Baptist Battles: Social Change and Religious Conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention [Paperback]

Nancy Tatom Ammerman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1990

Winner, 1992 Distinguished Book Award, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion "With unbending fairness, Ammerman provides a historical and sociological context to unfold the historical events and issues that have dramatically changed the shape of Southern Baptists. A benchmark study of a religious body in conflict, this work is a leading authority on the present status of Southern Baptists."--Religious Studies Review "Nancy Ammerman knows . . . of the value and worth of the lives of people who operate in intact biblical-literal cultures. . . . She takes their conflicts seriously and tells us, without hitting us over the head, that we will have them all wrong--to our peril--if we do not listen. . . . Her narrative style is brisk, purposeful, and unadorned."--Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago "If only this sociological evaluation of Southern Baptist life could sell five million copies---Rutgers would be astonished, Ammerman would be basking at Club Med in Phuket, and I would be ecstatic. . . . Every movement conservative in the Southern Baptist fellowship should purchase two copies of this book."--Paige Patterson, President, Southeastern Theological Seminary, in Christianity Today "Ammerman explores the hurts and aspirations of both sides so evenhandedly that it may be difficult for all but the most die-hard partisans to guess which side is going to get the better seats in heaven."--The Christian Century "Analyzes fully the processes of the Fundamentalist takeover and their struggles as they begin to govern. Probably the best study available."--Choice "A splendid account of a decade of controversy. This readable volume surely ranks as the indispensable contemporary sociohistorical introduction to Southern Baptists."-- The Journal of Religion Nancy Tatom Ammerman is an associate professor of the sociology of religion at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and the author of Bible Believers: Fundamentalists in the Modern World, and Congregation and Community: Sacred Spaces in Changing Urban Regions, both from Rutgers University Press.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nancy Tatom Ammerman is a professor of the sociology of religion at the Hartford Seminary. She is author of several books, including Baptist Battles and Bible Believers (both Rutgers University Press). The research for this book was supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (July 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813515572
• ISBN-13: 978-0813515571
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #943,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Key study of the SBC takeover, April 9, 2006

By 

Michael Westmoreland-White (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baptist Battles: Social Change and Religious Conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention (Paperback)

Nancy Tatom Ammerman, a major sociologist of religion, wife of a Baptist minister, and herself a Baptist who was once part of the SBC but is no longer, conducted this fine sociological study of the SBC. It is very rare that sociologists or historians get to see a church schism while it is taking place, but Ammerman and her research assistants were able to do just that in the mid-'80s. Ammerman gives us insider insights and uses her outsider researchers and sociological tools (including a scientific survey) to achieve balanced objectivity. Her last chapter, as she admits, is somewhat less objective because she is emotionally invested in the survival of what was then called the Southern Baptist Alliance. Now called the Alliance of Baptists, it is one of several small splinters from the ever-more-fundamentalist Southern Baptist behemoth. Anyone wanting to understand how Southern Baptists, who in 1976 were typified by someone like Jimmy Carter, could become the far-right religious/political powerhouse of today should read this book.

9 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Underscores the Modernistic Rotting of Christian Churches, February 27, 2004

By 

Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Baptist Battles: Social Change and Religious Conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention (Paperback)

This book is valuable in that it goes far beyond the conflict within the Baptist Church itself. It goes to the struggle over the very soul of Christianity. As emphasized throughout this book, nothing causes the decline of Christian churches faster than the undermining of the Word of God by theological liberalism. Witness the virtual disappearance of significant Christian practice and influence in western Europe. In this book, Criswell is perceptably cited (p. 81) in pointing out that the onset of theological liberalism, as exemplified by the so-called higher critical approach to the Bible, quickly led to a precipitous decline in church attendance, conversions, prayer meetings, missionary activity, etc. Worse yet, theological liberalism, or modernism, is often disguised with euphemisms such as "theological moderates". But Criswell (p. 84) is quoted as saying, "A skunk by any other name still stinks". Very well put!