Book Review: Democratic Religion

This is the doctoral dissertation for Gregory Wills, currently a professor of Church History at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It is an original, fascinating and convincing demonstration of the nature and importance of church discipline in the life of Baptist Churches in the nineteenth century. I strongly reccomed it to any pastor, especially those of the Baptist persuasion, so that a conversation can begin about the neccesity and the nature of biblical church discipline in the future.

This book will not likely be extremely influential, but it should. The truth is, pastors are far more likely to be influenced by the latest church marketing strategy than they are a book on the history of church discipline among Baptists between 1785 and 1900. What modern pastors will miss by ignoring this book are the two essential ingredients that marked Baptist churches during their greatest time of expansion in history: biblical orthodoxy and church discipline. Gregory Will’s purpose was to explore some of the root issue behind the success of the conservative resurgence in Southern Baptist life while so many other denominations are surrendering to liberalism. He believes that the roots of the debate for the conservatives stems from the lingering influence of 1800’s Baptist theology contrasting with the liberal or moderate views which stem from a modernist understanding of Baptist theology adopted with revivalist techniques and marketing strategies that began influencing Baptist thought and practice around the turn of the century (1900).

Prior to the Civil War Georgia Baptists excommunicated over 40,000 people. Discipline and the purity of the church were vital in the life of Baptist churches in the 1800’s. This led to higher standards of membership in Baptist churches. In 1837 at the Baptist Pastor’s Conference, the delegates declared that the two most important things for the pastor were faithful preaching of the Bible and Godly Church discipline. The emphasis was truly on orthodox Baptist doctrine and sanctification. Although it may seem strange that Baptists were so strong on the issue of church discipline, the belief was rooted in their theology. As a predominately Calvinist denomination, Baptists believed firmly in the perseverance of the Saints, so all true converts would respond to Godly church discipline by repentance and a return to communion with the church. This discipline was meted out at monthly church conferences which were often like court trials with the pastor presiding.

Modern Baptists point to the ideas of church democracy and the priesthood of all believers as evidence that Baptists can believe what they want without censure. This was not the case for early Baptists, however. Baptists in the 1800’s believed strongly in democratic churches, but much like the US Government, when agreement was reached all church members were expected to comply. For Southern Baptists this meant that if an individual joined the covenant fellowship they were submitting to church authority. Baptist churches were not marked by anti-authoritarianism but with submission to populist religious authority. There were primarily three things required of church members to avoid censure. They must regularly come to meetings, maintain orthodox Baptists doctrine and remain morally pure. Baptists believed that most church problems came from a lack of church discipline, which was considered a major part of the sanctification process for every believer.

Freedom was vital for Baptists, but that freedom operated within the bounds of orthodox Baptist doctrine. Baptists were greatly influenced by the writing of John Gill, John Owen and Andrew Fuller. Gill and Owen gave them deep, magisterial theology while Fuller tempered this with the insistence of missions and evangelism as a central function of Baptist churches. The London Baptist Confession of Faith or a similar creed or confession was essential to Baptist churches and many local associations refused admittance to churches who did not clearly spell out and adhere to an orthodox creed. By 1870, in Georgia, there were over 115,000 Baptists who held membership in Calvinistic churches and only 800 who were members of Arminian churches. Orthodox Calvinism and strict church discipline were vital to the life and growth of the Baptist Church in America.

Throughout the late 1800’s Baptist pastors began bemoaning the loss of discipline in Baptist churches. The Civil War brought severe pushback from weary people who wanted amusement and entertainment rather than serious accountability. The south began to change drastically from an agrarian, rural society to an urban, manufacturing society. This led to bigger churches in which discipline was much harder to maintain. It also led to a demand for more educated pastors who became celebrities in cities and who could profit in ministry for the first time. Wills believes that more competition for high paying positions, the difficulty of discipline in larger churches, the influence of the New South positivism and the infusion of revivalist methods from men such as Charles Finney led to the rapid and complete disappearance of discipline from the life of Baptist churches by the mid-1900’s. He notes that the ensuing decades saw orthodoxy and discipline as the key proofs of purity replaced by the all important idea of Christian activity.

Will’s purpose in writing this book was to show that the idea of the priesthood of all believers and the autonomy of local churches did not mean that individual Baptists or their churches could interpret scripture however they wanted or disagree on major points of Baptist doctrine until the reinterpretation of these ideas in the middle years of the 20^th century. The loss of orthodoxy and Church discipline in the early 20^th century paved the way for this moderate to liberal interpretation of Baptist heritage. Will definitely achieves his goal. The world of the Baptists in the 19^th century would be an alien and foreign place to modern Baptists where likely 90 percent of modern Baptist ministers would likely be excommunicated. He uses abundant statistics and the transcripts of associational meetings and church conferences to make his point, and it is well made. Individuals who joined Baptists churches had no choice but to submit to the populist rule of the local church over moral and doctrinal matters in a way that makes modern conservative Baptists look liberal by comparison.

I believe that this book should be required reading for anyone pursuing a degree at seminary or who expresses a call to pastor. Few pastors and seminarians have any idea that anyone ever actually practiced biblical church discipline and few currently give more than lip service to the practice, relegating it to solving individual conflict or flagrant and open misconduct (which is only addressed in some cases through church discipline). It is important for conservative Baptists to re-examine the history of church discipline, the Biblical teaching of church discipline and to once again submit to the practice of biblical church discipline contextualized for the modern church setting (meaning we don’t necessarily have to excommunicate people for dancing, but we sure better figure out what the Bible commands that we prosecute). As Will points out, for all our modern marketing techniques far fewer people are coming to Christ per capita than did through Baptist churches in the 19^th century. Maybe what is needed is biblical faithfulness over seeker friendliness.