Adiel Sherwood: Baptist Antebellum Pioneer in Georgia.

Adiel Sherwood: Baptist Antebellum Pioneer in Georgia. By Jarrett Butch. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2003. 270 pp.

People who are familiar with Mercer University may have a slight acquaintance with Adiel Sherwood (1789-1879), since both a building and a scholarship bear his name. The interested historian may have discovered Sherwood in an article pertaining to Georgia Baptist history. Such minor monuments and passing interests are hardly reflective, according to author Jarrett Burch, of the impact that Sherwood made on the religious perspective of the South.

Burch details how a young Sherwood "temporarily" left Andover Seminary in New York to find a climate more compatible with his weakened lungs. For a Baptist student who had never delivered a sermon and was yet to be ordained, Sherwood's entry into Georgia in 1818 nevertheless marked a turning point for the nascent Baptist denomination. Almost immediately, Sherwood introduced Georgia Baptists to Sunday Schools, and a decade later he organized their first temperance movement. During this same period, he spread a mission consciousness among Georgia Baptists, culminating in a "great revival" in 1827 during which thousands ostensibly embraced Christ as Savior. Among other accomplishments, Sherwood was instrumental in forming the Georgia Baptist Convention, and he began a manual labor school that became foundational for the success of Mercer Institute, later Mercer University.

Butch describes how opposition complicated nearly every facet of Sherwood's work. A strong antimission sentiment was pocketed in the Old South, and Sherwood's notions were labeled as new-fangled. Such complications highlight Burch's thesis, namely that the Southern Baptist Convention gained much of its denominational identity by transplanted northerners. Sherwood himself was a conduit of Andrew Fuller's "duty faith," Moses Stuart's "biblical literalism," and Thomas Baldwin's "Baptist principles" (13-14). That nearly everything begun by Sherwood lived to see another day is a testimony to his organizational skill and his theological ability.

Butch's work is commendable. He successfully resurrects a forgotten figure in the history of the church, no small feat considering Sherwood wrote under several pseudonyms in numerous state papers and had a wider range of interests than mere theology. Butch also resists claiming too much for Sherwood. He could have made a case for Sherwood as rivaling Jesse Mercer as one of the most instrumental figures in Georgia Baptist life, but Burch candidly states that Sherwood preferred to follow "greater men" (148). Certainly the book will merit criticism from any who hope to find more social history within its pages, but Butch himself is writing a corrective for this type of fault-finding, noting that theology has its own role in transforming society.

The weakness of the book is that its subject matter will restrict its readership. Institutions like Sunday Schools and state conventions, and issues pertaining to abstinence from alcohol and engagement in mission work have become such staples of Baptist life that only the ever-curious historian and the college student assigned to read this work are likely to peruse its contents. Yet, those who do read this book will discover a forgotten but admirable Baptist leader, as well as a budding and constructive Baptist historian.--Reviewed by Tony Chute, assistant professor of Christian studies, California Baptist University, Riverside, California.