The Search for a Common Identity: The Origins of the Baptist Union of Scotland, 1800-1870.

The Search for a Common Identity: The Origins of the Baptist Union of Scotland, 1800-1870. By Brian R. Talbot, Carlisle, Cumbria: Paternoster Press, 2003. 402 pp.

In Baptist history, the examples are far too few of disparate groups overcoming differences of opinion and theology to forge unity. In The Search for a Common Identity: The Origins of the Baptist Union of Scotland 1800-1870, Brian R. Talbot tackles the simultaneously formidable and stimulating task of tracing the development of Baptist unity in Scotland in spite of years of strained relationships and mistrust among different Baptist groups.

In the ninth volume of the Studies in Baptist History and Thought series by Paternoster Press, Talbot adds his voice to the refrain of others who have been announcing Baptist tales long lost or long forgotten. While there was a Baptist presence in Scotland as early as the seventeenth century, Talbot focuses his attention on the nineteenth century when several distinct Baptist groups came into being. His study deftly details the commonalities and the radical congregationalism of three particular streams of Baptists: the "Scotch" Baptists, under the leadership of Archibald McLean, the Haldaneite Baptists, led by brothers Robert and James Haldane, and Baptists who followed in the English Particular Baptist tradition. After tracing the historical, theological, and ecclesiological roots of each of these groups, Talbot highlights the failed attempts to establish unity amnog these Baptist bodies. Attempts at unity were made as early as 1827 when certain Baptist churches combined their resources to engage in home missionary activity. Despite this early rallying cry of missions, and other attempts to bring Baptists together in subsequent decades, unity among Baptists remained elusive.

In the end, Talbot argues that the convergence of several factors led to the Baptist Union of Scotland in 1869. Missions had served as a rallying cry for Arminian and Calvinistic Baptists in Scotland as it had for Baptists in England in previous years. A temperance movement and a growing recognition of the need for theological education, both of which could be achieved more ably working in unison rather than separately, buttressed the call to missions. Finally, capable leaders set aside radical congregational autonomy, a constant detriment to unity, for the promise of greater growth and stability.

Talbot has researched his subject masterfully, combining primary and secondary sources with great skill. Perhaps a result of the bounty of resources, the text reads laboriously in places, stifled in the compendium of names that too often leads to confusion rather than clarity. Nevertheless, Talbot has provided a valuable volume that shows unity within diversity is a viable option for Baptists.--Reviewed by Eddie Stepp, assistant professor of religious studies, Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, North Carolina.