Snapshots from my Library 30 – William Warren Sweet by Jim Curran

Jim Curran 03/08/21

Snapshots from my Library 30- William Warren Sweet

These are books that are a little off the beaten path but still useful in researching especially in the American West. Sometimes I will find some more secular/ academic sources that can be helpful. As much research that I have done in Baptist history centers on the expanding frontier starting in the Midwest I have found some of Sweet’s more academic histories useful in getting more information and context. They are not confined to Baptist history but cover all the denominations including competition and conflict. Sometimes if we get a little bit of that context it helps us to better understand our history as Baptists. I do not agree with everything in here (and little regarding the other denominations) but I find the information very useful in a historical context. Sweet’s history is however fair and non biased even though his background was Methodist. His writing is more academic than biased. One area that Sweet notes as having the greatest impact upon the frontier was the role of the Baptist preacher/ farmer. There are times that a dual vocational pastor is looked down upon or even may feel lesser because of their status. That should not be the case- they transformed the frontier and still are the norm in most places around our world. I have a couple of Sweet’s works- “The story of Religion in America” and “Religion in the development of American Culture.” Both of these were bookstore finds. The Story of Religion in America is available online at https://www.gospeltruth.net/storyofre…/storyofrelinama.htmArchive.org has many of his books free online https://archive.org/search.php… Of particular interest “Religion on the American Frontier” Volume one deals only with Baptists. This book is on my “hit list” to find but an electronic copy is at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.89741