Into Deep Waters: Evangelical Spirituality and Maritime Calvinistic Baptist Ministers, 1790–1855 by Daniel C. Goodwin (review)

Daniel C. Goodwin’s monograph is an insightful and lively contribution to the historical study of evangelical religion in the Maritimes. Through his engaging account of the lives of six first- and second-generation populist preachers or ‘Fathers’ of the Maritime Regular Baptist tradition, Goodwin weaves an intriguing and appealing story of the emergence of an ordered denomination from its roots in Nova Scotia’s First Great Awakening revival movement of the latter eighteenth century.

The influence of G.A. Rawlyk (the leader of the present generation of Maritime Baptist historians who died in an automobile accident in 1995)is evident throughout this monograph, both in Goodwin’s approach and in his argument.

First, Goodwin writes intentionally in the spirit of his teacher Rawlyk, who once confessed, ‘I know that the historian is expected to be an objective critic of the past who carefully avoids – especially in the area of religious history – any temptation to be emotionally sympathetic or to link past and contemporary realities. I have not been able to resist this temptation …’ (Ravished by the Spirit, 1984). Goodwin’s commitment to this ‘sympathetic yet critical’ approach is clear. He writes unapologetically as a ‘Maritime Regular Baptist’ who discovers in his historical research of this earliest period of denominational development ‘core essentials [that] continued to provide identity, flexibility, and inspiration for the future.’ In his conclusion to the life of the second-generation Ingraham E. Bill (1805–91), Goodwin reflects that Bill contributed to the accommodating and irenic evangelism of the Maritime Baptists, which endures to the present day.

Second, Goodwin’s book is a sustained argument that specifically sets out to correct Rawlyk’s oft-repeated position that the ‘New Light–to–Calvinist Baptist shift represented a decline in vital spirituality.’ Goodwin disagrees. He presents six representative lives of the first and second generation of Regular Baptists to show that as they increasingly took on the order, formalism, respectability, education, and theological precision of a recognized denomination, the fires of revival, personal conversion, and enthusiastic religion did not diminish. The Regular Baptist of the latter part of the nineteenth century continued to honour his New Light roots by embracing a ‘trilateral faith’ of ‘revival, conversions, and the ritualization of the New Birth in believer’s baptism by immersion.’

As representative of the first generation of Regular Baptists, Goodwin presents the lives of Harris Harding (1761–1854), Joseph Crandall (1761–1858), and Edward Manning (1756–1851). Their ministries are described in a comprehensive way, but each preacher also is shown to contribute to Goodwin’s overall thesis. Harding was the ‘New Light–New Birth’ paradigm who nonetheless began the move toward an ordered Calvinistic Baptist Christianity. Crandall represented ‘an expression of revivalistic Christianity that valued order and emphasized the central authority of the Bible in all matters of faith and life.’ Manning achieved ‘a balanced piety that successfully negotiated the dynamic tension between their New Light heritage and a disciplined piety and church order.’ The representatives of second-generation Regular Baptists, Charles Tupper (1794–1881), Ingraham E. Bill (1805–91), and Samuel Elder (1817–52), seal Goodwin’s argument. Although continuing to embrace revivalism, Tupper ‘sought an orderly faith which stressed consistent doctrine, decorum in worship, and biblical interpretation through a well-educated ministry.’ Bill ‘understood the necessity of holding the experiential-revivalistic ethos of the late eighteenth century in tension with the gains made in the areas of education, temperance, publishing and denomination-building.’ Elder embraced an ‘ordered, genteel, and “professional” evangelicalism.’

When Rawlyk delivered his 1984 Hayward lectures at Acadia University, the principal and dean of the Divinity School at the time commented that ‘the lectures kindled not only an interest in Henry Alline but in the need for spiritual renewal in our time.’ Goodwin has followed in Rawlyk’s path. His solid research, clear writing, animated presentation of the lives of first- and second-generation Regular Baptists, judicious...