| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 35.4

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 35.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Contending for the Faith: Southern Baptists in New Mexico, 1938–1995. By Daniel R. Carnett. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002. x + 230 pp. Illustrations, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95.)

The Baptist presence in New Mexico began in 1849, when a California-bound missionary made a stop at Santa Fe. Convincing him to stay, the local American army commander stated categorically that the cleric "might travel the world over" without finding "a more dark, desolate, and destitute place" deserving of the gospel (David H. Stratton, The First Century of Baptists in New Mexico, 1849–1950 [Albuquerque, 1954], 4). Thus, the Baptists assumed the challenge of a diverse cultural region long dominated by the Catholic Church and inhabited mostly by Native American and Hispanic people. Complicating the formidable task, Northern Baptists surrendered the field after 1910 to the tightknit, racially and geographically focused Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). How the Southern Baptists, after a half-century of struggles and setbacks, became the largest Protestant-style group in New Mexico by 1960, only to "plateau" in the 1980s, is the intriguing account given in this book.

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