Thoughtful Christianity: Alvah Hovey and the Problem of Authority within the Context of Nineteenth-Century Northern Baptists

· Monographs in Baptist History Book 19 · Wipf and Stock Publishers
Ebook
256
Pages
Eligible
Ratings and reviews aren’t verified  Learn More

About this ebook

Baptists in the nineteenth century grew from a small, struggling denomination to the second-largest Protestant denomination in America. They constructed conventions, schools, churches, and benevolent works. American Baptists transformed from cultural outsiders to insiders. Despite this growth in size, organization, and influence, there is surprisingly few attempts to understand them historically. This is even more true for Northern Baptists as opposed to their Southern counterparts, despite the fact that Northern Baptists, in many respects, were the theological leaders of the denomination. This raises questions about what their theology was, what it was rooted in, and how well it could handle the surplus of challenges that nineteenth-century religion threw at it. Chief among these were the challenges toward biblical and theological authority. Perhaps the brightest star of the Northern Baptist constellation, and doubtless the most well-connected, was Alvah Hovey from Newton Theological Institute in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. This book, the first book-length treatment of this Baptist giant since Hovey’s son published a biography in 1929, chronicles Hovey’s life and career focusing on how he coped with the challenges of biblical criticism and a rapidly changing theological context. Hovey produced a theology he understood as thoughtful Christianity.

About the author

Matt Shrader is Assistant Professor of Church History at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Plymouth, Minnesota. He is married with three children.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.