Books and Essays
EDITED BOOKS
Thomas K. Ascol and Nathan A. Finn, eds., Ministry By His Grace and For His Glory: Essays in Honor of Thomas J. Nettles. Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2011. This is a festschrift for my friend Tom Nettles, an imminent Baptist historian who has taught for many years, most recently at Southern Seminary. In addition to co-editing the volume, I contributed a chapter on the landmark book Baptists and the Bible, co-authored by Nettles and Russ Bush, and helped prepare a bibliography of Tom’s publications through 2011.
Robert Hall Sr., Help to Zion’s Travellers: Being an Attempt to Remove Various Stumbling Blocks out of the Way, Relating to Doctrinal, Experimental and Practical Religion, new ed. Edited by Nathan A. Finn. Mountain Home, AR: BorderStone Press, 2011. This is a new edition of a classic work in Baptist theology written in 1781. Robert Hall Sr. was a longtime pastor in England and a founder of the Northamptonshire Baptist Association. In this work, Hall appropriated insights from Jonathan Edwards to argue against the High Calvinist idea that one must have a “warrant” (conviction) that he is among the elect before he can believe in Christ for salvation. This book significantly influenced some of Hall’s younger colleagues who became more well-known, including Andrew Fuller, William Carey, John Sutcliff, and John Ryland Jr.
Domestic Slavery: The Correspondence of Richard Fuller and Francis Wayland. Edited by Nathan A. Finn and Keith Harper. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2008. This is a new edition of an important antebellum volume that recounted the epistolary debate between Richard Fuller and Francis Wayland over slavery. The letters were originally published in the Baptist Repository in the fall of 1844. The book version was published in the spring of 1845, just weeks before the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention. Both men were “moderates” in their respective camps. Fuller was at the time a South Carolina pastor, a distinguished preacher, and a future president of the SBC. Wayland was the president of Brown University, a tireless promoter of foreign missions, and the leading public intellectual among Baptists in the North.
CONTRIBUTED CHAPTERS AND JOURNAL ARTICLES
2012
“The Making of a Baptist Universalist: The Curious Case of Elhanan Winchester,” Baptist History and Heritage 47 (Fall 2012): 6–19.
“‘Until All Burma Worships the Eternal God’: Judson the Missionary, 1812–1850,” in Adoniram Judson: The Bicentennial Celebration of America’s First Missionary, 1812–2012, ed. Jason G. Duesing, pp. 77–100. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2012.
“Church Membership in Church History: An Analysis,” in Those Who Must Give an Account: A Study of Church Membership and Church Discipline, eds. John S. Hammett and Benjamin L. Merkle, pp. 53–80. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2012.
2011
“Baptists and the Bible: The History of a History Book,” in Ministry By His Grace and For His Glory: Essays in Honor of Thomas J. Nettles, eds. Thomas K. Ascol and Nathan A. Finn, pp. 3–16. Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2011.
“Southern Baptists and Evangelicals: Passing on the Faith to the Next Generation,” in Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, and the Future of Denominationalism, eds. David S. Dockery, Ray Van Neste, and Jerry Tidwell, pp. 231–60. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2011.
2010
“Now Let Us Praise Famous Moderates: A Review Essay of Three Recent Festschriften,” Journal of Baptist Studies 4 (2010): 46–68.
“‘Surely it is Worth While’: William Carey’s Personal Application of His Enquiry,” Puritan Reformed Journal 2, no. 2 (July 2010): 286–300.
“Southern Baptist History: A Great Commission Reading,” in The Great Commission Resurgence: Fulfilling God’s Mandate in Our Time, eds. Chuck Lawless and Adam Greenway, pp. 51–76. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2010.
2009
“Priorities for a Post-Resurgence Convention,” in Southern Baptist Identity: The Future of an Evangelical Denomination, ed. David S. Dockery, pp. 257–80. Wheaton: Crossway, 2009.
“Assessing a Better Paradigm: The Case for a Third Way,” in A Better Paradigm for the Study of Baptist History?, ed. R. L. Vaughn, pp. 17–20. Mount Enterprise, TX: Waymark Publications, 2009.
2008
“Southern Baptist Calvinism: Setting the Record Straight,” in Calvinism: A Southern Baptist Dialogue, eds. E. Ray Clendenen and Brad Waggoner, pp. 171–194. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2008.
2006
“Baptism as Prerequisite to the Lord’s Table.” Published by The Center for Theological Research, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, October 2006.
2007
“Robert Hall’s Contributions to Evangelical Renewal in the Northamptonshire Baptist Association,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 6, no. 1 (Fall 2007): 19–34.
