Best One Volume History

Jason

That really depends upon what you want the historian to say. Unfortunately, many Baptist historians paint the baptist history with what ever theology they support. And several that paint a fair history are very hard to read.

Are you more general baptist (often called armenian now) or a more particular baptist or a reformed baptist (more often called calvinistic)?

God bless

Wayne

 

rene volume

Short History of the Baptists by HC Vetter 1907 reprint 1949
Compendium of Baptist History J.A. Shackelford 1892 reprint current

Two volume Armitage History of the Baptists 1896 reprint 1980

Two volume Sargant Robert J Landmarks in Church History

enjoy
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If I were limited to one one-volume Baptist History, I might go with Baptist History from the Foundation of the Christian Church to the close of the Eighteenth Century by J. M. Cramp. Course, lots of history has happened since the close of the eighteenth century.

http://www.reformedreader.org/history/cramp/toc.htm

 

But the books cited thus far are quite old and cannot therefore cover more recent developments. Some also participate in the successionist theory and are therefore of limited value.

The classic is Robert G. Torbet, A History of the Baptists, which has undergone numerous updatings.

Its worthy successor is Bill J. Leonard, Baptist Ways: A History

For something more challenging, focused more on intellectual history than institutional developments, look at William H. Brackney, A Genetic History Of Baptist Thought: With Special Reference To Baptists In Britain And North America

Anything you can find that is written by Bill Leonard, William Brackney, or Walter Shurden is well worth having and studying.

​

 

What about Leon McBeth's work?

 

Yes, McBeth is another mature, seasoned, and balanced historian of Baptist life. Thanks for mentioning him. It's hard to stop, though, isn't it, once we get started compiling bibliographies?!

 

The Baptist History Collection CD

Jason, if you're looking at this from the prospect of buying a new book on Baptist history, you might want to check out "The Baptist History Collection CD" from http://www.standardbearer.org/ (though it is from them, you can actually buy it cheaper from Book Heaven http://www.lvbaptist.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BHCP&Product_Code=2348&Category_Code=BHIST)

This CD has a collection of materials that could probably cost thousands of dollars, and many of them would be hard to find. The General histories are: Armitage, A History of the Baptists; Benedict, A General History of the Baptists; Cathcart, The Baptist Encyclopedia; Christian, A History of the Baptists; Cook, The Story of the Baptists; Cramp, Baptist History; Hassell, A History of the Church of God; Jones, Baptists: Their Origin, Continuity & Principles; Orchard, A Concise History of the Baptists; Stokes, History of the Baptists & Their Principles; Vedder, A Short History of the Baptists; and Williams, Lectures on Baptist History. And there is much more than that.

There is another CD available called "Complete Library of Baptist History" http://www.lvbaptist.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BHCP&Product_Code=2362&Category_Code=BHIST. It is cheaper, but appears to be not so complete as the other.

 

From a personal perspective, I found McBeth's The Baptist Heritage to be quite informative, thorough and well documented. Coming from a church of another denomination, I found it to be exactly what I needed in terms of understanding both the origin and theological backgrounds and influences of Baptists.