Bruce Gourley Bruce Gourley

Author Bruce Gourley says in Diverging Loyalties: Baptists in Middle Georgia During the Civil War that the Calvinism that caused many Baptists to view the war as God’s providential hand guiding the Southern cause waned as early victories turned to defeat and all but disappeared from public discourse by the turn of the 20th century.

Gourley, executive director of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, said that silence was not because of disinterest in the tenets of Calvinist theology, but rather integration of ideas of providence and sovereignty with a heightened embrace of free will prompted by the global spread of human progress, democracy and freedom following the war.

Gourley says it wasn’t until the cultural and social revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s, followed by fundamentalist-modernist struggles in the Southern Baptist Convention, that Calvinism made its comeback.

“Some conservatives of the late 20th century, spearheaded by the Calvinistically reoriented Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, appropriated the language of providence from Baptist life of the 1850s and 1860s in an effort to legitimize their current cultural positions and seek purity of theology,” Gourley observes.

Along with challenges to theology, Gourley says, the war set back the trajectory of Southern Baptist missions. Not until the 1880s did Southern Baptist missionary activity experience notable recovery, and it was thanks to the efforts of women.

“Although yet regulated to traditional roles of limited power within local churches, women experienced increased numerical influence within church life after the Civil War,” Gourley writes. “Seizing an initiative that men failed to address adequately, women in the 1880s used their numerical clout to develop funding mechanisms for missionaries at home and abroad.”

“Diverging Loyalties: Baptists in Middle Georgia During the Civil War” is published by Mercer University Press.

Gourley says women’s support not only remains critical to the success of Baptist mission work, but their influence on the mission field opened doors to other formal leadership roles for women, including pastoral positions, despite resistance from denominational leaders.

By the time of the Civil War, Gourley says Baptists in the South had long welcomed slaves into their churches, accepting responsibility for their souls if not their bodies. Refusing to accept blacks on the same level as white Europeans, Southern Baptists joined other Christians in the South equating the African race with the descendants of Noah’s son Ham, cursed to subservient status in the book of Genesis.

With increased racial tensions during Reconstruction, many black freedmen abandoned white power structures to establish their own missionary and educational structures. Freed from white paternalism, black Baptists continued to experience growth even after Southern Baptists peaked in the 1950s. Southern Baptist efforts to recruit black members in the latter decades of the 20th century, Gourley says “produced limited success.”

“While most Baptist congregations yet remain segregated, as they were in the years immediately following the war, African-American Baptists today are arguably more influential than Southern Baptists in the South, reflecting a juxtaposition of the racial dynamics of Civil-War era Baptists,” he observes.

Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.

Diverging Loyalties: Baptists in Middle Georgia During the Civil War is published by Mercer University Press.

Associated Baptist Press  http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/7079/53/
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Father Mercer

Father Mercer: The Story of a Baptist Statesman. By Anthony L. Chute. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2012. 146 pp. $20.00

Reviewed by Ryan West

Over the past decade, Anthony Chute has emerged as a respected church historian, particularly in the area of Baptist Studies.  Presently, he serves as the associate dean of the School of Christian Ministries and associate professor of Church History at California Baptist University.  Having examined Jesse Mercer for his dissertation, Chute brings a depth of knowledge to this work that supersedes many biographers.

The purpose of the James N. Griffith Series in Baptist Studies is to advance Baptist studies on various levels to various audiences by promoting “the exploration and investigation of Baptist history; publish classics of Baptist literature including letters, diaries, and other writings; offer analyses of Baptist theologies; and examine the role of Baptists in societies and cultures both in the US and abroad.” As part of the Griffith Series, Chute’s biography seeks to tell the story of Jesse Mercer who was a key figure in establishing Baptist thought and culture which may be considered ‘givens’ today.  In his official acknowledgments, Chute indicates his interest in Mercer “not as a topic of research but as a fellow pilgrim whose company I think I would have enjoyed had I lived in his day.”  Mercer thus serves as an opportunity for personal encouragement for Chute and his readers while also fulfilling the purposes of the Griffith Series.

