Primitive Baptists Research Articles

Do the natives prefer Durkheim?

The Moral Order of a Suburb. M. P. BAUMGARTNER. Pilgrims of Paradox: Calvinism and Experience among the Primitive Baptists of the Blue Ridge. JAMES L. PEACOCK and RUEL W. TYSON, JR. The Southern Baptists: A Subculture in Transition. ELLEN M. ROSENBERG.

: Pilgrims of Paradox: Calvinism and Experience among the Primitive Baptists of the Blue Ridge . James L. Peacock, Ruel W. Tyson, Jr..

American AnthropologistVolume 93, Issue 1 p. 186-187 Pilgrims of Paradox: Calvinism and Experience among the Primitive Baptists of the Blue Ridge. James L. Peacock and Ruel W. Tyson Mark R. Woodward, Mark R. Woodward Arizona State UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Mark R. Woodward, Mark R. Woodward Arizona State UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: March 1991 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1991.93.1.02a00280AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume93, Issue1March 1991Pages 186-187 RelatedInformation

Pilgrims of Paradox: Calvinism and Experience among the Primitive Baptists of the Blue Ridge

Pilgrims of Paradox: Calvinism and Experience among the Primitive Baptists of the Blue Ridge

Pilgrims of Paradox: Calvinism and Experience among the Primitive Baptists of the Blue Ridge

Pilgrims of Paradox: Calvinism and Experience among the Primitive Baptists of the Blue Ridge

The Mill Creek Baptist Church

Side view of 1910 Mill Creek Church as it presently appears from site of 1854 building. The Mill Creek Baptist Church by Lynn C. Dickerson II Much has been written about the Old Regular and Primitive Baptists in Appalachia . Little, however, hasbeen written about the Southern Baptists, a main-line group generally known in Appalachia as Missionary Baptists. The assumption has been that the Regulars and the Primitives represent all Baptists as they were in earlier days, and to some extent that assumption is correct. The Missionary Baptists 16 were much more receptive to new ideas than were the other two groups, much more a part of the prevailing culture of theirday, muchmoreconcerned withprograms than with doctrine, and, therefore, muchmorepronetochange withthe times. What the assumption overlooks is that churches, like people, cannot be stereotyped . Churches are complexinstitutions serving complex constituencies. Each church has a nature of its own, a nature that, on the one hand, is not unlike that of another church, but, on the other hand, is not the same. In order to understand the nature ofa church, it is necessary to study not only what it is today but also what it was in thepast. A study of the history of the Mill Creek Baptist Church in Botetourt County, Virginia, provides some understanding of the complex nature of a Missionary Baptist church and suggests that, despite their differences, Regular, Primitive, and Missionary Baptists share a common heritage. The story of the Baptists in Appalachia begins in Philadelphia. Shortly after William Penn arrived in Pennsylvania, Baptists from England, Wales and Ireland began to organize themselves into churches. In 1707 five churches in Pennsylvania , NewJerseyandDelawareunited to form the Philadelphia Baptist Association . Soon othernewly gatheredchurches joined them. Within fifty years the Philadelphia body included churches from Virginia to Connecticut. These churches were Calvinistic in doctrine, strict in decorum , and united in spirit. In order to distinguish themselves fromthe moreradical Separate Baptists who became very active in the southern colonies after 1755, the Philadelphia-oriented churches took the name "Regular Baptists." In 1769 the Regular Baptist churches in Virginia and North Carolina formed their own organization , the Kehukee Association.1 The Separate Baptists were spawned by the fervor of the Great Awakening which swept through the Congregational churches of New England in the 1740s. Response to the preaching and evangelical theology of George Whitfield was mixed, and many Congregationalists, disappointed with the failure of their churches to restrict membership to the truly regenerate, left the established church to form Separatist congregations.2 Because they found the Baptist view on regeneration and autonomy for local churches to be very close to their own view, Separatists frequently became Baptists, increasing the numberofBaptist churches in Connecticut alone from three in 1740 to thirty-six in 1770. Not content to restrict themselves to New England, these Separatist Baptists soon carriedtheir work into all the colonies, including the South.3 The SeparatistBaptistmovement in Virginia came from Connecticut by way of North Carolina. In 1755 Shubal Stearns, an ordained Separatist Baptist clergyman in Connecticut, moved his family to Sandy Creek in Guilford (now Randolph) County, North Carolina, and, upon his arrival, founded a church.4 His evangelistic preaching first shocked the Sandy Creek residents and then moved them to join his church. Membership quickly increased from sixteen to six hundred and six. Stearns and his followers founded twomorechurchesinthevicinity ofSandy Creek and in 1758 led the three churches to form the Sandy CreekAssociation. By 1760 the association had grown to ten churchesandhadestablishedthefirst Separatist Baptist church inVirginia, theDan Riverchurch in Halifax County.5 Initially the Regular Baptists were very suspicious ofthe Separatists. They looked askance at the enthusiastic preaching and irregular practices which they observed in Steams' churches. Like some of the German Dunkers, the Separatists were prone to practice foot washing and the anointing of the sick. In backwoods fashion, the Separatists frequently preached with a "holy whine" and conducted disorderly meetings. Unlike the Regulars, decorum and doctrine were secondary to regeneration , commitment and growth.6 On one occasion a Regular Baptist minister refused to participate in a Separatist ordination service, for "he believed them 17 to be a disorderly set: suffering women to pray in public, and permitting...

