Baptist Ways: A History

by Bill J. Leonard, Edwin S. Gaustad (Foreword by)

This exhaustive resource traces significant aspects of Baptist history from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. It surveys basic beliefs, events, and experiences evident in Baptist communities and provides one of the most comprehensive resources on Baptist history available. Leonard explores the effect of the Baptist identity on not just America, but on the world, and includes the emergence of English, British, Irish, and Caribbean Baptists, to name a few. Also skillfully covered is the influence of the Baptist faith in the United States, including the development of African American Baptists and the numerous denominations that emerged in the twentieth century. Students, teachers, professors, and pastors alike will find in Leonard’s resource an exceptional history that provides a foundation for this enduring faith.

Genres: History, Church History

480 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jason]

This was required reading for my seminary class (Baptist History). I don't usually enjoy required reading and this was no exception. The author was very detailed in his writings, which can be good, but it was almost to the point of boredom. I fell asleep many times reading this book.

It took a long time to read and I didn't really enjoy it.

[Meghan]

This is an immensely helpful book. It definitely is very dense, and there most definitely needs to be a re-edit of the book as there are simple errors (i.e. “Caladian” instead of “Canadian”); yet this has been very useful for getting a macro perspective of Baptists and with some great micro details.

[Don Incognito]

This is a very informative survey-level history of Baptist churches, associations, missionary groups, etc. through the end of the twentieth century.

The weakness is that the editing and the publication quality are unacceptably poor. With the extreme number and degree of typos that reduce entire paragraphs to near-gibberish, it's probably not the author's (a history professor) fault and possibly not even the editor's; someone or something probably screwed up in the printing process. If author Bill Leonard publishes a revised version, hopefully he uses another publisher, because this edition's publisher, a Judson Press, looks amateurish.

[Jonathan]

A thorough, detailed, stunningly boring work.