Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 29:1 (NA 2024)
Article: Hidden Bridges: Progressive Tendencies Among Non-Progressive Nineteenth-Century Northern Baptists
Author: Matthew C. Shrader

DBSJ 29 (2024) p. 61

Hidden Bridges: Progressive Tendencies Among Non-Progressive Nineteenth-Century Northern Baptists

Matthew C. Shrader1

Introduction

Obscurity surrounds much of the early northern Baptist theological tradition. Despite many recognizing its important place in the development of Baptist ideas and institutions in America, little scholarly attention has been invested into the character of this tradition in its early days in the nineteenth century. These were the days when the denomination exploded in numbers in America and went from cultural outsiders to insiders. They were also the days when theological schools were being formed and professional theologians (i.e., seminary professors) within this theological tradition began to publish their theologies for the first time. The prevailing understanding is that the earliest northern Baptist theology was overwhelmingly conservative in outlook (with some moderately progressive thinkers) until the progressive New Theology gained traction in the last decades of the century.2 Historians have spent some time exploring how this change came to be.3 This study seeks to add depth to the historical understanding of the early northern Baptist theological tradition by offering further explanation of how progressive

DBSJ 29 (2024) p. 62

theology gained traction among northern Baptist theologians.

There is some difference of opinion on what the New Theology did that made it distinct, but most can agree on the general guideposts.4 Clearly it included a tendency to modify and/or reject key conceptions of traditional conservative Protestantism along with a tendency to reject formalized foundations (i.e., creeds and confessions).5 Practically speaking, this works out in at least three loci: (1) theological methodology,6 (2) attitude toward sources,7 and (3) a variety of theological positions that are clearly modifications of or new paths away from the prevailing theology.8 The theological differences between conservatives and progressives became so pronounced by the 1920s that a massive rift was created, with liberals in control of most of the denominational machinery.9 How did liberals gain such a foothold? Historians have observed that the early (i.e., nineteenth century) conservatives and moderates were q...