I have been writing on aspects of Baptist history since my graduate school days at the University of Kentucky. By my calculations that means I have been doing this for…a very long time. I have written/edited a number of books and I plan to write about them from time to time. Some stories are so good I want to hear them again myself. I’m kidding, of course. Seriously, sometimes people wonder how writers choose their topics and why they write what they do. With that in mind, here goes.
Like many academic writers, my first book grew from my dissertation. That is a story in itself. I remember a particular conversation I had with my advisor, Ron Eller. I was looking for a dissertation topic and like any responsible advisor, Ron was reluctant to “give” me a topic, or even suggest one for me. Sidebar: Ron was not being unkind. Writing a dissertation is difficult and graduate students spend long hours with their topics. If one is not committed to their topic, the task becomes even more difficult. That’s why responsible advisors insist that their students find their own topics. Back to the conversation… Ron was an Appalachian specialist and he had been talking to someone who wanted a resource to help missionaries adjust to Appalachian culture. Ron saw that as an aspect of the Social Gospel and that got me thinking.
There is a persistent assumption among some historians that the Social Gospel is not a feature of Southern religion. Their reasoning would require a separate blog post but for now, let’s just say that I am not one of those historians. I once asked a well-respected historian this question: If there are two soup kitchens maintained by Presbyterians, one in the North and one in the South, why is the Northern kitchen an example of the Social Gospel but the Southern kitchen is not? He just smiled at me. But I began thinking about Southern Baptists and the various aspects of benevolence in which they participate. Between 1890 and 1920 they built orphanages, schools in Southern mountain areas, hospitals, and so forth. After doing some digging, I had what I believed was a viable topic.
I had drafted a couple of chapters of my dissertation when I met Wayne Flynt. If you are not familiar with Wayne’s work, take a look at Poor but Proud: Alabama’s Poor Whites, and his memoirs, Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives. I soon discovered that Wayne was interested in social ministry among the South’s poor. He was also interested in my work and he mentioned it to Malcolm MacDonald at the University of Alabama Press. Getting one’s first book published is not easy, so imagine my surprise and delight when I got a letter from Malcolm telling me of his interest in my work. Wayne had tipped him off and I will forever be grateful for his confidence, guidance, and friendship. He represents the best of the academic guild.
The University of Alabama Press published my book in 1996. I called it The Quality of Mercy: Southern Baptists and Social Christianity, 1890-1920. It did not win the Pulitzer Prize. It didn’t even win a door prize, but it did garner mixed reviews. Some reviewers liked it; some did not. Either way, the crux of the matter came down to whether or not conservative, religiously minded folk could really engage in social ministry. Of course, I believe they did – and that is how and why I wrote my first book.
