Baptists in America
Baptists in America

Author: Thomas S Kidd

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-05-01

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0199977550

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The Puritans called Baptists "the troublers of churches in all places" and hounded them out of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Four hundred years later, Baptists are the second-largest religious group in America, and their influence matches their numbers. They have built strong institutions, from megachurches to publishing houses to charities to mission organizations, and have firmly established themselves in the mainstream of American culture. Yet the historical legacy of outsider status lingers, and the inherently fractured nature of their faith makes Baptists ever wary of threats from within as well as without. In Baptists in America, Thomas S. Kidd and Barry Hankins explore the long-running tensions between church, state, and culture that Baptists have shaped and navigated. Despite the moment of unity that their early persecution provided, their history has been marked by internal battles and schisms that were microcosms of national events, from the conflict over slavery that divided North from South to the conservative revolution of the 1970s and 80s. Baptists have made an indelible impact on American religious and cultural history, from their early insistence that America should have no established church to their place in the modern-day culture wars, where they frequently advocate greater religious involvement in politics. Yet the more mainstream they have become, the more they have been pressured to conform to the mainstream, a paradox that defines--and is essential to understanding--the Baptist experience in America. Kidd and Hankins, both practicing Baptists, weave the threads of Baptist history alongside those of American history. Baptists in America is a remarkable story of how one religious denomination was transformed from persecuted minority into a leading actor on the national stage, with profound implications for American society and culture.

Bodies of Belief
Bodies of Belief

Author: Janet Moore Lindman

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2011-09-16

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9780812206760

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The American Baptist church originated in British North America as "little tabernacles in the wilderness," isolated seventeenth-century congregations that had grown into a mainstream denomination by the early nineteenth century. The common view of this transition casts these evangelicals as radicals who were on society's fringe during the colonial period, only to become conservative by the nineteenth century after they had achieved social acceptance. In Bodies of Belief, Janet Moore Lindman challenges this accepted, if oversimplified, characterization of early American Baptists by arguing that they struggled with issues of equity and power within the church during the colonial period, and that evangelical religion was both radical and conservative from its beginning. Bodies of Belief traces the paradoxical evolution of the Baptist religion, including the struggles of early settlement and church building, the varieties of theology and worship, and the multivalent meaning of conversation, ritual, and godly community. Lindman demonstrates how the body—both individual bodies and the collective body of believers—was central to the Baptist definition and maintenance of faith. The Baptist religion galvanized believers through a visceral transformation of religious conversion, which was then maintained through ritual. Yet the Baptist body was differentiated by race and gender. Although all believers were spiritual equals, white men remained at the top of a rigid church hierarchy. Drawing on church books, associational records, diaries, letters, sermon notes, ministerial accounts, and early histories from the mid-Atlantic and the Chesapeake as well as New England, this innovative study of early American religion asserts that the Baptist religion was predicated simultaneously on a radical spiritual ethos and a conservative social outlook.

Baptists and the Holy Spirit
Baptists and the Holy Spirit

Author: C. Douglas Weaver

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 589

ISBN-13: 9781481310291

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The record is clear that Baptists, historically, have prioritized conversion, Jesus, and God. Equally clear is that Baptists have never known what to do with the Holy Spirit. In Baptists and the Holy Spirit, Baptist historian C. Douglas Weaver traces the way Baptists have engaged--and, at times, embraced--the Holiness, Pentecostal, and charismatic movements. Chronicling the interactions between Baptists and these Spirit-filled movements reveals the historical context for the development of Baptists' theology of the Spirit. Baptists and the Holy Spirit provides the first in-depth interpretation of Baptist involvement with the Holiness, Pentecostal, and charismatic movements that have found a prominent place in America's religious landscape. Weaver reads these traditions through the nuanced lens of Baptist identity, as well as the frames of gender, race, and class. He shows that, while most Baptists reacted against all three Spirit-focused groups, each movement flourished among a Baptist minority who were attracted by the post-conversion experience of the "baptism of the Holy Spirit." Weaver also explores the overlap between Baptist and Pentecostal efforts to restore and embody the practices and experiences of the New Testament church. The diversity of Baptists--Southern Baptist, American Baptist, African American Baptist--leads to an equally diverse understanding of the Spirit. Even those who strongly opposed charismatic expressions of the Spirit still acknowledged a connection between the Holy Spirit and a holy life. If, historically, Baptists were suspicious of Roman Catholics' ecclesial hierarchy, then Baptists were equally wary of free church pneumatology. However, as Weaver shows, Baptist interactions with the Holiness, Pentecostal, and charismatic movements and their vibrant experience with the Spirit were key in shaping Baptist identity and theology.

