Product Description

This title offers a comprehensive analysis of Baptist theology. Embracing in one common trajectory the major Baptist confessions of faith, the major Baptist theologians, and the principal Baptist theological movements and controversies, this book spans four centuries of Baptist doctrinal history. Acknowledging first the pre-1609 roots (patristic, medieval, and Reformational) of Baptist theology, it examines the Arminian versus Calvinist issues that were first expressed by the General Baptists and the Particular Baptists; that dominated English and American Baptist theology during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from Helwys and Smyth and from Bunyan and Kiffin to Gill, Fuller, Backus, and Boyce; and, that were quickened by the 'awakenings' and the missionary movement. Concurrently there were the Baptist defense of the Baptist distinctives vis-a-vis the pedobaptist world and the unfolding of a strong Baptist confessional tradition. Then during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the liberal versus evangelical issues became dominant with Hovey, Strong, Rauschenbusch, and Henry in the North and Mullins, Conner, Hobbs, and Criswell in the South even as a distinctive Baptist Landmarkism developed, the discipline of biblical theology was practiced and a structured ecumenism was pursued. Missiology both impacted Baptist theology and took it to all the continents, where it became increasingly indigenous. Conscious that Baptists belong to the free churches and to the believers' churches, a new generation of Baptist theologians at the advent of the twenty-first century appears somewhat more Calvinist than Arminian and decidedly more evangelical than liberal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #237284 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 743 pages

About the Author
JAMES LEO GARRETT, JR., a Baptist theological educator for more than half a century, taught in three institutions: Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Baylor University.

Customer Reviews

Baptist Historical Theology at its Best
Baptist Theology by James Garrett is one of the most comprehensive studies of Baptist historical theology ever written. Dr. Garrett puts half a century of academic theological experience to use by meticulously documenting the development of Baptist theology through the four centuries following their emergence in England and Continental Europe to the present day. He also addresses many misconceptions about Baptist origins. For instance the common misconception that Baptists came directly from the Anabaptist movement. He also documents and challenges Landmarkism's erroneous view of Baptist history. This is an essential work for anyone desiring to understand Baptist theology and its development through the centuries. Most Baptists assume that we materialized out of nothing in the 1950s. This lack of hindsight has in recent decades led Baptists to embrace bad theology and practices and to shun things historically maintained by Baptists. Dr. Garrett's book is a welcomed resource for those seeking to correct these trends.

This is a heavy volume with 726 pages. However, for all those pages, there are only 13 chapters. They are as follows:

Ch. 1 - The Roots of Baptist Beliefs
Ch. 2 - English General Baptists
Ch. 3 - English Particular Baptists
Ch. 4 - Early American Baptists
Ch. 5 - Awakening and Missionary Baptists
Ch. 6 - Baptist Landmarkism
Ch. 7 - Baptists in Controversy
Ch. 8 - Biblical Theologians
Ch. 9 - Twentieth Century Southern Baptists
Ch. 10 - Recovering Evangelicalism and Reassessing the Baptist Heritage
Ch. 11 - Incursions into Baptist Theology
Ch. 12 - Missions, Ecumenism, and Globalization
Ch. 13 - New Voices in Baptist Theology