A Texas Baptist Power Struggle: The Hayden Controversy.

A Texas Baptist Power Struggle: The Hayden Controversy. By Joseph E. Early Jr. Foreword by John W. Storey. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, c. 2005. Pp. xiv, 172. $39.95, ISBN 1-57441-195-0.)

The 1890s were a chaotic time in American religious history, and Joseph E. Early Jr. writes about one small part of that tumult--the Samuel Augustus Hayden controversy among Texas Southern Baptists. Histories of Texas Baptists include the Hayden conflict, but Early presents a monograph dedicated specifically to that one, important subject. The conflict contributed significantly to the understanding of denominational structures as operated by Texas Baptists and helped decide how Texas Baptists would do their work in the state and beyond. Early has provided a scholarly critique and analysis of the major players in and the central issues of the Hayden controversy.

Early's purpose in writing this book is to help make sense of the contemporary situation among Texas Baptists. He attempts to understand the current splintering of the Baptist General Convention of Texas in light of similar splits that occurred in the late nineteenth century. For Early, the creation of a new organization in the 1990s named the Southern Baptists of Texas parallels one result of the Hayden controversy--the formation of the Baptist Missionary Association in the early 1900s. He shows that while similarities between the contemporary contention and the Hayden problems do exist, many important differences also persist, and the two schisms produced very different results.

Focusing on the Hayden conflict as it played out in the two Texas Baptist newspapers, Early concludes that issues of power and personality, not theology or church order, dominated in the Hayden controversy, just as they dominate the contemporary split. Benajah H. Carroll, George W. Truett, Robert Cooke Buckner, and other Texas Baptist "greats" aligned against Samuel Augustus Hayden's position on denominational responsibility and his desire for a larger role in state denominational politics. Clashing agendas for Texas Baptists sparked the conflict, and the rhetoric grew bitter and acerbic as James Britton Cranfill and James Bruton Gambrell, successive editors of the Baptist Standard, challenged Hayden's theological and church order positions as published in his newspaper, the Texas Baptist and Herald. Early rightly contends that the personal agendas of Hayden and his critics drove the conflict, even though a power struggle began as early as 1877, before Hayden was on the scene.

A Texas Baptist Power Struggle: The Hayden Controversy sometimes reads like an encyclopedia, and someone not versed in Texas Baptist history could get lost in the names, dates, and affiliations. Early could have strengthened the book by adding a chapter explaining how Baptists affiliate with one another at the local, immediate geographical, and state levels. This chapter would help the reader understand the importance of Hayden's demands for openness in denominational decision-making and how the conflict played out at every level of Baptist life. Even without knowledge of how Baptists do their work, the reader is easily drawn into the book by Early's clear presentation of the issues and the people around whom the controversy swirled.

ROSALIE BECK

Baylor University