A Pilgrimage of Faith: My Story.

A Pilgrimage of Faith: My Story. By Henlee Hulix Barnette. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2004. 291 pp.

In 2001, at the age of ninety, Henlee Barnette, retired professor of Christian Ethics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1951-1977), decided to write the story of his life for his children and grandchildren. Three years later, Barnette's story had not only been written down, it had been published by Mercer University Press. In the preface to A Pilgrimage of Faith: My Story, the retired professor wrote of his desire to keep the Barnette family connected, but his telling of his story surely will have an impact on more than just his family. This book has the potential to inspire the Baptist family to stay connected.

Written in a conversational style, Barnette told of his birth on August 14, 1911, in a log cabin near Taylorsville, North Carolina, his "two happy years" in the fourth grade, and his leaving school in the seventh grade and working in a cotton mill from the time he was thirteen until he returned to high school in 1933 at the age of twenty-two to complete his education. He recorded in loving detail his conversion in 1931, his call to the ministry, and his ministry in churches, including one in Frog Holler. Following high school graduation when he was twenty-six, Barnette attended Wake Forest University and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, eventually earning a Ph.D. and teaching in several small Baptist colleges before returning to Southern as a professor.

The most moving chapters of the book are the ones in which Barnette wrote of his family, including the sudden and very sad death of his first wife Charlotte during childbirth. He honestly recorded the difficulties of being left with two young sons to care for and his overwhelming grief. Barnette later married one of his students, and in this section, his humor shines through as he joyfully described falling in love and flouting the rule that professors are not to date, much less marry, their students.

For the student of Baptist history, the most helpful chapters are the ones in which Barnette remembered his work in the area of race relations and his days at the seminary. He wrote of his role in planning and leading an interracial conference in 1947, and he provided details about his invitation to Martin Luther King, Jr., to speak at Southern and about the day that King spent on the campus. Barnette also remembered the great professors he encountered and provided many paragraphs about the many men who had taught him or taught with him.

In his concluding chapter, Barnette wrote: "Let me die working"; "Let me die thinking"; and "Let me die sharing the burdens of others." (251-52). On October 20, 2004, shortly before the release of A Pilgrimage of Faith, Henlee Barnette died. While his death greatly saddened us, his thoughtfulness to leave behind his written memories brought joy in a time of grief.--Reviewed by Pamela R. Durso, associate executive director, Baptist History and Heritage Society, Brentwood, Tennessee.