Southern Baptist Research Articles

Old-Time Religion Embracing Modernist Culture: American Fundamentalism between the Wars by Douglas Carl Abrams

Reviewed by: Old-Time Religion Embracing Modernist Culture: American Fundamentalism between the Wars by Douglas Carl Abrams C. Delane Tew Old-Time Religion Embracing Modernist Culture: American Fundamentalism between the Wars. By Douglas Carl Abrams. ( Lanham, Md., and other cities: Lexington Books, 2017. Pp. xxiv, 233. $90.00, ISBN 978-1-4985-4505-1.) In Old-Time Religion Embracing Modernist Culture: American Fundamentalism between the Wars, Douglas Carl Abrams offers a nuanced exploration of fundamentalist leaders, ideology, and responses to modernist culture during the early twentieth century. Abrams avoids the temptation to focus on the infamous Scopes trial of 1925 and instead analyzes fundamentalist responses to changing societal views on science, reason, Marxism, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Fundamentalists navigated these challenges using "Common Sense Realism" and a firm faith in the supernatural power of God (p. xix). Abrams bases his research on the publications of leaders such as James M. Gray, J. Gresham Machen, and Bob Jones Sr., material that rarely mentions women. In addition, Abrams sparingly covers the South, noting that in general fundamentalists did not leave southern denominations and briefly discussing Bob Jones Sr., Dallas Theological Seminary, and Southern Baptist firebrand J. Frank Norris. Abrams begins by evaluating how fundamentalist leaders disseminated their ideas. He reaches beyond The Fundamentals, a well-known series of pamphlets produced between 1910 and 1915, in his evaluation. For example, Abrams draws on the Moody Bible Institute Monthly, a significant periodical with a national circulation of 40,000 by 1935, and The King's Business, which was [End Page 492] supported by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Through these publications, fundamentalist leaders expressed their understandings of many theological issues, especially their views on scripture. In the face of higher criticism, taught by mainline Protestant denominations, leaders such as James M. Gray argued for the belief in an inspired "Word of God" (p. 12). Again, Abrams points to a variety of beliefs regarding the Bible among fundamentalist leaders, not simply focusing on the movement's well-known belief in the inerrancy of scripture. The developing field of psychology presented conflicts for fundamentalists. Sigmund Freud posited a human psyche that responded to natural causes, with no need for a relationship with a god figure. Freud also legitimated a wide range of sexual behavior, most of which fundamentalists viewed as sins. Overall, psychologists seemingly denied the existence of sin and therefore the need for redemption as well, implying that humans were responsible for saving themselves. Moreover, fundamentalists noted that other elements in society used psychology to lead society down hazardous paths. Advertising, for instance, played on and encouraged American consumerism. However, some fundamentalist leaders recognized that modernist ideas, such as psychology, offered potential clues as how to reach people with the gospel's message. In painting a picture of fundamentalism's response to modern philosophy, Abrams highlights the beliefs of Friedrich Nietzsche, which were often connected with German aggression in Europe. The murder trial of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold in Chicago offers the author a focus for this discussion, since it represented what fundamentalists saw as dangerous modern thinking. The two defendants referred to their acceptance of Nietzsche's beliefs as a justification for their crime, particularly Nietzsche's assertion that humans are governed by intelligence and that it alone separates them from the beasts. Overall Abrams does a masterful job of demonstrating that fundamentalism between the wars was not a monolithic movement. No one leader spoke for all fundamentalists; instead, many offered a variety of interpretations of the threats presented by modernity. Abrams's view helps the reader understand how fundamentalist leaders struggled with these issues in American society between the wars. C. Delane Tew Samford University Copyright © 2018 The Southern Historical Association

Living Testaments: How Catholic and Baptist Women in Ministry Both Judge and Renew the Church

In 2014 women constituted 15.8% of u.s. clergy. They led 10% of u.s. congregations. While the numbers have increased dramatically in fifty years, this data invites a deeper question. What does women’s entry into ministry (lay and ordained) mean for ecclesiology, the life and doctrines of the church? Four case studies from two qualitative investigations of ministry illustrate women’s pastoral leadership from the margins of Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist churches, showing how women called to ministry are: living testaments to a renewed vision for church that embraces the fullness of humanity; living judgments on harms and shortcomings of the church; embodied revisions to ecclesial practices. Each case study bears witness to situated possibility of the Spirit’s work; exposes and challenges sins of sexism; shows every day dilemmas over resisting and subverting power; and reframes doctrine and practice from the margins, renewing ecclesial vision for the church.

