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  • Another Baptist Theologian You Should Know: John L. Dagg

Another Baptist Theologian You Should Know: John L. Dagg

Joshua —  August 15, 2012 — 5 Comments

Back in May, Steve Weaver over at Credo Magazine’s Blog introduced us to John Gill as one of ten Baptists everyone should know. Recently, Weaver continued the series with a brief introduction to great Baptist statesman John L. Dagg. 

John Leadley Dagg was born on February 14, 1794 in Middleburg, Virginia. He became the first Southern Baptist to write a systematic theology. He was a pastor, a school administrator and teacher in four different states. HisManual of Theology (1857) and Treatise on Church Order (1858) were published together in one volume in 1859 as a comprehensive systematic theology and ecclesiology. This volume was used as a textbook by colleges and seminaries during his lifetime and beyond.

Dagg was converted at the age of 15 in the year 1809. Although Dagg was surrounded by Presbyterian influences, he began to study the doctrine of infant baptism. After having become convinced of believer’s baptism by immersion in 1812 at the age of 18, Dagg was baptized into the Ebeneezer Baptist Church by William Fristoe. Dagg then studied medicine for a few years before he was ordained to the ministry in November of 1817 at the age of 23. For the next eight years Dagg pastored several smaller churches in northern Virginia. But beginning in 1825, Dagg accepted the call to a larger church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: the Fifth Baptist Church. Dagg remained as pastor of this church until 1834 when his voice began to fail. The next few years saw Dagg serving as president and professor of the Haddington Institute where he remained until 1836.

Read the full post here.

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Joshua

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I am a disciple of the risen Christ Jesus, husband to Libby, grad student, blogger.
  • Daniel Wilcox

    John Leadley Dagg saw Confederate setbacks as “fatherly chastisements, designed for our profit.” Nevertheless, he was insistent during the war that the failure to protect slave marriages “is only part of the general evil. We have not labored, in every possible way, to promote the welfare, for time and eternity of our slave population, as of dependent and helpless immortals whom God has placed in our power and in our mercy.”

    Thom Bassett teaches in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I. He is writing a novel about William Tecumseh Sherman. New York Times

    Again, a Baptist speaks of God placing slaves in the power of white Southerners’. Of course to be treated right…

    • http://www.thedailybleat.com/ Joshua Breland

      Daniel,

      I’m not following your point.

      • Daniel Wilcox

        Joshua,
        Sorry, I was trying to be fairly objective, except for emphasizing irony in the last line. My point is in two parts:
        #1 One of the worst parts of Calvinism is leaders such as Dagg claiming that God “”placed” slaves “in our power.” Recently, I read two modern Calvinists arguing, still, that slavery isn’t inherently evil. And the first Calvinist leader I encountered as a teenager argued God would even call us to do immoral actions.
        #2 Even for Calvinists who claim slavery is inherently evil, there is the conundrum of how a Calvinist theologian like Dagg doesn’t know this, yet is certain of God’s hidden decrees and unconditional election from before time began. R.L. Dabney was still asserting after the Civil War that slavery isn’t evil. I’ve read most of his book on the topic.

        I’m something of a Confederate abolitionist non-Calvinist,
        Daniel

        • http://www.thedailybleat.com/ Joshua Breland

          Daniel,

          I strongly disagree with attaching slavery to Calvinism. The fact is, there were many non-Calvinist Christians who were fighting for the C.S.A. and advocating for slavery. The “Calvinists promoted slavery because of Calvinism” argument is not helpful or fair. It looks desperate.

          • Daniel Wilcox

            Joshua,
            True, many non-Calvinists supported slavery including 1,200 Methodist ministers!
            My point was that Calvinists such as Dagg and Dabney often claimed God, since God foreordains everything, was the central reason why the institution of slavery existed, just as Dagg’s quote emphasizes.

            And, I know of not one Christian writing today (other than Calvinists) who claim slavery isn’t evil.

            And, for non-Calvinists, the reason so many humans chose to support slavery was because of their own wrong libertarian choices. They don’t think God had anything to do with the accursed institution.

            In contrast, Calvinists such as Dagg claim the institution of slavery existed because of God’s sovereign will.

            Lastly, what strikes me most difficult about this is how Calvinist theologians like Dagg and Dabney who allegedly know so much about God, can’t know that
            enslaving people with a different colored skin is sin.

            I see from your reading, you are well read, getting through more books than me:-) But as a former American literature teacher who studied under one professor who got his PhD in Calvinism–on Jonathan Edwards,
            I do think there is a relationship between Calvinism and slavery in the South. Remember, Georgia didn’t even permit slavery until George Whitfield petitioned the king to have it introduced.

            But I understand you strongly disagree. If you have any academic studies which argue the thesis that slavery in the South wasn’t related to the religious views of Southerners, I would appreciate a couple of recommendations.

            Thanks,
            Daniel