Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 04:2 (Summer 1961)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

Book Reviews

HANDBOOK OF DENOMINATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, by Frank S. Mead (Abingdon Press, New York and Nashville, 1961, 272 pp., $2.95).

Originally published in 1951, and revised in 1956, the second revision of this useful handbook has now appeared. It lists 260 religious bodies, compacting an account of the history, doctrine, distinctive characteristics and present status of each, including information on recent denominational mergers. The material is alphabetically arranged, also completely indexed. A bibliography is included as is also a table of church membership in the U.S. It is attractively printed, two columns to a page; handsomely bound; and of inestimable value to statisticians, seminarians, denominational administration, church news work and churchmen in general. The claim is made that the treatment of each body has been submitted for approval in each case to an authority of the body, making it a handbook of facts rather than a cyclopedia of opinion. Twenty-seven Baptist bodies are considered, including an ample share of space for an interestingly-written account of Conservative Baptists. Unfortunately, the Conservative Baptist Association and the Conservative Baptist Fellowship are reported as one and the same, the former Fundamentalist Fellowship.

—Dr. M. James Hollowood

MAKERS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, by Marcus L. Loarie (Wrn. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand Rapids, Mich., 1961, 240 pp., $4.00).

Here are biographies of four outstanding seventeenth century men: Alexander Henderson, Samuel Rutherford, John Bunyan, and Richard Baxter, around whom revolved the struggles for religious freedom from the episcopal bondage of the Church of England. The Anglican Church and the Crown having agreed upon episcopacy as the worship norm of the land without exception, groups from Scotland and England arose to fight for religious liberty. Henderson and Ruther ford, Scotsmen, were Presbyterian and sought freedom for their group. Englishmen Bunyan and Baxter, it seems, had a truer desire for universal religious freedom. The author’s style varies from cool and impersonal in Henderson’s biography to warm and personal in Bunyan’s. This treatment of the Baptist is probably the best of the four. The great literary works of Bunyan are here reviewed with special attention to PILGRIM’S PROGRESS. The outstanding value of the book is the display of conviction that made these men willing to stand and fight for principles dear to their hearts in spite of biased kings, enraged religious leaders, personal loss, and threatened imprisonment. We may not agree with all their convictions but rejoice in their spirit, especially in our day when men stand for nothing and fall for everything, that they may enjoy the “blessings” of an ecumenical church.

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