Roots Of Appalachian Christianity: The Life And Legacy Of Elder Shubal Stearns (Religion in the South)

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Conribution to Appalachian Religious Studies
Review: Elder John Sparks is an ordained minister in the United Baptist denomination and thus is intimately tied to the richly historical traditions of what is general known as the "Old Time Baptists" of central Appalachia, divisions such as Regular Baptists, Old Regular Baptists, Separate Baptists, United Baptist, and a host of other groups, including a wide range of Primitive Baptists. Sparks sets out to document the influence of Shubal Stearns on this entire Old-Time Baptist phenomenon, and his work in excellent in scholarship and analysis.

For those of use who have labored in this this particular field of scholarship, it is a joy and an inspiration to see the field of study added to so wonderfully by an individual who has come from the indeginous base of the phonomenon. Sparks received a degree from Pikeville College in Pikeville, Kentucky, and promptly turned himself in to a excellent scholar. Read this book. You will be rewarded with a much deeper understanding of Appalachian religious history than has heretofore been provided.

Howard Dorgan Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Appalachian State University