Mainstreaming Fundamentalism: John R. Rice and Fundamentalism's Public Reemergence

America’s Baptists

by Keith Bates

In Mainstreaming John R. Rice and Fundamentalism’s Public Reemergence , Keith Bates embarks on a thematic and chronological exploration of twentieth-century Baptist fundamentalism in postwar America, sharing the story of a man whose career intersected with many other leading fundamentalists of the twentieth century, such as J. Frank Norris, Bob Jones Sr., Bob Jones Jr., and Jerry Falwell. Unique among histories of American fundamentalism, this book explores the theme of Southern fundamentalism’s reemergence through a biographical lens. John R. Rice’s mission to inspire a broad cultural activism within fundamentalism—particularly by opposing those who fostered an isolationist climate—would give direction and impetus to the movement for the rest of the twentieth century. To support this claim, Bates presents chapters on Rice’s background and education, personal and ecclesiastical separatism, and fundamentalism and political action, tracing his rise to leadership during a critical phase of fundamentalism’s development until his death in 1980. Bates draws heavily upon primary source texts that include writings from Rice’s fundamentalist contemporaries, his own The Sword of the Lord articles, and his private papers—particularly correspondence with many nationally known preachers, local pastors, and laypeople over more than fifty years of Rice’s ministry. The incorporation of these writings, combined with Bates’s own conversations with Rice’s family, facilitate a deeply detailed, engaging examination that fills a significant gap in fundamentalist history studies. Mainstreaming John R. Rice and Fundamentalism’s Public Reemergence provides a nuanced and insightful study that will serve as a helpful resource to scholars and students of postwar American fundamentalism, Southern fundamentalism, and Rice’s contemporaries.

248 pages, Hardcover

Published March 12, 2021

Reviews

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keith Bates has written a fine critical biography of Independent Baptist pastor and editor John R. Rice (1895-1980), even though its scope is, to a considerable extent, restricted to Rice’s participation in the internecine conflicts within fundamentalist subculture. Unlike many commentators on Protestant fundamentalism, Bates writes from a thorough understanding of the movement. His summary of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy at the beginning of the 20th century, the division between fundamentalists and new evangelicals during the 1950s, and the denominational maneuvering within the Southern Baptist Convention at the end of the century are all perceptively presented.

Bates clearly sides against separatists of whatever sort and overuses words such as “supposedly” and “seemingly” when quoting them, probably so as not to be perceived as agreeing with their views. Sometimes Bates’ thumb is too obviously on the scale, as when he blames Bob Jones Sr.’s break with Billy Graham on Jones’s jealousy of the younger man. (It’s an easy charge to make. Every reader understands a feud that’s the result of jealousy; rarely do ordinary people run across a conflict that’s grounded in principle.)

I also disagree with Bates’s principle thesis, that Rice was important in persuading American fundamentalists to develop a less isolationist attitude toward the culture. For instance, my gut feeling is that the rightward movement of the Southern Baptist Convention during the late 20th century was at least as much the result of pressure from the separatists as it was to Rice’s joining hands with denomination conservatives. After all, unlike most mainline churches, the SBC didn’t own church properties and couldn’t stop the disintegration of the Convention if conservative churches decided Cooperative Program funds were being used to support religious ideas they despised. The separatists, standing firm in their separatism—and in fact, just existing—pointed to another way. As for political involvement, by the 1970s, there was plenty in every segment of the fundamentalist-evangelical spectrum and would have been so, Rice or no Rice.