearly remember my father, who was the best true Christian that I have ever known saying, "Son, I am a Southern Baptist because I believe they are closer to what the Bible teaches than anyone else." This book is really 18 books in one. It reviews many "big" current religious issues including: refuting the concept of the original sin, clarification of predestination, what is truth (The question Pilate asked Jesus and did not wait for an answer), the Philosophy of War (effects of religion, pacifists, the "Just War," Terror-Us (A new word for crime in America.), shame in our churches, our children moving from television to video games and further away from the Bible, the false concept and security of Baptist in the non-biblical widespread belief of a pre-tribulation rapture, the Biblical warnings that must happen before Christ comes again, a description of the End of the World, and America going to hell reading religious novels. I mentioned to a friend the distraction of reading two novels a week instead of reading the Bible. The answer, " I don't care, I'm going to read them." This is a classic example of the addiction of reading novels and their substitution as an idol. No one will be Left Behind. Everyone will either be flown to Heaven or thrown into Hell.

Journeying to Justice provides the very first comprehensive appraisal of the tumultuous journey towards equity and reconciliation amongst British and Jamaican Baptists across two centuries of Christian missionary work, in which slavery, colonialism and racism has loomed large. This ground-breaking text brings together scholars and practitioners, lay and ordained, peoples from a variety of culturally and ethnically diverse backgrounds, all speaking to the enduring truth of the gospel of Christ as a means of effecting social, political and spiritual transformation. Journeying to Justice reminds us that the way of Christ is that of the cross and that grace is always costly and being a disciple demands commitment to God and to others with whom we walk this journey of faith. At a time when the resurgence of nationalism is threatening to polarise many nations this text reminds us that in Christ there is solidarity amongst all peoples.

This volume examines the persuasive ministry of the Reverend Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, analyzing his delivery, style, invention, and persuasion strategies. It is the first book to review Fosdick's oratory and explain his process of creating persuasive, effective sermons. It combines speech texts and an extensive bibliography with a critical interpretation of his famous homilies and addresses and it brings together in one concise text a definitive alphabetical calendar of speeches, a chronology of sermons keyed to his numerous books, and a detailed bibliography of works by and about Fosdick. This fascinating study provides a valuable new research tool in the study of rhetoric. From Puritan times to the present, religious rhetoric has played an important role in the political and social life of the United States and has occasionally revealed the highest and lowest attainments of Americans. This volume, the second in a series of book-length studies on great American orators, examines the persuasive ministry of the Reverend Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick and analyzes his delivery, style, invention, and persuasive strategies. It is the first book to review Fosdick's oratory and explain his process of creating persuasive, effective sermons. It combines speech texts and an extensive bibliography with a critical interpretation of his famous homilies and addresses and it brings together in one concise text a definitive alphabetical calendar of speeches, a chronology of sermons keyed to his numerous books, and a detailed bibliography of works by and about Fosdick. Of special note is the inclusion of the famous Shall the Fundamentalists Win? sermon, with never-before-published additions and subtractions, and the ad lib additions and deletions from speech text and recordings of the Handling Life's Second-Bests sermon. This fascinating study provides a valuable new research tool in the study of rhetoric.

The book is a collection of essays from the International Conference of Baptist Studies VI that was held at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina in July 2012. The topic of Baptist Identity remains important for Baptists across the globe. This collection of essays reveals the richness and the diversity of conceptions about Baptist identity that have been shared by and about Baptists. The essays, written by an international set of authors, examine issues of Baptist origins and questions of identity up to the present. Written with attention to historical context and grounded in primary source research, the essays will contribute to current and future debates about Baptist history and identity past and present. -Publisher

A Choice Outstanding Academic Book

"Smith has written a richly detailed, valuable study that clearly deserves a place on the shelves of scholars of southern politics and of religion and politics."
"--American Political Science Review"

""A fascinating and well-documented study of the transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) into the single largest religious force in modern American politics.""
"--Southeastern Political Review"

By championing the ideals of independence, evangelism, and conservism, the Southern Baptist Covention (SBC) has grown into the largest Protestant denomination in the country. The Convention's mass democratic form of church government, its influential anual meetings, and its sheer size have made it a barometer for Southern political and cultural shift. Its most recent shift has been starboard-toward fundementalism and Republicanism.

While the Convention once ofered a happy home to Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, and church-state separationists, in the past two decades the SBC has become an uncomfortable institution for Democrats, progressive theologians, and other moderate voices. Current SBC member-heroes include Senators Trent Lott and Jesse Helms. Despite this seeming marginalization, Southern Baptist politicians have grown from political obscurity to occupying the four highest positions in the constitutional order of succesion to the presidency. President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Senate President pro-tempore Strom Thurmond, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich are all Southern Baptists.

In its emerging Republicanism, the SBC has taken on characteristics of its more active fellow travelers in the Christian Right, forgingalliances with former enemies (African Americans amd Roman Catholics), playing presidential politics, establishing a Washington lobbying presence, working the political grassroots, and declaring war on Walt Disney. Each of these missions has been accomplished with calculating political precision.

The Rise of Baptist Republicanism traces the Republicanization of the SBC's Republicanism in the context of the rise of the Fundamentalist Right and the emergence of a Republican majority in the South. Describing the SBC's political roots, Oran P. Smith contrasts Baptist Republicans with the rest of the Christian Right while revealing the theological, cultural, and historical factors which have made Southern Baptists receptive to Republican/Fundamentalist Right influences. The book is a must read for anyone wishing to understand the intersection of religion and politics in America today.

The author argues that Baptist theologian James William McClendon Jr's articulation of the 'baptist' vision entails an account of the real presence of Christ's body and blood that is internally faithful to that vision. Furthermore, such an account of real presence suggests that the 'baptist' vision is itself a contribution of Baptists to ecumenical Christianity. The argument is set in the context of some contemporary Baptist engagement with ecumenical Christianity, particularly historic Catholic Christianity. COMMENDATION "Aaron James shows how an ecumenically minded Baptist theologian can take up this theme with creativity, grace, and an inspiring desire to lift up our hearts toward the wondrous "sacrament of unity" and "sacrament of charity". He powerfully reminds us why this may well be the most important conversation that Christians can have today." - Matthew Levering, University of Dayton, Ohio, USA