Jesse B. Aikin and the Christian Minstrel

The name Jesse B. Aikin is well known to students of American music as the inventor of the most widely imitated and enduring seven-shape notation. The continuing influence of his work is seen in any modern shape-note book, and it is especially evident to the church musician in the South. In working with church choirs, one encounters numerous choir members trained in reading shape notes. Even for those who read round notation, shape notes often facilitate the sight-reading process. Such is the case of one minister with doctor of theology degree who, in spite of his ability to read round notation, has been known to add Aikin's shapes to the tenor part of Handel's Messiah as an aid for singing the melismatic passages! Aikin's system is still the basis for most shape-note music books published in the United States. The Southern Baptist Convention provides shape-note version of its Baptist Hymnal (1975), and most southern gospel-music publishers continue to print their music in the seven-shape notation first introduced in 1846. Among Primitive Baptists, the repertoire of such four-shape tunebooks as The Sacred Harp and The Social Harp continues to be sung as well, but from sevenshape notation. A book first published in 1913 in Thornton, Arkansas, entitled The Good Old Songs, is in its thirty-sixth printing with Aikin's notation, having reached total of 78,000 copies.1 Owing to the continuing influence of Jesse B. Aikin's character notes, the inventor of these shapes deserves to be better known. A few tantalizing bits and pieces of information have been reiterated in accounts of shape-note music, but only now is partial biography becoming available. The best-known description of Jesse B. Aikin is that by Daniel F. Blake, printer at plant in Singer's Glen, Virginia, who in 1876 portrayed well-heeled Aikin as a personage whose age must have been close to seventy years; gray hair, almost white, and Van Dyke beard covered his head and face. He was

Shape-Note Tune Books and Primitive Hymns

appeared since 1800 and the hymnody of the rural South that survives in the oral tradition is a difficult one to analyze, and is at this late date probably lost forever to complete understanding. However, careful study of current singing traditions in light of the published sacred music that has accumulated over the years affords a useful perspective on this relationship. I recently had the opportunity to conduct a field study of Primitive Baptist hymn singing, including both black and white churches, in the Blue Ridge region of Virginia and North Carolina, and found it to be pertinent to this issue in several ways.1 First, these Primitive Baptists are committed to a uniquely conservative philosophy that extends to their way of singing, which is one of the oldest surviving sacred song traditions in America. Second, although the black and white branches of the church are now independent, like many Southern denominations, they were united until the post-bellum divisions of the 1870s and 1880s, and can thus be viewed as two diverging exponents of a single singing tradition, subtraditions that are the products of contrasting cultural preferences. The complicating factor is that both branches possess a tune repertory that may have been strongly influenced by published tune sources. My purpose in this essay is to summarize the findings of my fieldwork and, drawing on some of the historical evidence, to try to clarify some features of the fuzzy relationship between the oral tradition and published tune books. On the face of it, the Primitive Baptists possess an old-fashioned hymnody of remarkable strength and vitality. Largely responsible is the church's nonconformist predestinarian theology and its distrust of innovation. Just as most conservative Primitive Baptists reject Sunday schools, seminaries, foreign missions, and most other proselytizing institutions, they continue to repudiate modernizations in hymn singing that have been taken up over the years by more progressive denominations, including the use of harmony, written music, musical instruments, soloists, and performing choirs. Their position is not rooted simply in a stubborn rejection of new ideas in general or musical progress in particular,

