Baptists in America

Baptists in America PDF Author: Thomas S Kidd
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199977550
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
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.

Baptists in America

Baptists in America PDF Author: Thomas S Kidd
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199977550
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
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 PDF Author: Janet Moore Lindman
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812206760
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
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.

Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America

Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America PDF Author: Eric Coleman Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0197506321
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
"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"--

Christian Voluntarism in Britain and North America

Christian Voluntarism in Britain and North America PDF Author: William H. Brackney
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
A unique blending of historical analysis and bibliographic data, this volume examines the course of the voluntary association for religious purposes and analyzes the prominent primary and secondary literature in the field of voluntarism. In addition, hundreds of voluntary associations prior to 1900 in Britain, the United States, Canada, and elsewhere are listed. A reference tool for students and scholars in Western Christian thought and history, over 900 resources are classified by general, denominational, racial, and gender categories and are annotated. The first part of the volume examines the roots of voluntary thought in the Christian tradition and provides an overview of the evolution of voluntary Christian endeavor in Britain and North America. Of particular significance is the connection between churchly voluntary associations and the evangelical experience of the 19th century. Individual voluntary relationships and groups are an integral part of human socialization. This is the first bibliography and overview of individuals joining together under the banner of Christianity in order to satisfy this deep human need.

Baptists and the Holy Spirit

Baptists and the Holy Spirit PDF Author: C. Douglas Weaver
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781481310291
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 589

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Book Description
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.

Baptists in America

Baptists in America PDF Author: Bill J. Leonard
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231127030
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
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 Lake Forest, California, where hymns appear on wide-screen projectors; and from Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms, and Tim LaHaye to Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, Bill Clinton, and Maya Angelou, Baptists are a study in contrasts. 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 interpretation and implementation of these beliefs have made Baptists one of the most fragmented denominations in the United States. Indeed, they are often characterized as a people who "multiply by dividing." This book introduces readers to this fascinating and diverse denomination, offering a sociological portrait of a group numbering some thirty million members. Bill J. Leonard explores Baptist history, beliefs, practices and disputes, as well as contributions to American culture and the religious landscape. Leonard also discusses the major controversial issues within the denomination, including race, the interpretation of scripture, the role of women in the church, the separation of church and state, religion and politics, ethics, and sexuality. -- From publisher description.

Baptists on the American Frontier

Baptists on the American Frontier PDF Author: John Taylor
Publisher: Mercer University Press
ISBN: 9780865544796
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description
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

Alabama Baptists

Alabama Baptists PDF Author: Wayne Flynt
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 9780817309275
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 768

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

A History of the Baptists Volumes I and II

A History of the Baptists Volumes I and II PDF Author: John T. Christian
Publisher: Solid Christian Books
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
In attempting to write a history of the Baptists no one is more aware of the embarrassments surrounding the subject than the author. These embarrassments arise from many sources. We are far removed from many of the circumstances under survey; the representations of the Baptists were often made by enemies who did not scruple, when such a course suited their purpose, to blacken character; and hence the testimony from such sources must be received with discrimination and much allowance made for many statements; in some instances vigilant and sustained attempts were made to destroy every document relating to these people; the material that remains is scattered through many libraries and archives, in many lands and not always readily accessible; often, on account of persecutions, the Baptists were far more interested in hiding than they were in giving an account of themselves or their whereabouts; they were scattered through many countries, in city and cave, as they could find a place of concealment; and frequently they were called by different names by their enemies, which is confusing. Yet it is a right royal history they have. It is well worth the telling and the preserving.

Southern Baptist Politics

Southern Baptist Politics PDF Author: Arthur Emery Farnsley, II
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 027103999X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
Unlike other recent studies of the Southern Baptists, Southern Baptist Politics was written after the culmination of the &"Baptist battles&" of the 1980s, when Fundamentalists had effectively taken control of the denomination. It also considers the SBC not simply as a denomination but as an organization with characteristics similar to other voluntary associations in American society&—an approach that promises to be useful for the study of other religious groups in America. Arthur Farnsley concludes that the SBC, as an American denomination, had within itself the seeds of pragmatism and individualism that characterize most American voluntary organizations. Of primary interest to Farnsley are the crucial issues of authority and power. Taking his cue from Paul Harrison's classic study, Authority and Power in the Free Church Tradition, Farnsley considers how authority has traditionally been exercised within the SBC, and how Fundamentalists maneuvered within this existing authority structure to seize power. According to Farnsley, disgruntled Fundamentalists soon discovered that they could exploit the democratic elements within the SBC polity to their advantage. So successful were they in their efforts that by 1990 all significant leadership positions within the denomination were filled by Fundamentalists, thus enabling them to take, and hold, institutional power. The lessons of Southern Baptist Politics extend beyond this one denomination. By using the Southern Baptists as a case study, Farnsley asks what the SBC controversy can tell us about religious organizations in America, about dealing with cultural pluralism, and about institutional means for creating change.