The Sacred Trust: Sketches of the Southern Baptist Convention Presidents

Baptist History and Heritage, Spring, 2004 by Blake Killingsworth

The Sacred Trust: Sketches of the Southern Baptist Convention Presidents. By Emir Caner and Ergun Caner. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Press, 2003.

In The Sacred Trust, church historians Emir and Ergun Caner present brief biographical sketches of each president of the Southern Baptist Convention. According to the authors, Southern Baptists have never been bereft of strong leadership, and every man who assumed the mantle of president led the convention under God's watchful eye.

Each chapter of The Sacred Trust deals with an individual president, including the first president, William Bullein Johnson, and the current one, Jack Graham. Legendary figures of the convention are scattered throughout the text, and to be sure, controversy plays a key role throughout the history of the presidency.

The Caners should be applauded for compiling information on such a diverse group of people, and the work does achieve its goal in giving a "sketch" of each president. Unfortunately, the authors provide no analysis, context, or summary; in short, they offer no theme.

While it is understandable that in a work that provides biographies of fifty-two different men, little room would exist for thorough historical interpretation, the authors nonetheless, would have done well to provide some sort of theme or themes in this work. A few paragraphs scattered throughout the book could provide summaries concerning how the actions of the presidents influenced the world around them or how the world around them influenced their actions. Small comments analyzing even the leadership styles of the presidents would have made this work much stronger.

Additionally, the authors should have provided greater context for their audience. A few extra sentences could have rounded out the work's historical setting. Perhaps the most glaring omission of context relates to issues such as race. For example, in the chapter on Richard Fuller, who served in 1859 and 1861, the authors explain that Fuller, while defending slavery, claimed that "blacks were treated with respect," earned an education in the Baptist church, and that he personally did his best by spending his salary to care for his slaves (11). Fuller believed the purity of these sentiments, but in the context of his day, many southerners said the same thing. They did so not to tout their kind treatment of slaves, but rather to accuse the northerners of hypocrisy. Unfortunately, the readers are not given this context and are left to conclude that Fuller had an overwhelming kindness for the black population, a kindness when put into context is suspect.

The Sacred Trust, at times, entertains and is overwhelming anecdotal. It also provides basic background information for the SBC presidents, and, therefore, accomplishes its stated purpose. Yet, in order to obtain a larger understanding of the place of these men in the history of the convention or even in southern religion, supplemental texts are required.--Reviewed by Blake Killingsworth, doctoral student, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, and adjunct professor of history, Dallas Baptist University, Dallas, Texas.