James Robinson Graves

Staking the Boundaries of Baptist Identity

James A. Patterson

• Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781621906537
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies

James A. Patterson’s groundbreaking study of the life and mind of James Robinson Graves explores the history of Landmarkism in the nineteenth century. Under this doctrine, Graves proposed that “true” Baptists should be able to trace their lineage directly to the early church, rather than through the strands of Protestantism. Controversial in its day, and often poorly understood now, Landmarkism, in Patterson’s nuanced interpretation, is important for understanding an essential feature of Baptist life to the present day: how do Baptists stake out their identities in reference to other Baptists and to members of competing denominations? While Graves has been widely dismissed by recent historians, in Patterson’s skillful revision, this figure draws much nearer to central concerns of Baptist thinking since the First Great Awakening.

This addition to the America’s Baptists series blends biographical insight with a thematic approach that focuses primarily on Graves’s controversial beliefs about ecclesiology, Baptist history, and eschatology. Patterson divides this work into seven chapters that progress chronologically, and this updated edition includes an expanded discussion of Christian republicanism, elaborates on the question of Graves and race, and features a longer epilogue to account for recent scholarship on Graves and Landmarkism.

James Robinson Graves is an accessible introduction to the significant albeit disputed role that the Landmark tradition played in the shaping of Southern Baptist life and thought. Seminary students and scholars of nineteenth-century Southern Baptist history will find a rich new interpretation of this misunderstood figure.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword, Keith Harper
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. Graves and the Separate Baptist Ecclesiological Tradition: The Early Years, 1820-1845
• 2. The Formation of a Boundary Staker: The Nashville Years, 1845-1862
• 3. Setting the Boundaries between Baptists and Other Denominations: The Nashville Years, Continued
• 4. The Graves Synthesis: Christian Republicanism and Landmarkist Ecclesiology
• 5. History in the Service of Ecclesiology
• 6. Denominational Boundaries and Growing Pains: The Nashville Years, Continued
• 7. Challenging Transitions and New Boundaries: The Memphis Years, 1867-1893
• Epilogue: The Graves Legacy, a Continuing Trail
• Appendix. Baptist Doctrines, Principles, and Facts
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index