Into Deep Waters: Evangelical Spirituality and Maritime Calvinistic Baptist Ministers 1790–1855 (review)

The institutionalization of religious movements is generally associated with a waning of the ideals that inspired their founders. Daniel C. Goodwin sees a different pattern of development in his study of the aftermath of the New Light revivals that swept through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the eighteenth century. By focusing on the lives of six ministers, he argues that the second generation of leaders effectively adapted the faith of ‘the Fathers,’ thereby ensuring the success of the Calvinist Baptists for the rest of the century. Central to his argument is his identification of what he calls a ‘trilateral spirituality’ that combined three distinctive features of New Light evangelicalism: revival meetings, the conversion experience, and believer’s baptism. In so doing, the second generation salvaged and even strengthened the movement by resolving some of the tensions that had surfaced in encounters with the ‘formalism’ of its rivals.

The title Into Deep Waters highlights the importance of ‘dipping’ (as adult baptism by immersion was called) during this adaptation. Goodwin’s sources contain vivid descriptions of baptismal services, many of them dramatic riverside ceremonies that scandalized Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and others who practised infant baptism. In the heated debates that ensued, Baptists gained a competitive advantage over Methodists in particular, for immersion so aptly ritualized the conversion experience that both were emphasizing (138). He sees the powerful appeal of baptismal spirituality as crucial not only in attracting new members but in rescuing the New Light movement from its own past, which had been characterized by antinomianism, antiformalism, and emotionalism. By welding order and discipline to the distinctive features of New Light spirituality, the second generation took steps to deal with some potentially ruinous predicaments they had inherited: the heterodoxy, sex scandals, and violence unleashed by the exuberance of the founding generation.

Harris Harding, Joseph Crandall, Edward Manning, Charles Tupper, Ingraham E. Bill, and Samuel Elder are not names that are well known outside a small circle of scholars who study Baptist history. Goodwin presents them, warts and all, as men driven by their quest for both souls and social status. Some come across as unlikely ‘heroes.’ The reader discovers, for instance, that Harding claimed ‘the Divel’ made him impregnate a teenager out of wedlock. Elder is an odd or at least ironic choice as the last of the notables. He evidently regarded his own ministry as ‘barren,’ and Goodwin provides no indication that this self-assessment was too harsh. His chapter illustrates the challenges of turning six case studies into a coherent whole, for standing alone it would seem to indicate the failure of the second generation to emulate the piety of the past. Goodwin may be attempting to show just how complex the process of adaptation was, but if his aim is to counter the association of institutionalization with religious decline, it is not clear how Elder supports it.

Goodwin provides a sensitive reading of the sources and a wealth of fascinating detail – perhaps too much, at times – as he stitches together the biographies to develop his argument. The profiles include a fascinating picture of the problems Baptist leaders faced in their efforts to deal with travelling evangelists and settled ministers, professional and charismatic styles of leadership, and laity suspicious of educated ministers. While the focus is on six men, the reader also catches glimpses of women in various roles – temptress, wife, moral mother, and ‘exhorter’ encouraging others to live holy lives. Goodwin is particularly attentive to the family relationships that were complicated by the demands of the pastoral calling. He deals deftly with the theological nuances of his material, although readers unfamiliar with beliefs and practices of Baptists and their rivals may tire of sorting through their differences. On the other hand, a more detailed social profile of the movement would have been welcome, especially given the allure of respectability for many second-generation leaders. Were their educational and...