Baptists through the Centuries

On Credo’s “Reviews and Interviews” page, Adam Winters has written a thoughtful review of David Bebbington’s new book, Baptists through the Centuries. Adam begins,

For the last couple of decades, teachers and students of Baptist history have lacked a sufficient introductory textbook that is both readable and up-to-date on the comprehensive history of the Baptist movement that now spans over 400 years.  Acclaimed evangelical historian, David W. Bebbington, has come very close to meeting this academic need.  Bebbington’s Baptists through the Centuries is a thorough but succinct overview of the global history of Baptists that should come as a welcome resource to students of the genre.

Bebbington’s thesis is that Baptists stem from a diverse history of controversy and factionalism, yet their common commitment to a believer’s church and evangelism resulted in their rapid global expansion.  He makes the case that contemporary students of religion must understand the Baptist movement as an international phenomenon, one that developed symbiotically between both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.  Whereas British influence upon America prevailed until the nineteenth century, American influence over Britain prevailed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries primarily as a result of evangelists like Billy Graham and statesmen theologians such as Augustus Strong and E. Y. Mullins.  As Baptists advanced their presence and message throughout the international world, they became affected by the local contexts in which they operated and thus added to the ever-growing diversity of their own heritage.

Read the rest of Adam’s review here.