Ecumenism in a Time of Transition

To assess the present state and future possibilities of personal and ecclesial ecumenism between Protestant and Catholic Christians is a difficult task. On the one hand, the diversity among Protestants is so great few generalities hold for all of them. The challenges involved in Catholic relations with the Church of England are quite different than those involved in relations with the Southern Baptist Convention, and different in yet other ways from those involved in relations with a Pentecostal church in South Africa. In a broad sense, one can think of a spectrum of Protestant churches, some with whom Catholic relations might be close, and then a series of churches at a greater distance from Catholicism with whom relations would be more limited. That picture is only partially true, however. On many social issues, Catholics can work more closely with Evangelicals, with whom there are deep differences over sacraments and ecclesiology, than they can with more socially liberal representatives of, say, the Lutheran or Anglican traditions. In this brief reflection, I will be concerned with the Protestant communities with whom the greatest possibilities of a wide spectrum of closer relations seem to exist, such as the Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed churches.

Book review: Eileen R. Campbell-Reed. Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen’s Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention

Book review: Eileen R. Campbell-Reed. <i>Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen’s Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention</i>

Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen’s Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention, written by Eileen Campbell-Reed (2016)

Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen’s Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention, written by Eileen Campbell-Reed (2016)

Going Deeper with New Testament Greek: An Intermediate Study of the Grammar and Syntax of the New Testament

Going Deeper with New Testament Greek is an intermediate NT Greek grammar, written by well-known NT professors Andreas J. Köstenberger (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary), Benjamin L. Merkle (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary), and Robert L. Plummer (The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). The book is aimed at the needs of both intermediate Greek students and teachers.Going Deeper with New Testament Greek: An IntermediateStudy of the Grammar and Syntax of the New Testament.By Andreas J. Köstenberger, Benjamin L. Merkle, and RobertL. Plummer. N ashville: B&amp;H Academic, 2016, ix + 550pp.;ISBN 978-1-4336-7908-7; 49.99 USD.** The review received on 13.12.2016; approved for publication 20.12.2016.

Monstrosities: Religion, Identity and Belief

In the summer of 1816, a young woman of nineteen eloped with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley to Geneva, Switzerland.[...]

The Word as Weapon: Sermons as Organizational Discourse During the 1979 Southern Baptist Convention

ABSTRACTAs part of a larger multiyear examination of the discourse surrounding the split of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1979–1989, this article examines the ways in which Fundamentalists utilized their 1979 convention sermons as means to define their vision for the organizational soul of the Southern Baptist Convention. Consequently, this article explores how sermons function as more than theological discourse but as key organizational rhetoric in the life and conflict of religious organizations.

An Inquiry into Southern Baptist and Evangelical Attitudes on Social Programs

In 2006, journalist and former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips wrote, Evangelicals, Southern Baptist Convention adherents and others oppose government social and economic programs because they interfere with a person’s individual responsibility for his or her salvation. My paper investigates whether Southern Baptists and Evangelicals oppose welfare programs for religious reasons.

Looking for Mature Faith in the Missions of Religiously Affiliated Institutions of Higher Education

ABSTRACTIn this study, we investigated Benson, Donahue, and Erikson's (1993) concept of faith maturity as expressed by institutions of higher education (IHE) claiming religious affiliation. We examined the institutional mission statements of 87 schools affiliated with six Protestant denominations in search of evidence of their intention to develop the Vertical (V) and Horizontal (H) dimensions of faith maturity (Benson, Donahue, & Erikson, 1993). Contrary to this conceptualization of a mature faith, expressions of V and H dimensions were negatively correlated. There was considerable variability in the expression of both V and H dimensions, with Southern Baptist institutions being highest in the V dimension, and United Church of Christ and Lutheran institutions being highest in the H dimension. Although expression of V and H characteristics did not match Benson et al.'s definition of a mature faith, there was some evidence these dimensions corresponded with institutional practices related to relevant student experiences. Overall, the H dimension was emphasized in the mission statements more than the V dimension. These findings have implications for reviewing institutional practices regarding student curricular and co-curricular experiences.

Fundamentalism, Fundraising, and the Transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention. By Andrew Christopher Smith . America's Baptists series. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2016. xii + 249 pp. $46.00 cloth.