Father Mercer is divided into two sections.  In the first section, Chute provides a relatively short biography of Mercer through a nice division of his early life and ministerial beginnings (“Son of Silas”), his rising role as a leader of southern Baptists (“Father Mercer”), and the fruit of his leadership (“The Old Man”).  The second portion is a lengthy one that includes Mercer’s own writings such as sermons, letters to church members, and position articles.  In this section, Chute provides a short introduction to each text in which he shows the significance of the material at hand.  The end of the book includes a detailed timeline of Mercer’s life as well as a two-page summary of existing literature on Mercer for anyone interested in examining Mercer on a deeper level.

There is much in this work that readers will find helpful.  Overall, readers will find Chute’s style of writing to be a pleasant encounter and even masterful at times.  His work goes beyond merely reporting historical facts to recreate the felt experience of Mercer and his contemporaries.  For example, the audience will feel the anguish of Jesse and Sabrina Mercer after the loss of their two daughters to an early death (17).  Consequently, Chute accomplishes one of his objectives of representing Mercer as an ‘ordinary’ pastor by illustrating the struggles of this Baptist forefather.  Elsewhere, his evaluation of Mercer’s views on church membership brings to light the weightiness of church covenants, membership, and church discipline (31-34).  Contemporary Baptists may find such commitments a bit strange and Chute does an excellent job of helping readers understand the Baptist mentality of Mercer’s day.  A few other examples of his quality of writing are his treatments of Baptists on local church autonomy and voluntary association (12-14), religious liberty (15), and denominational exclusivity (27-31).

A second commendable aspect of this work is Chute’s inclusion of primary source writings from Mercer.  A potential problem with biographical works is that audiences are left to wonder if the person discussed was truly represented.  Chute’s work, however, leaves little room for such doubt.  Readers will find the primary sources to be rich in theology and practical exhortations from a man who loved Christ and his purposes.  Rather than including a smattering of quotes here and there, including such a large section of material allows one to experience the subject firsthand.  One minor question, however, worth noting involves the reasoning behind Chute’s selection of texts in light of the large corpus of Mercer’s writings.

Finally, persons acquainted with Mercer will note Chute’s faithful representation of Mercer’s own convictions.  For example, Mercer’s denominational commitments flowed from his fidelity to Scripture as his beginning point (27-31).  Elsewhere, this commitment is evident as Chute summarizes Mercer’s motivation for missions (65-68).  The use of reason and historical justification were not dismissed, but they always remained subservient to the Bible.  This aspect of Mercer’s life became vitally important when defending a position of evangelistic Calvinism against Cyrus White’s Arminianism and the Primitive Baptists’ anti-missionary position (68-82).

Chute’s work does leave room for minor criticisms, the most glaring of which is the lack of citations for his quotes, references, and evaluations.  At no point does he provide a reference to the location of the primary source material that he uses.  Therefore, readers wanting to explore the subjects addressed are left to the task of finding the primary source on their own.  This issue creates several other problems within his work such as his truncated discussion of early Baptist views of soteriology (69-70).

Additionally, the reading audience may get the sense that Chute’s evaluations are overly general at times.  Although Chute’s intention is to provide a brief introduction to Mercer, he relies on a good deal of assumed knowledge at times.  This issue is concerning in light of his target audience being novice readers who need an introduction to figures such as Mercer and concerns associated with his life.  For example, his discussion of Mercer’s denominational distinctions is a quick handling of differences between Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodist, and Baptists on complex issues surrounding the Lord’s Supper, baptism, religious authority, and polity (27-31).

Ultimately, Chute accomplishes his purpose of providing an introduction to both Mercer and Baptist battles of his day.  Father Mercer is too simplistic to serve as a classroom text in light of the above criticisms, but it should prove to be a helpful resource nonetheless.  Readers at all levels who are unacquainted with Mercer will benefit from meeting this figure who established many current Baptist commitments.