Religious Ritual in an Absolute Predestinarian Primitive Baptist Church

H 1. the stand 2. conference table 3. female members' pews 4. male members' pews 5. visitors' pews 6. visitors' pews FIGURE 1. MT. ZION PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CHURCH 58 RELIGIOUS RITUAL IN AN ABSOLUTE PREDESTINARÍAN PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CHURCH By Melanie Sovine Reid A moderator of the Original Upper Canoochee Association once said, "Our order of Primitive Baptists just meet, sing, pray and preach, and have conference once a month." *¦ Singing, praying, and preaching are the forms of ritual behavior that constitute the worship service of the Primitve Baptist Church, and all of these forms of ritual behavior can be seen as expressions of humility. Humility is an attitude that is highly valued by the Primitve Baptists and when considered within the context of worship, humility is closely associated with simplicity. In turn, both humility and simplicity are related to the Primitve Baptists' definition and quality of being spiritual . In support of these notions, let us consider a description of a typical worship service in an absolute predestinarían Primitive Baptist Church.^ The first thing one encounters on a meeting day is the church house itself. Primitive Baptist churches usually contain a single room. Above all, the church is plainlooking . The interior is without decor; whether the walls are of plain wood or are finished and painted, they are unadorned. Windows, at one time the only source of light, are large, plentiful, clear-paned, and have no curtains. There appears to be a common architectural style in all geographical areas in Primitive Baptist church houses. Architecturally, they are uncompromisingly simple. In the interior, the "stand" or pulpit is a large, wooden, and very often handmade structure that is to the front of the room (see No. 1, Figure 1). Immediately in front of the stand is the conference table (No. 2), where the Elder and Clerk sit during conference. To the right and left of the stand are pews that are vertically situated (Nos. 3 and 4). These vertical pews are for the church members; men sit on the right side and women on the left side. From midway to the rear of the church house are horizontally aligned pews (Nos. 5 and 6), which are for members of other 59 Primitive Baptist churches and visitors. Men and women are seated in mixed fashion within this section. All of the decorations that one would expect to see in a church sanctuary are conspicuously absent in the Primitve Baptist Church house. Historically, this absence of ornamentation can be traced to the Protestant Reformation and its rejection of idolatry and the elaborate ornamentation of Roman Catholic cathedrals. Upon questioning an Elder about the absence of decorations in the church house, he first answered , "Well, our forefathers didn't have any decorations in their church and we try to do like our forefathers did." There is usually something more behind an answer of "tradition," and the Elder continued: We have nothing against modern conveniences, but we don't want any additives. You feel different in our Church. I've been to funerals in churches where they had all the decorations and you just don't feel the same. You feel different going into a Primitive Baptist Church. . .there's a humbleness there. Finally, as a member concisely stated, "Fixin's don't add anything to religion anyway." But the Primitive Baptist church house is not bereft of symbolism. In one sense, the church house is itself an"instrumental symbol;"^ that is to say, the simplicity of the architectural features and decor of the church house is instrumental in accomplishing a goal. It is a means to an end, which is the attitude of humility. As the Elder stated it, arriving at and entering a Primitive Baptist church house makes you feel humble. Great concern and care is taken in maintaining the original state of the church house. Additions, such as electric lights, carpeting, or indoor restrooms, are added with great deliberation, and they try to keep them consistent with the architectural characteristics common to the building's original design. On meeting days people begin to gather at the church house around 10:30 a.m., the approximate time at which the singing begins...

The Hope and the Promise of the Gospel: Advent Christians and Primitive Baptists in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

The Hope and the Promise of the Gospel: Advent Christians and Primitive Baptists in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

Voices from the Past: The Singing and Preaching at Otter Creek Church

A SMALL RELIGIOUS SECT in the southern region of the United States whose singing has been maintained as an oral tradition for more than 125 years would hardly be considered newsworthy since the phenomenon is still relatively common, but finding such a tradition as far north as Indiana is indeed worth noting. The fact that Otter Creek Regular Predestinarian Church in Putnam County, Indiana, has gone undiscovered until now is not surprising considering its remote location and absolute disinterest in adding to its membership. Because Otter Creek Church cut itself off from the mainstream of religious life in Indiana as much as one hundred years ago, its isolation now preserves for us a rare but fragile window through which we can see something of an early musical tradition which has changed almost beyond recognition elsewhere in the state. The Primitive Baptists to whom the Regular Predestinarian Baptists were once closely related are strongest in the deep South from the Carolinas to Texas and as far north as Kentucky. Not only are Primitive Baptist churches scarce north of the Ohio River, but their singing and sermon styles have become less and less like that of their brethren in the southern highlands. The northern Primitive Baptists have been far more willing than their southern cousins to accept gospel hymns, sermons delivered in ordinary speech, and songbooks which include musical notation. They have always been at the edge rather than the center of the musical tradition and consequently more open to the influence of the dominant missionoriented Baptist churches. In most southern states, Kentucky included, Primitive Baptists and other related sects prefer hymnals containing only poetry to those having musical notation as well. Consequently there is no guide to remembering tunes or matching them to certain texts other than oral tradition. George Pullen Jackson, whose many books and articles on American shape-note music first appeared in the 1930's, defined the existence of a body of sacred folksongs which had begun appearing in oblong songbooks as early as Jeremiah Ingall's Christian Harmony (Exeter, New Hampshire, 1805) and Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part II (Harrisbutg, 1813) compiled by John Wyeth.' Throughout his Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early