Fundamentalism, Fundraising, and the Transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention. By Andrew Christopher Smith . America's Baptists series. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2016. xii + 249 pp. $46.00 cloth. - Volume 86 Issue 1

Financing Social Enterprise in the Very Long Run

All social enterprises share a common struggle to finance collective goods. Collective goods are notoriously difficult for private firms to produce, because of the incentive for their constituents to defect, or free-ride, on the contributions of others. Because of their historical success, this paper looks toward long-lived religions institutions for strategies to mitigate the collective action problem. We empirically examine the Southern Baptist Convention, which records its efforts to finance international missionary activities since 1935. We test a club good model of adherence. Consistent with the club model, we find that contributions to international missions increase with both religious and secular competition for adherents. We do not find that the specific mechanism for collection within the Southern Baptist matters. We conclude that the club model of organization, where high membership costs are deliberately applied, offers valuable – and counterintuitive – lessons for social enterprises more broadly.

Southern Religion and Christian Diversity in the Twentieth Century by Wayne Flynt

Southern Religion and Christian Diversity in the Twentieth Century. By Wayne Flynt. Religion and American Culture. (Tuscaloosa: University Alabama Press, 2016. Pp. xiv, 386. $39.95, ISBN 978-0-8173-1908-3.) Southern Religion and Christian Diversity in the Twentieth Century is a compilation previously published articles and recent lectures by Wayne Flynt, historian southern religion and professor emeritus at Auburn University. Flynt began his lengthy career focused on poor white southerners but soon became a chief contributor to the emerging field southern religious history, concentrating primarily on his home state, Alabama, and his natal denomination, Southern Baptist. He published his first article on these topics in 1968, and they remain the central focus his scholarship. The title, like many, is deceptively general. The works here rarely engage southern Christianity broadly or examine diversity. Although southern Methodists and Presbyterians are treated, they appear in dedicated chapters, and only one essay addresses white southern evangelicals as a distinct group. Flynt admits in the preface that the volume does not treat non-evangelicals or African American churches. Thus, his consideration Christian diversity is not comprehensive and is instead limited to a few pages in the later chapters where recent demographic changes are briefly mentioned. Flynt states that his central thesis is one of religious diversity embedded within seemingly impervious religious orthodoxy (p. xi). But the fifteen essays, only two fail to include or focus on Southern Baptists, and nine explore the Social Gospel movement and Progressive reform in the South. It seems Flynt's focus is twofold: how white southern evangelicals, primarily Southern Baptists, worked out their own version the Social Gospel in the early twentieth century and how the denomination moved from its traditional stance on the separation church and state to engage politically and establish its values in the public realm. In his introduction to the second article, Flynt explains that his disagreement with historians religion and C. Vann Woodward on the limits the Social Gospel in the South heavily influenced his own scholarly interests. This focus is clearly visible in the essays he has chosen to highlight his career. Scholars interested in southern religion will find rich material conveniently included here. Flynt is a meticulous researcher interested in biographical narratives. The essays reveal the intertwined relationship politics, reform, and evangelical religion in detail. Flynt uses his autobiography combined with the life story Rev. Charles Bell to highlight the risks and limitations fighting racial discrimination in twentieth-century Alabama. …