2004
“Youth for Calvin: Reformed Theology and Southern Baptist Collegians,” Baptist History and Heritage 39 (Spring 2004): 19–41, co-authored with C. Douglas Weaver.
POPULAR ESSAYS
2013
“An Open Letter from an Eagle Scout,” The Imaginative Conservative (April 23, 2013).
“Respecting Our Elders,” Tabletalk Magazine (March 2013), 12–15.
“A Baptist Perspective on ‘Re-Baptism’,“ Biblical Recorder (February 26, 2013).
2012
“Adoniram Judson: Pioneer Missionary to Burma,” Credo Magazine (March 2012): 41–45.
“Responding to Bell: Some Lessons for Evangelicals,” Credo Magazine (January 2012): 58–64.
2011
“Very Hopeful about the SBC’s Future,” Baptist Press (December 22, 2011).
“Cultivating Godliness in College,” Baptist Press (October 17, 2011)
“Watching Muslims Profess Faith–In the Face of Persecution,” Baptist Press (June 29, 2011)
2010
“I Deserve the Coal,” Baptist Press (December 22, 2010).
“The States of Our Convention,” Baptist Messenger (September 29, 2010), co-authored with Douglas E. Baker.
2009
“Gratitude and Grace-Centered Living: The Centrality of Gratitude in the Christian life,” The Gospel Witness (February 2009): 9–11.
“All God’s Callings,” Boundless (April 30, 2009)
2008
“Thomas Meredith’s Biblical Recorder, 1834-1850,” written for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, November 2008.
“The Ablest Man Who Has Yet Appeared Among Us,” written for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, September 2008.
“Gender and the Vice Presidency,” Baptist Press (September 5, 2008).
2007
“The Varieties of SBC Conservatism,” The Pathway 5, no. 6 (April 3, 2007): 12–14.
“Greed or No Greed?” Baptist Press (February 1, 2007)
2006
“Pregnancy and a Consistent Ethic of Life,” Baptist Press (May 31, 2006).
“Weblogs and the Ninth Commandment,” Baptist Press (May 9, 2006)
“Baptist History and Baptist Ministry,” Baptist Press (February 23, 2006).
2005
“Hurricane Katrina: How Can We Help?,” Baptist Press (September 1, 2005)
“2 Churches: Different and Similar,” Baptist Press (June 29, 2005).
2004
“Who Killed Jesus?” Baptist Press (February 25, 2004).
“Why Vote Values?,” Baptist Press (October 26, 2004).
“The Religious Left and the Sufficiency of Scripture,” Baptist Press (September 8, 2004).
2003
“(Nominally) Christian Colleges,” Boundless (September 11, 2003).
“The New Metrosexuality,” Baptist Press (September 2, 2003).
“Wanted: Deliberately Christian Parents,” Baptist Press (May 8, 2003).
“The Protest Culture,” Boundless (April 3, 2003).
“Confessions of a 19th Century Baptist,” Founders Journal (Winter 2003): 25–26, 30.
“What Kind of Peace?,” Baptist Press (January 9, 2003).
“Embarrassing Entertainment,” Boundless (January 2, 2003).
2002
“Some Assembly Required,” Boundless (September 12, 2002).
“Moral Absolutes—West Wing Style,” Baptist Press (July 9, 2002).
MISCELLANEOUS UNPUBLISHED PAPERS
“The Conservative Resurgence: An Annotated Bibliography,” December 2012.
“Funding Great Commission Faithfulness: A Response to Morris Chapman.” Unpublished white paper, May 2010. Co-authored with Daniel L. Akin.
“Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Southern Baptists.” Unpublished position paper, January 2009.
FORTHCOMING AND IN-PROGRESS PUBLICATIONS
I have forthcoming book chapters on Southern Baptist responses to the Vietnam War, the influence of Jonathan Edwards’s spirituality upon Andrew Fuller, a critique of Presbyterian polity from a Baptist perspective, an overview of William Carey’s missionary career, an introduction to the life and ministry of Robert Hall Sr, and an introduction to the life and doctrine of John L. Dagg. I have forthcoming journal articles on Martin Luther’s critique of Anabaptism, the use of William Carey in nineteenth-century periodicals published by the SBC Foreign Mission Board, and a bibliographic essay on Andrew Fuller Studies over the past thirty years. I also have a couple of journal articles currently under review with scholarly journals.
Long-term, Nathan is co-authoring a Baptist History textbook with Michael Haykin and Tony Chute. I am also editing critical editions of Andrew Fuller’s Strictures on Sandemanism and his controversial writings on Calvinism for the Works of Andrew Fuller project. I serve as an associate editor for the Works of Andrew Fuller.