June 8, 2009 | By Christopher Black

NEW ORLEANS -- Are you interested in the earliest documents of Baptist theology and history?

The Baptist Center for Theology and Ministry of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) is making some of these old documents available through new technology. The Baptist Center web site (baptistcenter.com) has just launched a new exhibit with downloadable digital copies of a series of rare 16th and 17th century documents.

"We want to make these rare original documents accessible to scholars of Baptist history and theology, wherever they are," said Steve Lemke, director of the Baptist Center and NOBTS Provost. "In addition to the twenty manuscripts we currently have posted, we will be adding more documents in the next few months."

The document collection includes both articles written by Baptists (or Anabaptists) and those who were against them. The earliest pamphlets currently available online include a critique of Anabaptists written by Philipp Melanchthon dated 1528, and a sermon by Martin Luther from 1532. There are also negative critiques of Baptists by Eberhardus of Cologne in 1536, Robert Some in 1589, and Lucas Osiander the Younger in 1607.

Most of the pamphlets for and against Baptists in this collection were written in the 1640s, with authors such as John Tombes, Andrew Ritor, John Etherington, Richard Barnard (Dwelphintramis), Daniel Featley, Robert Fage, William Hussey, Jasper Mayne, Friedrich Spanheim, Stephen Marshall, Thomas Bakewell, and Thomas Blake.

Lloyd Harsch, associate professor of church history, who specializes in Baptist heritage, has been digitizing the rarest and most important pamphlets from a collection recently rediscovered in the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary archives.

"John T. Christian, a church historian and the original librarian at the NOBTS, gathered these pamphlets during his travels, collecting documents relating to Baptist beliefs and origins," Harsch said.

Christian assembled hundreds of rare publications from Europe and North America. These works document the theological and ecclesiastical battles that waged during this era, including pamphlets that are both for and against the Baptist position. Although the documents were displayed in the library at one point, they were packed away and forgotten in some long-overlooked boxes. But an NOBTS library staff member rediscovered these rare works while cleaning a storage area a few years ago.

Wanting to preserve these rare pamphlets, Harsch applied digitization technology to these materials. The research and technology for this digitization effort and for a subsequent project related to Baptist confessions of faith were funded by three scholarly grants.

In 2003-2004 Harsch and Stan Norman received a Research Expense Grant from the Lilly Theological Research Program of ATS, entitled "New Perspectives on Ancient Ideas: A Critical Analysis of Rare Theological Writings on Baptist Life and Thought."

The funding for the digitization came through the 2006-2007 Theological Scholars Grant from the Lilly Theological Research Program of ATS, entitled "Out of Many Fellowships, One Family of Faith: The Collection and Digitization of Baptist Confessions of Faith," and from an Ola Farmer Lenaz grant in 2007-2008 (an in-house faculty research grant from NOBTS) entitled "Digitizing Rare Baptist Historical Documents."

Although delayed by Hurricane Katrina, Harsch spent over a year studying digitization techniques and methods at the University of North Texas in order to produce the best electronic versions of these rare pieces.

"The digitization process," Harsch said, "will preserve these rare pamphlets in a stable format, and make them widely available via the Internet."

He adds, "Some of these may be the only copies extant today, or one of only a few hard-to-find copies. Once the pamphlets are online, people will have access to digital copies of the actual original work."

In addition to adding more old pamphlets relating to Baptists and Anabaptists, the Baptist Center also intends to display digitized copies of key Baptist Confessions of Faith, another aspect of Harsch's research.

"Our goal is to make these hard-to-find original documents accessible to scholars all over the world," said Lemke, "in order to promote the study and appreciation of our Baptist heritage."

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