Secularization of the Academy: A New Challenge to Baptist Historians‪.‬

By 1920, the North American Baptist community boasted over 130 colleges, universities, and theological schools in forty-five states and three Canadian provinces. (1) As time and circumstances evolved, however, the list of Baptist-related colleges was pared down considerably. Several of the early schools floundered and closed within their first half century. Reasons included weak financial foundations and lack of an adequate constituency to maintain an exclusively denominational college. Later, a more serious set of factors led to the departure of important institutions from the roster of Baptist church-related schools. This process is referred to as "devolution." (2) The historian of the Baptist saga is confronted with a complex set of circumstances occurring across a long period of time and in varying circumstances. In some cases, Baptists mirrored the experience of other denominations; in other situations, it was a uniquely Free Church set of variables. Within and without denominational circles, a debate over the factors of devolution has emerged. (3)