James Robinson Graves: Staking the Boundaries of Baptist Identity

James A. Patterson’s groundbreaking study of the life and mind of James Robinson Graves explores the history of Landmarkism in the nineteenth century. Under this doctrine, Graves proposed that “true” Baptists should be able to trace their lineage directly to the early church, rather than through the strands of Protestantism. Controversial in its day, and often poorly understood now, Landmarkism, in Patterson’s nuanced interpretation, is important for understanding an essential feature of Ba...