J. Ryan West serves as the Assistant to the Executive Director at the Evangelical Theological Society and as a Junior Fellow at the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies  in Louisville, KY.  He received a Th.M. in Historical Theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is a Ph.D. Candidate (2012) in Theology and Tradition at the same institution.  Before moving to Louisville, he and his wife served as missionaries in India and an inner-city context in the States. He serves as a ministry leader at Sojourn Community Church, where he teaches family ministry courses and leads a weekly small group. His professional memberships include the Evangelical Theological Society, the Baptist History & Heritage Society, and the Fellowship of Baptist Historians.  He has a wonderful wife of eleven years and has been blessed with three young children, ages nine and under.

Published: Sunday, December 18, 2011, 1:13 PM

MOBILE, Alabama — ‘Tis the season! Those searching for life-enriching books appropriate for gifting either women or men should consider Georgia writer Jackie K. Cooper’s “Back to the Garden: The Goal of the Journey.” The memoir is filled with brief vignettes which may either be devoured like a prolonged Christmas feast or anticipated as scrumptious sugar plums savored during multiple trips to the holiday buffet.

The author of five previous “Journey” books, Cooper is also an entertainment critic, perhaps best-known nationally for his online reviews of books, movies, plays and television programs for The Huffington Post.

The book’s title and cover art might lead some prospective readers to mistakenly conclude that “Back to the Garden” is about, well, gardening. It is not. In his prologue, the author explains that he came “from a place of innocence, a Garden of Eden so to speak, and I am trying to live my life so that one day I emerge again in perfection in a perfect place, another Eden, preferably with air conditioning.”

“Back to the Garden” is a collection of personal essays, reflections from Cooper’s life primarily during 2004 and 2005. His words reveal that he is a South Carolina native who adores his wife, two adult sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. That he is a Southern gentleman is unstated but quickly obvious.

In the book’s foreword, South Carolina poet laureate Marjory Wentworth writes that Cooper “inspires us with the knowledge that comes from a life attentive to the details of his muse yet forever humbled in his acknowledgment that there is so much more left to learn.”

The author hooked this reader on page seven by simply sharing his minister’s sermon that began by describing a scene from the movie “Black Hawk Down”: A colonel attempted to get a convoy of trucks out of the battle zone. A number of men had already been lost, including the driver of the lead truck. Pulling the dead body from the truck, the colonel ordered a sergeant to drive the truck out of there. The sergeant replied that he’d been shot. The colonel shouted: “We’ve all been shot! Now drive the truck!”

The sermon concluded, “That is what life is all about … every one of us has been ‘shot’ in some way, but we need to get on with it and drive the truck.” The implications of those simple words contain universal wisdom.

Always entertaining, Cooper’s stories are also brutally honest. Most are uplifting. Many offer life lessons. All offer wisdom. For instance, in his chapter “Nobody’s important but me,” Cooper describes being in an Atlanta theater in which a woman with a screaming baby ruined the film for everyone. As management finally escorted the woman and her still screaming child from the theater, the audience applauded. The baby’s mother shouted an obscenity. Cooper opines that when things like that happen he fumes in silence. “If you say something to somebody these days,” he says, “you’re liable to get shot.” Indeed.

Yet another story illustrates the importance of “holding onto the joy of anticipation” while “scaling down expectations” of almost all life events. Particularly at this time of year, that is sage advice.

One of Cooper’s most poignant stories describes his granddaughter Genna’s dance recital, which, he writes, “lasted an interminable three hours. I was in dance-class hell, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” Since Genna was only four, she wasn’t the star. As Cooper sat dozing through much of the event, several of the older dance students suddenly captured his attention as they waltzed — standing on tiptoe atop their fathers’ shoes. Cooper concludes: “Tears started coming out of my eyes … I’ll never get to dance with a daughter … There is a bond between fathers and daughters that I will never know. I have observed it with our friends … I envy that relationship … For so many years [my daughter] existed as a presence waiting to be born, but now I know that dream will not come true. I have the next best thing and that is a granddaughter. But sometimes I just miss that little girl I dreamed about. I miss her so much.”

Over 100 thought-provoking stories fill the 215 pages of Jackie K. Cooper’s endearing book. Tie a bow around it, and slip it into someone’s Christmas stocking. “Back to the Garden” is sure to bring tidings of comfort and joy.