The Atonement in Lukan Theology by John Kimbell

Reviewed by: The Atonement in Lukan Theology by John Kimbell Linda M. Maloney john kimbell, The Atonement in Lukan Theology (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2014). Pp. xi + 199. £39.99. It is the obligation of a doctoral dissertation to state and defend a thesis. In The Atonement in Lukan Theology, which John Kimbell wrote under the direction of Thomas R. Schreiner for the faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (2009), this duty is fulfilled in workmanlike fashion. K. states as his thesis that “Luke presents the death of [End Page 143] Jesus as an atoning death that brings about the forgiveness of sins” (p. 3) and proceeds through five chapters to leave no text unexamined in his quest to support that thesis. After the introduction, he writes in chap. 2 of “The New Covenant Sacrifice,” concentrating on the disputed Luke 22:19b–20 (“This is my body, which is given for you. . . . This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood”). K. favors the disputed text, which he believes supports his thesis. (This chapter was previously published as “Jesus’ Death in Luke-Acts: The New Covenant Sacrifice,” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 16 [2012] 28–48.) There follow two more chapters on specific passages: chap. 3 treats Luke’s account of Jesus’ passion as affirmative of the atonement thesis; chap. 4 deals with the Isaian “Servant Song” and traces all appearances of the attribution of “servant” status to Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. The fifth chapter is a kind of catchall for “Additional Narrative Indicators,” including passages from both Luke and Acts on the need for and nature of salvation, Jesus’ proclamation on sin and forgiveness, what K. characterizes as “historical instances in Acts” and the preaching of the apostles as given there, baptism and baptism “with fire,” and texts about being “delivered into the hands of . . .” and being “hung on a tree.” In a brief conclusion, K. summarizes the findings and asserts that “it seems warranted to conclude that Luke’s theology of atonement is more robust and integral to his narrative than scholars have generally affirmed.” K. is certainly aware that he is in the minority in opting to find a theologia crucis in Luke’s Gospel and Acts rather than, or dominant over, a theologia gloriae; the latter is antithetical to his theological tradition, as he tacitly admits when he continues: “While it may be true that Luke uniquely emphasizes the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus as essential to the salvation of God’s people, it is also true that his narrative highlights the soteriological significance of Jesus’ death.” Echoing his opening, he writes that “Luke presents the death of Jesus as an atonement that provides for the forgiveness of sins, removes God’s wrath against his people, and restores them to fellowship with him” (quotations in this paragraph from p. 161). Thesis defended. There are some weak points in the exposition. For example, K. seems fixated on a one-to-one comparison between Jesus and the Isaianic “Servant,” touching not at all on the collective nature of that figure as posited by many modern scholars (and in fact repeatedly referring to that figure as an “individual”). Similarly, he dismisses in a footnote “the general claim by Joel Green and Mark Baker that ‘[t]he theory of penal substitutionary atonement allows a cultural norm particular to modern Western society, rather than the biblical narrative, to determine God’s nature and actions’” (p. 146 n. 30, quoting their Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament and Contemporary Contexts [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2000] 169). K. does so “on the basis of the above survey,” but his is a determinedly text-oriented examination that takes almost no account of changing cultural backgrounds. That is not the only instance in which potentially challenging arguments by contemporary scholars are relegated to the footnotes and dismissed without much comment. Kimbell writes at one point that “while Jewish Christians may have followed Mosaic customs through their participation in the temple cult, Luke does not draw attention to this” (really not? in Acts in particular?), “and it would be inconsistent with his narrative...

Pastors and Public Life: The Changing Face of American Protestant Clergy, by CORWIN E. SMIDT

Few observers of American Protestantism have displayed the insight and breadth of Corwin E. Smidt. Smidt’s most recent work, Pastors and Public Life, is the latest addition to an impressive corpus of scholarly work about the public face of American Protestantism, with a particular and ongoing emphasis on the political roles played by Protestant clergy. The scope and direction of this impressive volume are deceptively simple. Using surveys conducted in 1989, 2001, and 2009, Smidt compares the demographic, religious, and political characteristics of clergy in seven denominations. Three of these are generally considered evangelical Protestant: the Assemblies of God, the Christian Reformed Church, and the Southern Baptist Convention. The other four denominations covered are usually classified as mainline Protestant: the Disciples of Christ, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church of America, and the United Methodist Church. Smidt tracks a number of variables over the two decades in question, including demographic variables, theological orientations, “social theology,” attitudes toward issues of public policy, and political activity.

Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen's Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention by Eileen R. Campbell-Reed

Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen's Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention by Eileen R. Campbell-Reed

Nut Country: Right-Wing Dallas and the Birth of the Southern Strategy by Edward H. Miller

