James Robinson Graves

Landmarkism held that true Baptists could trace their churches in an unbroken line back to the early church, bypassing the Reformation and the rest of Protestantism altogether. Its chief architect was James Robinson Graves, a combative nineteenth-century figure whom recent historians have tended to wave away. James A. Patterson takes him seriously, setting Graves's life alongside his thinking on the church, Baptist history and the end times across seven chronological chapters.

This updated edition, part of the America's Baptists series, widens the discussion of Christian republicanism, looks harder at Graves and race, and adds a longer epilogue on recent scholarship. The result places Graves much closer to the centre of Baptist thought than his reputation suggests, and shows how Baptists still define themselves against one another and against other churches. Clear and carefully argued, it suits seminary students and anyone curious about Southern Baptist history.