Atmore native Bonnie Bartel Latino is an award-winning writer and former columnist for Stars and Stripes newspaper in Europe.

Back to the Garden:
The Goal of the Journey
By Jackie K. Cooper
Mercer University Press, paper, $18

In Washed in the Blood, Lisa Alther tells a sweeping tale of racial and familial ambiguity

by Paul V. Griffith

Combining the factual relevance of a history book with the intrigue and passion of a romance novel, Washed in the Blood follows the descendants of Diego Martin, a sixteenth-century hog drover who comes to the New World with a Spanish expedition. When Martin is abandoned by his party, he’s forced to reframe all the ideas he once held dear and make his way in a strange and dangerous land. As centuries pass––and Spanish, English, Portuguese, African, and Native American blood becomes increasingly intermingled––successive generations of Martins struggle with notions of identity and the fickle nature of love.

Washed in the Blood is a novel in three parts. The first concerns the aforementioned explorer, the so-called “Swine King,” Diego Martin. The second is dedicated to Daniel Hunter, a mid-nineteenth-century Quaker schoolteacher who forsakes his Philadelphia fiancée for Galicia Martin, a dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty whom he meets in the hills of Couchtown, Virginia. By now the Martins have melded into their surroundings. Like other families in the area, they are, as Alther writes, “neither fish nor fowl, neither white nor Indian nor African, most probably all three at once.” As such, they are subject to the whims of Easterners and other area whites whose need for land threatens both the family farm and the young lovers’ future.

Part three tells the story of Will Martin and Galicia Hunter. At this point, the Martin clan has split in two: the merchant side, who live in Couchtown, and the farming side, who live on nearby Mulatto Bald. Neither side is aware of their ancestral background, and both deny any connection to each other. Will is a Martin from the Bald, and Galicia, Daniel Martin’s granddaughter, is from Couchtown. Not realizing they are cousins, the two marry and start a family, moving to a nearby industrial center where they become prominent citizens. When Will’s son from a teen romance appears on their doorstep, Will and Galicia must come to terms with their shifting affections––and the fact that forbidden love may split the Martin clan once again.

Alther, the internationally bestselling author of Kinflicks and Original Sins, among other novels, is a stickler for historical accuracy. Using meticulous research, she leads the reader through a plausible set of circumstances based on accepted genealogical theories and anthropological studies. The fear Will and Galicia Martin feel about their offspring’s skin color, for example, would have resonated with Reconstruction-era mixed-raced people, for whom skin color determined social status. As Southern whites struggled to gain control over recently emancipated blacks, the issue of skin color became more important than ever; for them it was therefore preferable––but less plausible––to claim to be of Indian or Portuguese descent. Will and Galicia make no such claims––though they aren’t passing for white, either, “Because passing implied that you knew you were black and were masquerading as white,” Alther writes. “But he and Galicia had no idea who they really were.”

Alther’s careful attention to historical accuracy does occasionally slip. Daniel Martin’s potential mother-in-law, for example, has a suspiciously enlightened view of race: “[T]he way we have dealt with the Indians and the Africans has robbed this country of all that early promise.”

But such whimsy is acceptable in historical romance, which gains its narrative power by placing anachronistic figures in historically challenging circumstances.

Alther’s insights into the history and culture of Appalachian life are crucial and well-researched, but the language of romance proves to be her great strength. Consider, for example, Daniel Hunter’s conflicting emotions for his fiancée, Abigail, and his paramour, Galicia. “Both were thrilling for him after a lifetime of depravation,” Alther writes. “With Galicia he dove deep to explore underwater caverns. With Abigail he was swept over a waterfall, clinging for dear life to a raft of bucking flesh.” Alther’s depictions of forbidden lust and star-crossed love retain the subversive character that typifies the work of such masters of the genre as Jane Austen or Nora Roberts: true love is attained only if one remains true to oneself. More than that, though, even with its hardships, bigotries, and genealogical confusion, Alther makes antique Appalachia seem like a pretty sexy place. Old times there are not forgotten, indeed.

