“Every day brings fresh wonders!”

In 1754 Oliver Hart led a revival among the youth of the Charleston Baptist Church which mirrored the awakenings that had been taking place throughout the colonies since the 1730s. Hart kept a careful record of the revival in his personal diary after the pattern of George Whitefield’s Journals, documenting his own revivalist practices, such as preaching in private homes and counseling those who had fallen into sin. The 1754 Charleston revival involved a number of dramatic conversion experiences and exhibited some of the egalitarian tendencies of the Great Awakening, including Hart’s encouragement of public testimony and exhortation of a enslaved black woman to a group of white girls. This revival is also noteworthy for the conversion of Samuel Stillman, who would go on to become the influential pastor of the First Baptist Church of Boston at the time of the American Revolution. The 1754 Charleston revival shows Hart attempting to walk the line of discerning, moderate revivalism in the context of a dynamic awakening. It also demonstrates that a robust revivalism existed among the Regular Baptists of the South before the more famous Separate Baptists arrived in 1755.

West of Eden with B. H. Carroll, George W. Truett, and J. Frank Norris: The lifelong feud between the First Baptist pastors of Dallas and Fort Worth

For the first half of the twentieth century, two Baptist pastors “squared off” with one another from the First Baptist Church pulpits of two rival Texas towns. In Dallas, George W. Truett led what would arguably become the flagship church of Southern Baptists. Across the Trinity River in Fort Worth, J. Frank Norris, also known as the “Texas Tornado,” packed auditoriums preaching sensational sermons. Mentoring both men was B. H. Carroll, founder of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. And like James Dean and Richard Davalos in the movie adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel, East of Eden, the two men feuded with one another, in part over the right to be Carroll’s heir. This article summarizes the rivalry as it played out in the lifelong conflict between J. Frank Norris and George W. Truett, and demonstrates how both the unifying statesman and the sectarian fundamentalist sides of B. H. Carroll are apparent in the struggle.

Kneeling-In

This chapter describes the rise of the kneel-in movement and the moral confrontation it provoked. Envisioned by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, kneel-ins protested segregation in sacred spaces and highlighted the theological foundations of the freedom struggle. The chapter tells the story of the kneel-in movement in Atlanta and, in the summer of 1965, in Americus. The kneel-ins at First Baptist Church and First Methodist Church in Americus were covered by the national press, provoking a firestorm of criticism and praise, as recorded in letters sent to the church. Kneel-ins also sparked a crisis within white Protestantism, particularly for the Georgia Methodist Conference and Bishop John O. Smith.

Os batistas e o pluralismo religioso: o princípio da liberdade religiosa como abertura dialógica

O presente artigo procura articular o movimento batista dentro desse contexto do pluralismo religioso e o possível diálogo inter-religioso a partir de um princípio que os batistas sustentam desde a sua gênese, a liberdade religiosa. A fim de demonstrar a possibilidade desse conjunto – pluralismo religioso, diálogo inter-religioso e liberdade religiosa –, o artigo traz a experiência do pastor batista João Luiz Sá Melo (Primeira Igreja Batista em Vila da Penha, Rio de Janeiro) no episódio da menina Kailane Campos, agredida por um grupo de evangélicos quando saia de uma celebração religiosa candomblecista.This article seeks to articulate the baptist movement in this context of religious pluralism and the possible interreligious dialogue from a principle that Baptists hold since its genesis, religious freedom. In order to demonstrate the possibility of this set – religious pluralism, interreligious dialogue and religious freedom – the article brings the experience of the baptist minister João Luiz Sá Melo (First Baptist Church in Vila da Penha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in girl episode Kailane Campos, assaulted by a group of evangelicals when exit a candomblecista religious celebration.