Kenneth Scott Latourette. Kenneth Scott Latourette was not a historian of Baptists but rather a Baptist who was a historian of Christianity; he achieved wide recognition by virtue of the range of his work and the new perspectives that he offered

For over fifty years, Latourette wrote extensively about the history of the Far East and the history of Christianity. He is best known for chronicling the expansion of Christianity throughout the world. He published over forty volumes that sold over one million copies. (1) His works have been translated into many languages.

Latourette was an ordained Baptist minister (1918); he taught a Baptist Sunday School and held an honorary position as an assistant pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in New Haven. The entry "Baptist" in the old Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church cites four American Baptism by name; Latourette is among those listed. (2) The editors of this distinguished English publication recognized Latourette's denominational affiliation as well as his historical scholarship. Latourette served on the American Baptist Foreign Mission Board for over twenty years and also served as president of the American Baptist Convention (1951-52). (3) His Baptist identity is clear. The task of this paper is thus primarily not to suggest what he taught us about Baptists, but rather what he taught us about the history of Christianity and what bearing his Baptist background had on this task.

Latourette's Life

Latourette (1884-1968) grew up in Oregon City, Oregon. In his autobiography, Beyond the Ranges, he described his religious background as "the conversion experience combined with daffy Scripture reading and memorization, hymn singing and prayer." Latourette did not dance, go to the theater or use regular playing cards; he also signed the total abstinence pledge, promising not to use alcoholic beverages. (4) Evangelical fervor and ethical piety remained permanent fixtures in Latourette's life.

Latourette credited his parents with shaping his positive view toward education. (5) He attended McMinnville College (renamed Linfield in 1922), sponsored by Oregon Baptists. He planned to follow his father in banking and law. But Latourette's involvement in religious organizations at college changed the course of his life. He served as president of the Y.M.C.A. and attended summer conferences designed for deepening spiritual commitment. (6) He encountered the Student Volunteer Movement for missions and accepted the famous argument of S.V.M.'s Robert E. Speer who held that the burden of proof rested on all Christians to show why they should not be missionaries. (7) Speer argued that the demand is in Scripture. Moreover, if Jesus came into the world with good news, Christians should be willing to leave their homes to take the gospel elsewhere. Latourette struggled with this claim but accepted it because it seemed to be a clear duty. (8)

To further his education, Latourette went to Yale, where he majored in history. He remained active in the Y.M.C.A. and the Yale Foreign Missionary Society. He earned the M.A. degree in 1907 and the Ph.D. in 1909, both in history. He then traveled for a year as a secretary for the Student Volunteer Movement. In 1910, he accepted an appointment to teach in Yale's missionary school at Changsha, Yale in China.

Amoebic dysentery cut short his missionary career. He returned to the United States in 1912 and taught at Reed College from 1914 to 1916 and at Denison University from 1916 to 1921. He moved to Yale in 1921, where he taught until his retirement in 1953 and where he lived until his death in 1968. The university would remain the context of his work throughout his life, but his research and teaching interests were shaped by his missionary commitment and his commitment to the Christian church around the world.

Latourette's academic efforts focused first on Asian history. He realized that Americans had little knowledge of the area where he had lived briefly. He wrote numerous articles about Asia and also published The Development of China and The Development of Japan, general college texts. (9) Latourette later published the definitive A History of Christian Missions in China and The Chinese: Their History and Culture and additional studies. (10) On the strength of these labors, Latourette was later elected president of the Far Eastern Association (1954-55) and also president of the American Historical Association (1949). He devoted the majority of his academic publications to the Far East during his first seventeen years of writing.

But Latourette's deep commitment to the missionary calling remained strong. Although illness prevented him from serving as a missionary, he turned his energies to chronicling the history of Christianity--and, in particular, its geographical spread. He offered a course in missions at Denison and "out of it eventually grew my major course at Yale" (11) and eventually his major work, History of the Expansion of Christianity, an exhaustive narrative (3,500 pages) of Christian missions in seven volumes. (12) Latourette's efforts led Scandinavian missiologist Olay Guttorm Myklebust to call him "the greatest missionary scholar that America has produced." (13)

To deliver his ideas in lecture format, Latourette produced several shorter works that provide fine summaries of his key themes in recounting Christian history. The Unquenchable Light revealed his belief in progress, and Anno Domini showed his confidence in Jesus' continuing influence in the world. The Emergence of a World Christian Community addressed the ecumenical movement, another of Latourette's passions. (14) Latourette's A History of Christianity provided an opportunity to implement his ideas for presenting the Christian story. This volume remains in print and has served to introduce thousands of students to the discipline over the past half century. (15) Latourette's final major publishing effort was a survey of Christianity in the recent past. He labeled it Christianity in a Revolutionary Age and told the story of the era 1800-1950 in as much detail as 2,500 pages would allow. (16)