— Review appeared on the Chapter 16 website on November 21, 2011.

Saturday, December 10, 2011
10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Intercontinental Buckhead Atlanta
3315 Peachtree Road, NE
Atlanta, GA 30326

Books – Authors – Food – Friends – Holiday Fun

Join us for one of the most enjoyable literary events of the year: The Mercer University Authors Luncheon to benefit Mercer University Press.  Known as the literary event in Atlanta, this is your opportunity to meet outstanding authors, get books autographed, enjoy a delicious lunch, and buy those special holidays gifts for family, friends and yourself.

Authors Appearing

• David Bottoms, We Almost Disappear
• Carmen Agra Deedy, The Cheshire Cheese Cat
• Brian Eames, The Dagger Quick
• John Ferling, Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free
• R. Kirby Godsey, Is God a Christian?
• Melissa Fay Greene, No Biking in the House Without a Helmet
• Jonathan W. Jordan, Brothers, Rivals, Victors: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley and the Partnership That Drove the Allied Conquest in Europe
• Terry Kay, The Greats of Cuttercane
• Rebecca Lang, Quick-Fix Southern: Homemade Hospitality in 30 Minutes or Less
• William L. Self, Surviving the Stained-Glass Jungle
• Jeffrey Stepakoff, The Orchard
• Jaclyn Weldon White, The Greatest Champion That Never Was: The Life of W. L. “Young” Stribling

Contact

Contact Allen Wallace for more details (678) 547-6419.    http://authors.mercer.edu

Online registration:  https://apps.mercer.edu/ecommerce/authorsluncheon2011/

Why not? Church near Comerica Park and plenty of fans keep the faith

Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera, sporting a T-shirt with a religious theme, jokes with New York’s Curtis Granderson and Reggie Jackson during the Yankees series. The tagline on the T-shirt is “bench press this.” / JIM McISAAC/McClatchy-Tribune

From its outdoor electronic sign to its noon, workday service, the congregation of St. John’s Episcopal Church in downtown Detroit obeys the second commandment.

God “does tell us to love our neighbors as ourselves,” said the Rev. Steven Kelly, rector of the 150-year-old church on Woodward, across a parking lot from Comerica Park. “And the Tigers are our next-door neighbors, and one of the ways we love them, is to pray for them.”

At Tuesday’s service, ahead of Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, Kelly intoned a prayer before the handful of churchgoers asking “for blessings for the Tigers that they may play to the best of their abilities and injury-free.” He will put in another prayer at noon today.

But is God really a Tigers fan?

As the home team continues its quest for a place in the World Series, metro Detroiters surely hope so.

Amen?!

“I’m not sure God picks sides,” Kelly said. “But I have friends who are priests in Texas and they’re praying for the Rangers. Maybe it just evens out.”

When the Tigers lost an AL record 119 times in 2003 Kelly hung a banner outside the church that said: “Pray for the Tigers.” The message hasn’t changed in winning times, but now it appears on an electronic sign, and it also includes the Lions.

The church bulletin also includes Tigers players, staff and management in the weekly “Pray for” column.

But do those prayers make a difference?

In 2002, the Rev. Steven Kelly holds a prayer for Bishop Wendall Gibbs during a special service at St. John’s Episcopal Church the day before the Tigers’ home opener at Comerica Park. / MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Pres

“Of course!” said Stephanie Franks of Sterling Heights, who gathered with fans at Comerica Park before Game 3. “For one thing, I pray about all good things and folks.”

Franks, a 44-year-old donations specialist with the Salvation Army, added: “This city really needs it. It is not just for the sports. Positive prayer is definitely something I believe in. If they don’t advance, it still says you go out there and make an effort.

“You have got to know the downs before you can experience the ups. It’s part of the plan.”

Sports fans are accustomed to seeing players cross themselves before facing a pitch, draw crosses in the dirt with their bats or point to the heavens after a home run.

