Confessionalism and Cooperation in the Baptist Movement, 1609–1925

Abstract

Baptists came confessing and Baptists came cooperating. But historically, what is the relationship between the two? For more than four hundred years of the Baptist movement across two continents, confession and cooperation have known necessary and effectual concomitance. However, cooperation was not explicitly stated as a full-orbed Baptist doctrine in a confession of faith until the Southern Baptist Convention’s Baptist Faith and Message of 1925. This dissertation demonstrates that Baptists throughout history have held a moral and theological obligation to associate and cooperate with other churches on the basis of shared biblical convictions. They viewed evangelism and missions as central components of that obligation, expressing their convictions through confessions, associational activity, missionary organization, and correspondence as the doctrine of cooperation was realized among them.

Chapter 1 introduces the content, proposes the research question and thesis, summarizes research methodology, surveys the research field, and outlines the argument. It includes a brief section on the definition of terms and the limitation of the research as well as the relevance of the research to contemporary Baptist faith and practice. Chapter 2 begins with the genesis of the Baptist movement in 1609 upon the se-baptism and constitution of a credobaptized congregation by John Smyth, then traces the doctrine of cooperation through Baptist confessions, communications, and associations from Amsterdam, Holland in 1609 to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the last decade of the seventeenth century. Original writings of formative leaders in the English Baptist movement are engaged, such as those of John Smyth, Thomas Helwys, John Spilsbury, Thomas Collier, Thomas Grantham, and Benjamin Keach. Several influential confessions of faith are analyzed. Baptist associational activity is surveyed. The chapter also sets the developing doctrine within the cultural and religiopolitical matrix of seventeenth-century England.

Chapter 3 carries the doctrine of cooperation forward through confessional statements, associations, and missionary organizations in America up until the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in Augusta, Georgia in 1845. Several influential Baptist theologians and historians are consulted as well as Baptist papers and associational correspondence, which are instrumental in following the movement of the doctrine of cooperation on American soil in this period. Chapter 4 engages Southern Baptist actions and the larger cultural context of the early twentieth century toward the culmination of the doctrine’s formal expression in the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message, adopted in Memphis, Tennessee. Leading Baptist theologians and influencers of the day are consulted, including E. Y. Mullins, E. C. Dargan, L. R. Scarborough, I. J. Van Ness and others. The conversation around the doctrine of cooperation is set within the context of the cultural and political climate of the early twentieth century. Chapter 5 presents a biblical and theological evaluation of the “Triangular Doctrine of Cooperation” proposed by L. R. Scarborough, who significantly influenced the doctrine’s inclusion in the 1925 confession. Chapter 6 concludes the research with a summary of the findings, contemporary applications, and opportunities for further research.