Smith tells a multi-faceted story that captures both the denominational history as well as the realities of everyday existence as lived by one leading exponent. Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America deserves a wide reading among historians of the period as well as those who maintain some affinity with the denomination.
Eric C. Smith is Senior Pastor of Sharon Baptist Church in Savannah, Tennessee, and Adjunct Professor of Historical Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is also the author of Order & Ardor: The Revival Spirituality of Oliver Hart and the Regular Baptists of Eighteenth-Century South Carolina (2018).