Reviewed by: Nut Country: Right-Wing Dallas and the Birth of the Southern Strategy by Edward H. Miller David Cullen Nut Country: Right-Wing Dallas and the Birth of the Southern Strategy. By Edward H. Miller. (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Pp. vi, 230. $25.00, ISBN 978-0-226-20538-0.) Between 1968 and 2008 the GOP's southern strategy resulted in the political reorientation of the solid South. Once a comfortable home for the Democratic Party, the former Confederacy was a house full of Republicans by the first decade of the twenty-first century. The story of the southern strategy often begins with the Richard M. Nixon administration embracing the arguments made by Kevin Phillips in The Emerging Republican Majority (New York, 1969). Edward H. Miller challenges this assertion by arguing that the work of a handful of skillful Dallasites foreshadowed the southern strategy by at least a decade. Miller's well-written and well-organized book profiles ultraconservative residents of Dallas who challenged the consensus that Texas would remain loyal to the Democratic Party for the foreseeable future. Some of the figures profiled are well known, such as H. L. Hunt, Bruce R. Alger, John G. Tower, Edwin A. Walker, and W. A. Criswell. Other persons may be recognized by scholars but not the general public. Examples are Dallas Morning News publisher Edward Musgrove "Ted" Dealey, oil and gas tycoon Peter O'Donnell, and the CEO of Texas Instruments, J. Erik Johnson. These men provided the money to sustain the Republican Party, forums to publicize their concerns, colorful personalities to draw attention to their cause, and a conviction that the solid South would dissolve and provide an opportunity for the GOP. [End Page 746] One particular strength of the book is that Miller identifies an important but overlooked group that proved invaluable to the party's success: women. Bruce Alger's successful runs for Congress in the 1950s resulted from the support and work of Highland Park women. Miller includes Rita Bass, who led "80 Women from Dallas," a group opposed to disarmament, in his assessment of the importance of Texas women to shaping the Republican Party. Sue Fitch chaired the Public Affairs Luncheon Club, using the organization to bring in conservative speakers who argued that capitalism and the American way of life were threatened by communism and the civil rights movement. Margot Perot used her influence to network and lobby in behalf of the party. Miller points out that seven of the nine directors of the Texas Republican Club's Women's Division were Dallasites. Miller also focuses on three institutions that shaped the debate between ultraconservative and moderate Republicans. Under the leadership of Dealey, the Dallas Morning News became a venue to argue against organized labor, the Supreme Court, and, in particular, the John F. Kennedy administration. The day of Kennedy's assassination, the paper ran an ad accusing the president of communist sympathies. As he and his wife were leaving Fort Worth to travel to Dallas, the president responded, "We're heading into nut country today" (p. 7). The money for the ad came from members of the John Birch Society. Dallas was home to over seven hundred John Birch Society members, making the city's chapter one of the largest in the country. Finally, Miller examines the influence of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, the largest Southern Baptist congregation in the United States. Under Criswell's leadership, the church became a strong voice that opposed the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision and conflated communism and the civil rights movement. Miller convincingly argues that these persons and institutions made Dallas the catalyst for the political realignment of the region, successfully contending that white southerners who felt betrayed by their party and, in the early 1960s, by their native son Lyndon B. Johnson should switch their loyalty from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. David Cullen Arkansas Tech University Copyright © 2017 The Southern Historical Association

Fundamentalism, Fundraising, and the Transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1919–1925 by Andrew Christopher Smith

Fundamentalism, Fundraising, and the Transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1919–1925 by Andrew Christopher Smith

Relatively Conscious: The Enduring Rage of Baldwin and the Education of a White Southern Baptist Queer

Delivered in Paris at the 2016 International James Baldwin Conference just two weeks before the killing of 49 individuals at a LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida on 26 June 2016, “Relatively Conscious” explores, through the eyes of an LGBT American and the words of James Baldwin, how separate and unequal life remains for so many within the United States. Written in the tradition of memoir, it recounts how, just as Paris saved Baldwin from himself, the writer’s life was transformedupon the discovery of Baldwin.

Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American PresidentsGaryScott Smith. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American Presidents Gary Scott Smith. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.Gary Scott Smith, Chair of the History Department at Grove City College, is the author of numerous books on history and religion, including Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush (2006). This book and the one under review serve as bookends, of sorts. Faith and the Presidency explores the religious thought of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight David Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and John F. Kennedy, the first president to have to publicly defend his Catholic religion as he did in September 1960 before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in Houston, Texas. Shades of Barack Obama, who, almost fifty years later, had to defend himself against persistent charges that he was a Muslim!Now, in Religion in the Oval Office, Smith takes on eleven more chief executives: John Adams, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William McKinley, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Smith pays close attention to historical context and America's shifting social and values; examines their religious beliefs, commitments, affiliations, and practices; and scrutinizes their relationships with religious leaders and communities. The result is a fascinating account of the ways in which religion has helped shape the course of our history, including such recent events as Harry Truman's decision to recognize Israel, Bill Clinton's promotion of religious liberty and welfare reform, and Barack Obama's policies on poverty and gay rights.In the wake of the 2004 election, pundits were shocked at exit polling that showed that twenty-two percent of voters thought moral values was the most important issue at stake. People on both sides of the political divide believed this was the key to victory for George W. Bush, who professes a deep and abiding faith in God. In fact, the author proves that none of this is new, as religion has been a major component of the presidency since George Washington's first inaugural address. Yet, Americans actually know remarkably little about the faith of the person they elect to the nation's highest office. Questions abound: Was Thomas Jefferson an atheist, as his political opponents charged? What role did Lincoln's religious views play in his handling of slavery and the Civil War? How did born-again Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter lose the support of many evangelicals? Is George W. Bush, as his critics often claim, a captive of the religious right? The author makes his topic quite relevant to American culture as he shows through his individual chapters on each president's personal and political challenges how strongly religious commitments have affected US policy from the presidency of John Adams (1797-1801) to the present. …