“Like all sports, baseball is being affected by the general culture. And the general culture is being affected by the rise of evangelical, dogmatic religion,” said William Baker, the University of Maine author of “Playing with God: Religion and Modern Sport” (Cambridge Harvard University, $29.95). “It’s in our politics. It’s in our artistic culture. And it certainly is in sports.”

Conservative Rabbi Jason Miller, director of Kosher Michigan, said he took no offense at Christian displays of faith on the field.

“In America, we take our sports seriously and baseball as the American pastime has been elevated to almost the level of religion,” said Miller of Farmington Hills. “When I see a player like Jose Valverde of the Tigers pointing to heaven or crossing himself, I can tell my children that he is a religious person and is grateful to God for his successful performance and God-given abilities.”

Religious traditions may praise athletes for their fortitude and strength and patience. But professional sports also has a winner-take-all ethos that runs contrary to a variety of religious teachings. The meek-shall-inherit-the-earth, but the ferocious and aggressive shall pulverize their opponent.

Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera has worn a T-shirt to practice that displays a fallen Jesus Christ with the cross on his back struggling to lift himself from the ground under the words “Lord’s Gym.”

Archbishop of Detroit Allen Vigneron, posing with visual arts teacher Matt McGuire, receives a gift last week with a familiar logo from middle schoolers at Notre Dame Marist Academy in Pontiac. / Special to the Free Press

Baseball is replete with religious references. Late Tigers broadcasting legend Ernie Harwell opened every spring training season with a recitation from the Bible’s Song of Solomon. Stadiums are sometimes referred to as “Green Cathedrals” — also the name of a book about ballparks.

As an organization, the Tigers reach out to faith-based groups for ticket sales, marketing a game as “Lutheran Night” at Comerica Park or hosting events with evangelical testimony from players such as outfielder Don Kelly and second baseman Ramon Santiago for a “Home Plate” faith day. Many other teams do the same — Kansas City has “Christian Family Night” and Philadelphia and the Florida Marlins have touted “Jewish Heritage” themes for games.

On Sunday, various Tigers gather for a service known as the Baseball Chapel. The program, now in every major league and minor league ballpark, has roots in Detroit. The late sportswriter Watson Spoelstra of the Detroit News approached commissioner Bowie Kuhn in 1973 to institute the Baseball Chapel, a Christian ministry for ballplayers.

An estimated 3,000 players and team staffers partake in Sunday services at stadiums in the U.S., Latin America and even Japan, said Steve Sisco, national director of player relations for the Baseball Chapel.

Joseph Price, a religious studies professor at Whittier College in California and the author of “Rounding the Bases: Baseball and Religion in America” (Mercer University Press, $35), said religion had been an influence in baseball from the beginning of the 20th century.

“It’s not so much an increase in the faith of the players themselves, as in the number of media opportunities in which they’re able to express their faith,” said Price, noting the explosion of sports networks, all-sports radio and Internet blogs and videos.

Last May on Home Plate day, several thousand youngsters heard testimonials from some Tigers about their faith. The flier for the event advertised testimonials from Kelly, Santiago, outfielder Ryan Raburn, pitcher Daniel Schlereth, broadcaster Rod Allen, and former Tigers Willie Horton and Frank Tanana.

About 250 youngsters involved with Save Our Neighborhoods and Streets (SONS) in Port Huron traveled to the Home Plate program, said executive director Tyrone Burrell.

“The Tigers sponsor it every year,” Burrell said, “and we hear the faith of their current and former players.

“A lot of times in our culture and society, we have hero worship of athletes. When they can share that there is something behind them, such as faith in the Lord, it’s inspirational for the kids and adults as well.”

But what about the current fight for the American League pennant, does God have a stake in that?

“Oh, heck yeah,” said Corena Makin of Grand Blanc, who was among the sold-out crowd attending Tuesday night’s Game 3 at Comerica Park. But if the Tigers don’t advance past this series, Makin said, “it doesn’t say anything bad about God.

“It’s just not their time,” she added.

Mike Lovie, a 47-year-old pipe fitter from London, Ontario, knows all about ill-timed prayers. He also attended Game 3, but rooting for the Tigers wasn’t his first choice.

