Churches of Christ in the Twentieth Century: Homer Hailey’s Personal Journey of Faith PDF
Preview Churches of Christ in the Twentieth Century: Homer Hailey’s Personal Journey of Faith
Page i The Churches of Christ in the Twentieth Century Page ii RELIGION AND AMERICAN CULTURE Series Editors David Edwin Harrell, Jr. Wayne Flynt Edith L. Blumhofer Page iii The Churches of Christ in the Twentieth Century Homer Hailey's Personal Journey of Faith David Edwin Harrell, Jr. Page iv Copyright © 2000 The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 354870380 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 • 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 Text design by Shari DeGraw Jacket design by Mary Frances Burt The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Science–Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.481984. Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Harrell, David Edwin. The Churches of Christ in the twentieth century: Homer Hailey's personal journey of faith / David Edwin Harrell, Jr. p. cm. — (Religion and American culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0817310088 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Hailey, Homer, 1904– 2. Churches of Christ—Clergy Biography. 3. Churches of Christ—History—20th century. I. Title. II. Series: Religion and American culture (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) BX7077.Z8 H3542000 286.6'092—dc21 [B] 996566 CIP British Library CataloguinginPublication Data available Page v To the memory of Dr. David Edwin Harrell, Sr., and Mildred Lee Harrell, who would have taken great pride in this book. Page vii CONTENTS Preface ix Part I Homer Hailey and the Churches of Christ: Origins 1. Homer Hailey and the Churches 3 of Christ: An Institutional History and a Personal Saga Part II The Mainstream Churches of Christ: 1920–1999 2. The Churches of Christ, 1920– 39 1950: A Heritage of Controversy 3. Consummating the Institutional 115 Division 4. The Mainstream Becomes a 176 Part III Divided Stream Homer Hailey and the Noninstitutional Churches of Christ: 1925–1999 5. Texas Preacher and Professor 221 6. Hailey in the Eye of the Storm: 274 The Florida Years 7. Arizona Retirement, Reluctant 328 Notoriety: 1973–1999 8. Homer Hailey: Persona and 370 Legacy Notes 389 Bibliographical Essay on the 453 Index 457 Churches of Christ Page ix PREFACE The History of churches of Christ in America was largely an untold story until near the end of the twentieth century. In the past two decades, however, a flurry of books have been written about the group's separation from the Disciples of Christ/Christian Church, a schism that was recognized in the Religious Census of 1906, and its stormy history since that time. Reasons for this heightened interest are readily apparent. For many years the larger and more reputable Disciples of Christ claimed historical precedence as heir of the American restoration tradition; most of the histories written about the movement in the first twothirds of the twentieth century deemed churches of Christ to be an ecclesiastical ephemeron, the more or less irrelevant sectarian refuse of the nineteenthcentury restoration movement. By the last third of the twentieth century, that judgment had proven to be premature. Like most mainstream Protestant groups in the United States in the last third of the twentieth century, the Disciples of Christ/Christian Church suffered serious membership losses, but churches of Christ boomed. By the end of the century, several million Americans' spiritual world view had been formed in churches of Christ. So, it is both understandable and fitting that a group of historians born into this tradition should arise at the end of the century to probe the meaning of their own religious heritage. Page x This book is about both a church and a man—Homer Hailey. I began with the intention of simply writing a biography of Hailey, but I discovered that it would be impossible to write perceptively about Hailey without exploring the churches of Christ. On the other hand, while it might be possible to write a history of churches of Christ in the twentieth century without mentioning him, Hailey's life provides an extraordinary window on the movement. Like most members of churches of Christ, Hailey defies most of the generalizations that seem so clear when one surveys the broad landscape of restoration history. Combining the vagaries of individual biography with the regularities of institutional history throws a bright light on the dangers of easy generalization. One portion of this book outlines the patterns of intellectual dissonance, sociological change, and schism that are an integral part of the history of churches of Christ, and, indeed, of other churches. However, such histories cannot describe the dissimilar lives of the individuals who worked and worshiped in thousands of local churches. While groups and institutions often seem to follow predictable patterns and fit neat models that repeat themselves in history, individual behavior is never so tidy. Ironies abound in the entangled tales of lives as long as that of Homer Hailey. "Homer Hailey," mused his old friend Harry W. Pickup, Sr., in 1988, "became great in his own time." This was a judgment entirely true from Pickup's perspective. In a lifetime spanning nearly the entire twentieth century, Homer Hailey became a household name to hundreds of thousands of members of churches of Christ. He taught the Bible to hundreds of college students, many of them preachers, and he preached in hundreds of churches to hundreds of thousands of people. He also wrote books that were widely read, both inside and outside his own religious communion; his commentary on the minor prophets was selected by Christianity Today as one of the Page xi twentyfive most influential books written during the year it was published. Fame is relative, and Hailey's accomplishments hardly mark him as a critical figure in the development of twentiethcentury American religion or thought. He would have never imagined that they did. Hailey's achievements are significant largely to members of churches of Christ. Even in that context, Hailey was not a pivotal figure. He never sought power or influence; he never led campaigns (as editors within the churches of Christ are apt to do); nor was he often a critical figure in the movement's endless controversies. Hailey contributed almost nothing in the way of crucial concepts or arguments to the twentiethcentury development of the movement's perpetually openended thought. Why, then, tell the story of Homer Hailey? Partly, I confess, because it is a personal tale that seems so transparently admirable to me that it deserves being told. It is also a piece of Americana, a parable about the ending of the frontier, about the end of American innocence. My father loved Homer Hailey; my readers will like him, I think, as I have liked him for many years. But there are other reasons for combining the telling of these stories. Homer Hailey's life weaves its way through the twentiethcentury history of churches of Christ in a way that illuminates the entire history of the movement. While not often in the forefront of the many controversies that defined churches of Christ, Hailey, like other preachers and church members, was forced repeatedly to make lifechanging choices. Over and over, members of churches of Christ made faith decisions that changed the shapes of their futures. Hailey's life story puts in perspective the complexity of serving God in the loose and unfettered environment of the restoration movement. The American restoration movement that began in the early nineteenth century in diverse reforms led by Thomas
The list of books you might like
