Aaron Douglas Weaver

A self-described "Texas-bred, Spirit-led, Bible-teaching, revival-preaching, recovering Southern Baptist," James Milton Dunn, over the last fifty years, has been the most aggressive Baptist proponent for religious liberty in the United States. Soul freedom-voluntary uncoerced faith and an unfettered individual conscience before God-is the basis of his understanding of church-state separation and the historic Baptist basis of religious liberty. Through his ministry as a pastor, ethicist, and activist, James Dunn developed a distinctly Baptist approach to politics, showing fellow Baptists how to apply their Christianity in the public square on social and church-state issues in a manner consistent with the historic Baptist commitment to freedom. This ethic of political engagement promoted by Dunn was motivated by a loving concern for others and a commitment to the common good.

From his days as a pastor in the mid-1950s until his death in 2015, Dr. James M. Dunn was a tireless advocate and activist for soul freedom: the freedom, ability, and responsibility of each individual to respond to God for herself or himself. During his ministry in Texas and Washington, D. C., Dunn established himself as the public heir of E. Y. Mullins and those before him who insisted that an unfettered conscience and uncoerced faith-born out of a direct personal experience of God and without reliance on ecclesiastical leaders-represented the authentic Baptist tradition. To countless Baptists, James Dunn was an instrumental influence. His wit, wisdom, and fight moved generations of Baptists to better live out our faith, value our freedom, and never take our shared heritage and liberty for granted. Aaron Weaver's collection of the words and writings of James Dunn will help present and future generations of Baptists, as well as other people of faith, remember, learn from, and live out his vision of religious liberty and free and faithful politics.

Local church history is important. What great thinkers have written and what denominational bodies have declared in resolutions and organizational ministries are important, but ""lived religion"" at the ground level provides a fuller picture of the story of the Christian faith. The fifty-year (1967-2017) story of Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, is one of those narratives that richly adds to our understanding of how faith has been lived in a particular setting. ""Different and distinctive but nevertheless Baptist"" is a phrase that tells the rich, unique history of Northminster Baptist Church. Baptist churches are known for claiming the priesthood of believers as a Baptist distinctive, but no church emphasizes it as much or implements it more than Northminster. Alongside a conscious lay emphasis, the church has had notable pulpit ministers like John Claypool and Chuck Poole (twice). Originally affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, its young professional base was seen as an alternative to First Baptist Church, Jackson. The church became involved in the Alliance of Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. At the same time, the theologically progressive church remained active in the Mississippi Baptist Convention-despite its frequent ordinations of women ministers-until its ouster in 2017. Northminster's story tells of a strong, notable, interfaith relationship with the Beth Temple Israel synagogue, an innovative social ministry (Wider Net) to the inner city of Jackson, and a theology of reverent worship that is liturgically ""high church."" Different, but proudly Baptist, no doubt.