“I prayed for the Red Sox,” Lovie said, “but it didn’t work:”

Contact Patricia Montemurri: 313-223-4538 or pmontemurri@freepress.com .

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Sport by Steven J. Overman

Now I wake me up to work. I pray the lord I may not shirk. If I should die before the night, I pray the Lord my works’ all right. Amen. Jack London

The author is more like a companion than that in the metaphor used by Joyce, one who has finished a work and sits behind it paring his nails. Wisely, Overman makes sure the reader is involved in preparation of the journey. He does this by the use of “we,” not a royal “we” but a “we” of fellow seekers.

We can distill this comprehensive and occasionally redundant collection into a concise set of constructs that reflect the essence of the Protestant ethic. The following list compiled by the author is labeled the “Seven Protestant Virtues” (With Apologies to Thomas Aquinas) : (I) worldly asceticism (II) rationalization (III)  goal-directed behavior, (IV) achieved status, (V) Individualism (VI) work ethic, and (VII) time ethic.(57)

Overman points to the similarities between these “Seven Protestant Virtues” and “the seven characteristics of modern sport” identified by Allen Guttmann: “secularism, equality, rationalization, specialization, bureaucracy, quantified achievement, and record keeping–all indicative of its break from the sacred and festive . . . .Consistent with the secularization thesis, the focus of this book is not on sport as a form of religion but the ways in which modern sport reaffirms, reinforces, and disseminates values that have their origins in religion” (11-12).

All claims by Overman are supported by an abundance of research including elements of Calvinism as reflected in the title. The figure, though, who tied the reformation to capitalism was Max Weber (1864-1920) in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. According to Overman,

Weber’s thesis about the relationship between the Protestant ethic and capitalism was born in his observations of differences in certain types of  social behavior among Protestants and Catholics in post-reformation Germany. He inquired as to what kind of historical processes would account for the fact that the Protestants sections of Germany were more industrialized, that they constituted a disproportionate number of the industrial affluent and that they were more likely to attend the types of schools that would equip them for business enterprises. These developments encompassed essential patterns for success under capitalism. . . .

Weber recognized the pivotal nature of Martin Luther’s idea of the calling, ultimately refined by the Calvinists. Weber focused. . . upon a code of ethics for the conduct of everyday life and a sanction that would compel the faithful to adhere to a set of ethical maxims.  This focus brought Weber to the central point of his thesis that the reformed Protestant belief in predestination manifesting itself in the performance of good works as the driving force behind the spirit of capitalism. Consistent with this notion, the individual Protestant expected to practice a type of inner-worldly rational asceticism in which meticulous attention must be paid to the affairs of everyday life as proof of election (i. e. personal salvation). (43) (Italics added)

A recurring formula throughout the Overman’s discussion of the Protestant ethic is that “success” opens the gate for salvation but included a fidelity to ethical maxims. Success, thus, entails not just money-making and recognition but service to others. It does not surprise that for Weber representative figures were Ben Franklin and John Wesley.

In subsequent sections of Part 1, Overman examines, among other topics, Protestantism and the American Work ethic and ethos, and in Part 2, entitled “The Spirit of Sport,” he focuses on “The Protestant Ethic and the Institutionalization of American Sport,” “Moral Ascetism,” and “the Rationalization of Sport,” “Child Rearing and Youth Sport in Protestant Culture,” “the Coopting of Amateur Sport,” and “Professional Sport: The Progeny of Capitalism” and “Finish Line: Summing up the Ethos of Sport.”

In the “Progeny of Capitalism,” Ben Franklin and John Wesley, “successful” in their chosen endeavors, stand in stark contrast to those who have “succeeded” in a different way.
When William Wrigley III sold the Cubs to the Tribune Company in 1981, it was the beginning of a new era. The Griffith family, who had purchased the Washington Senators in 1912 and still owned the team when it moved to Minneapolis in 1961, sold the twins to a banker in 1985. Peter O’Malley then sold the Los Angeles Dodgers to media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch in 1997. . . .The traditional owners whose emotional investment in the team meant as much as their financial investment had become an anachronism. They were gradually being replaced by brewers, bankers, business tycoons, and media moguls. (303)

The Protestant ethic does not prohibit making money but does not see that as an end in itself. Instead, it is a means of doing good for the whole of society apparently as advised by John Wesley: “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

From the 1960s onward, according to Overman, “Franchise owners increasingly were inclined to define success less by what occurred on the playing field than by ‘black ink.’ Winning, losing and playing the game seemed less important than counting the money.” The Protestant ethic, at its best, it seems, might be defined as capitalism with a conscience.

