One of the towering figures of Southern Baptist history, Edgar Young Mullins led Southern Baptists through some of the most tumultuous decades of American religious history. As a Baptist statesman, theologian, educator, and denominationalist, E. Y. Mullins shaped the denominational consensus that, in turn, shaped Southern Baptist life and thought well into the twentieth century.
Born January 5, 1860 to Seth and Corrine Mullins of Franklin County, Mississippi, Mullins most formative years were lived through the Civil War and Reconstruction. A Baptist minister with a Master of Arts degree from Mississippi College, Seth Mullins spent most of his ministry as both preacher and school teacher. When Mississippi experienced a breakdown of order during Reconstruction, Seth Mullins moved has young family to Corsicana, Texas.
Throughout his ministry, Mullins considered his Baptist identity to be central to his personal identity. His climactic declaration of Baptist principles, The Axioms of Religion, was as much a personal anthem as a denominational interpretation. More than any other individual, E. Y. Mullins shaped the Southern Baptist mind during the first half of the twentieth century.
Synopsis
The great central concept Mullins declared to be the "historical significance of the Baptists" was soul competency, and the Axioms may be read as an attempt to explicate the full meaning of soul competency applied comprehensively.
Mullins identified the Axioms of Religion as follows:
1. The theological axiom: The holy and loving God has a right to be sovereign.
The religious axiom: All souls have an equal right to direct access to God.
The ecclesiastical axiom: All believers have a right to equal privileges in the Church.
The moral axiom: To be responsible man must be free.
The religio-civic axiom: A free church in a free state.
The social axiom: Love your neighbor as yourself.(60)
The chapters of the book demonstrate the shape of Mullins' interpretation of Baptist identity and his conception of the Baptist principle.