Exactly a century ago this year, in 1908, Edgar Young Mullins, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, published his landmark interpretation of Baptist faith and principles which he entitled The Axioms of Religion.
Baptists in the pews and Baptists in the pulpits for a generation or two were schooled on “the axioms.” Even today, Mullins's name is still paraded about by Baptists of various persuasions within denominational politics, although the great leader himself rose above the denominational politics of his times.
Indeed, it was said of the man that his work was “intensified and embarrassed by an almost unparalleled theological ferment.” An item in the Chicago Standard pictured the times and the leader: “Debates about modernism, fundamentalism, traditionalism, liberalism, literalism, infallibility, authority, evolution, criticism, millenarianism … fairly stormed during the latter half of his presidency of the seminary. Factions of extremists denounced one another as heretics, deliberately broke from each other's fellowship, and resorted to the political manipulation of denominational organizations to secure control of boards, funds, schools and pulpits.” Those words were penned 80 years ago, in 1928, following Mullins's death.
The article continued, “Through all this tempest, Mullins never lost his poise, never made a serious false step, never lost his hold on the confidence of his constituency and never made a damaging compromise with any faction.”
E.Y. Mullins always took the high road. It was not easy, especially since he followed a president, William H. Whitsitt, who had been hounded out of office simply for stating the historical fact that the Baptists as a distinct people could only be traced to the early 1600s in England. The Whitsitt controversy had fueled the fundamentalists of the times and threatened both the shaky unity known as the SBC and the future of the premier seminary among Southern Baptists. Once the fundamentalists had a taste of blood in engineering Whitsitt's resignation, they remained a ready enemy for higher education.
Mullins's Axioms of Religion had been in the developing stage for about three years. In 1905 he was preparing an address for the American Baptist Publication Society, which would meet in St. Louis, when the thoughts began to jell. Isla May Mullins later recalled that while her husband was working on his message, he called her to listen to something which he had written.
“I have just written the axioms of religion,” he told her. She never forgot that he “smiled triumphantly” as he said it. He read them off to his wife, as follows:
“1. The theological axiom: The holy and loving God has a right to be Sovereign.
2. The religious axiom: All souls have an equal right to direct access to God.
3. The ecclesiastical axiom: All believers have a right to equal privileges in the church.
4. The moral axiom: To be responsible, man must be free.
5. The religio-civic axiom: A free church in a free state.
6. The social axiom: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Isla May affirmed her husband's composition. “They are wonderful,” she said, “in their aptness, in their brevity, in their completeness. Where did you get them?”
He replied, “They just this moment came to me — like a flash — the whole thing!” She said: “Well, you will hear from them. I don't need to be a prophet to tell that.”
In the biography of her husband, Isla May stated: “This certainly proved true. This statement of Baptist principles caught the ear of his audience with enthusiasm and surety. He continually heard from them thereafter, and built up around them several telling addresses which brought great enthusiasm from his hearers.”
He incorporated his brainchild into an address before the first congress of the Baptist World Alliance, the great meeting held in London in 1905. He outlined the historical significance of the Baptists as well as the concept of soul competency in addresses before the Virginia Baptist Historical Society in 1906. In 1907 he spoke at the Jamestown Exposition, during the visit by American Baptists, and highlighted “the contribution of Baptists to American civilization.” His father, himself a Baptist preacher, accompanied him to Virginia for the Jamestown Exposition as well as the annual meeting of the SBC held that year in Richmond. The proud father heard the messages and witnessed the accolades heaped upon his son.
Mullins's axioms were published in the Religious Herald in the fall of 1907, just months before they were published in book form. (In all fairness, the Virginia Baptist paper had copied the axioms from the Biblical Recorder, the North Carolina paper.)
The Axioms of Religion, a published in 1908, contained 300 pages of Baptist history and principles. It quickly earned a place on Baptist library shelves, was dog-eared by Baptist preachers and quoted in parts in many other sources. There were other published works to follow from Mullins's fertile mind.
In many ways, Mullins's books and Isla May Mullins's books — some written for children and some about missions topics — became replacements for the two sons who died while very young. The books were their children. The seminary, which he served as president from 1899-1928, was their immediate family. And their larger family was huge. It included the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist World Alliance, both of which he served as president simultaneously. A part of the legacy he left them all was the axioms.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.