What has happened to the Protestant ethic in American Sport, or at least the “moneyfied” branch of it, may well be an example of Enantiodromia, the tendency of one quality or virtue to turn into its opposite. Heraclitus, it is believed, was the first to identify it and to regard it as a “law,” a key component of Jungian analysis. There is ample evidence that in regard to wealth this could be happening in America on a broad scale, possibly, because few have even heard of the phenomenon. After all, the ancients, as Mark Twain said, “stole all our ideas.”

Of all the terms and ideas that define the Protestant ethic, the word “success,” may the most fragile. It is not a coincidence that, according to Websters, it came into use in 1519. It shares meanings and interpretations with the word “excellence” (arete), “the same but different” (eadem sed aliter), Schopenhauer’s motto for history. Success depends on display in sport, government, warfare, and religion, the four “occupations” according to Thorstein Veblen, “of predatory cultures.” Excellence, in contrast, is a composite ideal, like strength and wisdom, sapientia et fortitudo, and its purpose is seeking, which accounts no doubt for its abundant use in Greek philosophy and scripture where “success” is barely mentioned.

Emerson inveighed against “success,” but, according to Charles W. Eliot, he was also the “founder of the cult of athletics.” William James went so far as to call “success” the “Bitch Goddess,” and Lewis Mumford wrote an essay called “Sport and the Bitch Goddess.” It appears as an example of what Emerson had in mind when he said “Much will have more,” especially true of victories, and often applied to holders of great wealth. How stands today the Protestant ethic? Each can judge.

Overman is well aware of these ironies and dangers and illustrates them throughout this remarkable study. In fact, he has done more research on the major motto of “success” than anyone I know about. See, for example, on the Internet, his article on the following: “‘Winning Isn’t Everything. It’s the Only Thing’: The Origin, Attributions and Influence of a Famous Football Quote.” You will be surprised who said it first and where–at the same university where a Phi Beta Kappa first baseman came up with a famous quatrain about the “One Great Scorer.”

The Protestant ethic, fraught with many possibilities, is completely ecumenical, more of a way than a denomination, and may surface in unsuspecting places. Knute Rockne, for example, was a Norse Protestant in a Catholic stronghold, a long, long way from the wars of the Reformation. Is this in itself a sign of progress? When, in 1969, Bob Neyland of Tennessee was elected by fellow coaches as “The Coach of the Century,” he was asked about the greatest influences upon his career. “Rockne,” he said, “and Army.”

In addition to depth and grace of expression, this book has scope, as recommended by E.M. Forster in his website called “Only Connect,” also the advice of Goethe and Aristotle and in our time by Leslie Fiedler who spoke of the failure to do so as “the endemic disease” of our time. In the manner of Veblen’s classic, Theory of the Leisure Class, but with a different approach, Overman is completely free of this “disease” of failure to connect. Indeed he connects “occupations” brilliantly and suggests without even saying so, that we might do ourselves some “good” by taking a hard look at all our institutions and how they relate, or maybe ought to relate, to one another.

For all these reasons, I do not hesitate to recommend this book for any prizes for which it might be eligible.

— Reviewed for ARETE by Robert J. Higgs, author of An Unholy Alliance : The Sacred And Modern Sports.  ARETE is a moderated e-mail discussion list hosted by The Sport Literature Association.

Marco Bassani, professor of History of Political Theory at the University of Milan, and author of  Liberty, State, and Union: The Political Theory of Thomas Jefferson, was interviewed by Jeffrey Tucker, Vice President at the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 3 February 2011.