To the pioneer folk of Upper and Lower Canada-Loyalists, "late" Loyalists, and the hordes of land-seekers-living in what seemed like religious destitution, various American Baptist missionary associations in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York State sent missionary preachers in the decade after 1800. Numerous small churches were established, but the War of 1812 disturbed these efforts, and much of the missionary activity itself had to be abandoned for an interval. This may well have stimulated the co-operation which had already appeared before the war between Canadian Baptist communities. Out of this co-operation were to develop conferences and associations of Canadian Baptist churches, until by 1820 all were members of Canadian groups. By 1818 travelling missionaries from the United States had almost ceased to visit; the Canadian churches had begun to raise up ministers from among their own members. In this very complete investigation of early Baptist history in Canada, assembled from a wide variety of sources, every separate group has been recorded and its development traced, and all available information has been coordinated for the missionaries and ministers who served the groups. The book is a veritable encyclopaedia of early Baptist history and will be invaluable to future students of Baptist history in general. This study of a developing cultural tradition strikingly parallels the struggle to master the physical features of a new land.

Since it was first published in 1947, The New Life has been a manual for those who are just beginning the Christian walk. It describes the basic beliefs of our faith and the distinctive features of the Baptist family. In this third edition, Judson Press has maintained the character and much of the content of this time-honored resource, while updating it to address the questions and needs of the current generation.

W. A. Criswell envisioned the emergence of a new conservatism that would become the new religious right. In his most famous and revealing sermons, including "Segregation and Society" (1956) and "The Church of the Open Door" (1968), Criswell proclaimed that opposition to evangelical truths sprang from two sources: Darwin's Origin of Species and the vast inroads of German higher criticism and rationalism that explained away the miracles of the bible and reduced them to humanistic fiction. Towns's book examines selected speeches from 1956 to 2002, revisiting events that provoked the rhetorical situations of the era and exploring speaker-leader propositions and perspectives. Criswell's leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention was dynamic and unifying, and his paradigm for social responsibility in his preaching, speaking and writing can best be entailed in the following encapsulation: "Be anchored to the book and geared to the times."

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.

In the seventeenth century, English Baptists existed on the fringe of the nation's collective religious life. Today, Baptists have developed into one of the world's largest Protestant denominations. Despite this impressive transformation, those first English Baptists remain chronically misunderstood. In Orthodox Radicals, Matthew C. Bingham clarifies and analyzes the origins and identity of Baptists during the English Revolution, arguing that mid-seventeenth century Baptists did not, in fact, understand themselves to be a part of a larger, all-encompassing Baptist movement. Contrary to both the explicit statements of many historians and the tacit suggestion embedded in the very use of "Baptist" as an overarching historical category, the early modern men and women who rejected infant baptism would not have initially understood that single theological stance as being in itself constitutive of a new collective identity. Rather, the rejection of infant baptism was but one of a number of doctrinal revisions then taking place among English puritans eager to further their on-going project of godly reformation. Orthodox Radicals complicates our understanding of Baptist identity, setting the early English Baptists in the cultural, political, and theological context of the wider puritan milieu out of which they arose. The book also speaks to broader themes, including early modern debates on religious toleration, the mechanisms by which early modern actors established and defended their tenuous religious identities, and the perennial problem of anachronism in historical writing. Bingham also challenges the often too-hasty manner in which scholars have drawn lines of theological demarcation between early modern religious bodies, and reconsiders one of this period's most dynamic and influential religious minorities from a fresh and perhaps controversial perspective. By combining a provocative reinterpretation of Baptist identity with close readings of key theological and political texts, Orthodox Radicals offers the most original and stimulating analysis of mid-seventeenth-century Baptists in decades.

Coinciding with the four-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Baptist movement, this book explores and assesses the cultural sources of Baptist beliefs and practices. Although the movement has been embraced, enriched, and revised by numerous cultural heritages, the Baptist movement has focused on a small group of Anglo exiles in Amsterdam in constructing its history and identity. Robert E. Johnson seeks to recapture the varied cultural and theological sources of Baptist tradition and to give voice to the diverse global elements of the movement that have previously been excluded or marginalized. With an international communion of over 110 million persons in more than 225,000 congregations, Baptists constitute the world's largest aggregate of evangelical Protestants. This work offers insight into the diversity, breadth, and complexity of the cultural influences that continue to shape Baptist identity today.

English and American Baptists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries lived in two worlds. In one world, established churches were the norm and persecution was the means by which such churches and the civil governments dealt with religious dissenters. Yet these Baptists also lived in another world in which God's kingdom ruled and the sword of the Spirit (the Bible), not the sword of Caesar, settled religious disputes. When their two worlds collided, and they often did, many Baptists chose to go to prison rather than to violate their consciences by worshipping in churches that they abhorred, by listening to ministers whom they did not choose, and by submitting their spiritual lives to earthly magistrates. Early Baptists knew that they could avoid prison and other hardships if they yielded to the pressures of political and ecclesiastical authorities to conform. Many Baptists considered such yielding as a retreat from their cause and their God, believing that retreat would have been spiritually fatal. They chose instead to move forward in their faith, although it might cost them dearly. Thus, rather than retreat, these courageous Baptists advanced, some to prison and then back to freedom, others to jail and then to the grave. All, however, did so because, like Thomas Hardcastle, they knew that "There is no armor for the back." Baptists who graced numerous prisons and jails in England and in the American colonies did not remain silent, however, for they continued to preach and to write letters, poems, and books. These Baptists stated their cases without any self-pity and interpreted their persecutions as the natural consequences of professing their faith in Christ.

