'The Great Association Above': Maritime Baptists and the War of 1812

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the War of 1812 on Maritime Baptist
churches and its influence on cross-border relations, as well as the
convictions which shaped Baptists’ actions and attitudes towards
Americans. The war between Great Britain and the United States might
have engendered division between Baptists from opposite sides of the
conflict, however, the evidence suggests that the spiritual connection
between co-religionists transcended political differences. More specifically,
this article argues that the ideological underpinnings of the lack of rancor
between wartime Baptists was the conviction that Nova Scotian, New
Brunswick and New England Baptists – regardless of national or imperial
loyalties – were members of one large spiritual family that would someday
be united in the ‘Great Association Above.’ Maritime Baptist devotion to a
radical evangelicalism that was often otherworldly and unconcerned with
secular affairs meant that their spiritual identity in that ‘Great Association’
trumped all temporal identities, and loyalty to that otherworldly association
transcended earthly loyalties.