American Baptists and the Church
American Baptists and the Church

Author: Howard R. Stewart

Publisher: University Press of America

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780761806530

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This is a theological and historical discussion about how American Baptists can reclaim a lost concept of the church and implement it to solve contemporary problems. Uniquely addressed to American Baptist Churches, USA, the issues discussed are also being addressed in other Baptist groups throughout the world. It is the author's hope that this book will accurately inform people as to what Baptists once believed and practiced about the church of Jesus Christ at both the local and associational levels. Contents: Preface; Introduction: We Have a Problem; Baptist Beginnings; Why Baptists Practice Congregationalism; Early American Baptists and The Church; The Associationist Principle; Baptist Associational Life in Early America; The Decline of The Association; The Changing Scene in The Twentieth Century; Conclusion: Steps to Recovery; Sources Consulted; Index; Biographical Sketch of Author.

Alabama Baptists
Alabama Baptists

Author: Wayne Flynt

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 768

ISBN-13: 9780817309275

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The definitive history of the dominant religious group within the state during the last two centuries

Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America
Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America

Author: Eric Coleman Smith

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 0197506321

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"Oliver Hart was arguably the most important evangelical leader of the pre-revolutionary South. For thirty years the pastor of the Charleston Baptist Church, Hart's energetic ministry breathed new life into that congregation and the struggling Baptist cause in the region. As the founder of the Charleston Baptist Association, Hart did more than any single figure to lay the foundations for the institutional life of the Baptist South, while also working extensively with evangelicals of all denominations to spread the revivalism of the Great Awakening across the lower South. One reason for Hart's extensive influence is the uneasy compromise he made with white Southern culture, most apparent in his willingness to sanctify the institution of slavery rather than to challenge as his more radical evangelical predecessors had done. While this capitulation gained Hart and his fellow Baptists access to Southern culture, it would also sow the seeds of disunion in the larger American denomination Hart worked so hard to construct. Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America, Eric C. Smith has written the first modern biography of Oliver Hart, while at the same time interweaving the story of the remarkable transformation of America's Baptists across the long eighteenth century. It provides perhaps the most complete narrative of the early development of one of America's largest, most influential, and most understudied religious groups"--

Baptists on the American Frontier
Baptists on the American Frontier

Author: John Taylor

Publisher: Mercer University Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 9780865544796

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A revised edition of the standard text outlining the processes, structure, and literature content of abstracts and summaries in the biological, physical, engineering, behavioral, and social science fields. Cremmins advocates a three-stage analytical reading method, solid writing and editing skills, and adherence to abstraction rules and conventions. The appendices include abstract standards, style and writing resources, and a selective bibliography. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Baptists in America
Baptists in America

Author: Bill J. Leonard

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0231127022

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Baptist churches and their members have encompassed a range of theological interpretations and 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, often characterized as a people who "multiply by dividing." In Baptists in America, 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, and 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. Leonard also examines the role of Baptists in the Fundamentalist and Social Gospel movements of the early twentieth century, the Civil Rights movement, and the growth of the Religious Right. Leonard explores the social and religious issues currently dividing Baptists, including race, the ordination of women, the separation of church and state, and sexuality. He concludes with a discussion of the future of Baptist identity in America.