Baptists are a study in contrasts. From Little Dove Old Regular Baptist Church, up a hollow in the Appalachian Mountains, with its 25-member congregation, to the 18,000-strong Saddleback Valley Church in Orange County, California, where hymns appear on wide-screen projectors; from Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms, and Tim LaHaye to Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, Bill Clinton, and Maya Angelou, Baptist churches and their members have encompassed a range of theological interpretations and held a variety of social and political viewpoints. At first glance, Baptist theology seems classically Protestant in its emphasis on the Trinity, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the authority of Scripture, salvation by faith alone, and baptism by immersion. Yet the interpretation and implementation of these beliefs have made Baptists one of the most fragmented denominations in the United States. Not surprisingly, they are often characterized as a people who "multiply by dividing."

"Baptists in America" introduces readers to this fascinating and diverse denomination, offering a historical and sociological portrait of a group numbering some thirty million members. Bill J. Leonard traces the history of Baptists, beginning with their origins in seventeenth-century Holland and England. He examines the development of Baptist beliefs and practices, offering an overview of the various denominations and fellowships within Baptism. Leonard also considers the disputes surrounding the question of biblical authority, the ordinances (baptism and the Lord's Supper), congregational forms of church governance, and religious liberty.

The social and political divisions among Baptists are often as dramatic, if not more so, than the theological divides. Leonard examines the role of Baptists in the Fundamentalist and Social Gospel movements of the early twentieth century. The Civil Rights movement began in African American Baptist churches. More recently, Baptists have been key figures in the growth of the Religious Right, criticizing the depravity of American popular culture, supporting school prayer, and championing other conservative social causes. Leonard also explores the social and religious issues currently dividing Baptists, including race, the ordination of women, the separation of church and state, and sexuality. In the final chapter Leonard discusses the future of Baptist identity in America.

Baptists are a major group of Christians with a worldwide presence. Originating in the English Puritan-Separatist tradition of the 17th century, Baptists proliferated in North America, and through missionary work from England, Europe, and North America, they have established churches, associations, unions, missions, and alliances in virtually every country. They are among the most highly motivated evangelists of the Christian gospel, employing at present in excess of 7,000 domestic and overseas missionaries. Important characteristics of the Baptists across their history are: the authority of the Scriptures, individual accountability before God, the priority of religious experience, religious liberty, separation of church and state, congregational independence, and a concern for the social implications of the gospel. Baptists recognize a twofold ministry (deacons and pastors) or a threefold order (deacons, elders, pastors). Historical Dictionary of the Baptists, Third Edition expands upon the second edition with an updated chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on important events, doctrines, and the church founders, leaders, and other prominent figures who have made notable contributions.

Revivals are an integral part of Baptist life. Just as Baptists share key convictions regarding believer's baptism, congregational governance, and religious freedom, they have also widely adopted common practices. Revivals have contributed immensely to the vitality and growth of Baptists worldwide. This volume is a contribution to the theme of Baptist revivals. It explores the central role played by revivalism for Baptist life in the U.S. and Canada, Britain and Continental Europe, and the Majority world. For 250 years, beginning with the Great Awakening in the mid-eighteenth century, and in almost every place they have established churches, Baptists have embraced the practice of revivalism. The book offers twenty-five studies of Baptists and their revivals. The authors describe individual revivals and evaluate related issues of gender, race, emotion, and charisma. The chapters push well beyond textbook summaries, which usually notice the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening but often do not find space to include other revivals such as the Laymen's Revival (1857), the Welsh Revival (1904-05), and revivals associated with World War I and World War II. All of these revivals influenced the Baptist story, and all of them are addressed in these pages. Focusing on Baptists at the local grassroots level, many of these studies analyze in some depth seasons of revival followed by seasons of arid spirituality. The authors explore the dynamics of these movements, searching for possible explanations for this religious phenomenon.

Southern Baptists have a unique and colorful story. Birthed in the time of slavery controversy, their theology on this and human rights issues has changed as cultural and societal developments occurred. One thing that never changed, however, was their zeal for evangelism. They eventually grew to become the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Later, a major controversy in the late twentieth century pitted conservative Baptists against moderates. Both sides, however, wrote histories of the controversy from their own perspectives. These histories were significant for understanding how each side interpreted the events. These pages attempt to fill a missing gap. Readers will hear the Southern Baptist story from both sides. Understand from this how Southern Baptists work, think, grow, argue, and have changed over time. They have weathered the ups and downs of history to reveal an ever-growing heritage.