“Soldiers Of Christ, In Truth Arrayed”: The Ministry And Piety Of Basil Manly Jr. (1825-1892) -- By: Michael A. G. Haykin

Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 13:1 (Spring 2009)
Article: “Soldiers Of Christ, In Truth Arrayed”: The Ministry And Piety Of Basil Manly Jr. (1825-1892)
Author: Michael A. G. Haykin


“Soldiers Of Christ, In Truth Arrayed”: The Ministry And Piety Of Basil Manly Jr. (1825-1892)1

Michael A. G. Haykin

Michael A. G. Haykin is Professor of Church History at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He is also Adjunct Professor of Church History at Toronto Baptist Seminary in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Haykin is the author of numerous books and has co-authored (with A. James Fuller and Roger D. Duke) “Soldiers of Christ”: Selections from the Writings of Basil Manly Sr. and Basil Manly Jr. (Reformation Heritage, forthcoming).

A year or so after the death of Basil Manly Jr., his long-time friend and seminary colleague John A. Broadus (1827-1895) expressed the hope that a memoir of Manly would soon appear.2 Nothing of substance was written by any who knew Manly, though, beyond a few brief pieces in a special edition of The Seminary Magazine and an article by John R. Sampey (1863-1948), Southern’s fifth seminary president, in a 1908 issue of The Review and Expositor.3 Thus, while there are extensive memoirs of both of Manly’s long-standing seminary colleagues, James Petigru Boyce (1827-1888) and John Broadus, by men who knew them well, no such study exists that covers Manly’s theology, piety, public ministry, and private family life.4 Nor did Manly leave behind a large literary legacy. Apart from a substantial study of the doctrine of inspiration,5 there are, in the words of A. T. Robertson (1863-1934), only a few “fugitive articles in newspapers and magazines, occasional addresses and -pamphlets.”6

Yet, in the last fifty-five years or so, two excellent biographical studies of Manly have appeared—both of them doctoral theses—as well as an important doctoral study of his hymnological significance.7 Moreover, despite the fact that Manly left relatively little by way of a written corpus, there are two public texts associated with Southern Seminary that come directly from his hand—the seminary’s statement of faith and the seminary hymn—and both have exercised a profound influence upon Southern Baptist life. If the right questions be asked, they reveal a tremendous amount about Manly’s theological and spiritual convictions.

“All My Life A Stopper Of Gaps”: A Sketch Of Manly’s Lifevisitor : : uid: ()