Please join us in congratulating commission member President Pinson on the publication of this important work.
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January 12, 2026
For Immediate Release
University of Tennessee Press to Publish “The Free Will Baptists: A New History” by Matt Pinson
GALLATIN, TN—The University of Tennessee Press recently announced its forthcoming publication of Welch President Matt Pinson’s book The Free Will Baptists: A New History. The book will be available in hardcover and ebook formats on Tuesday, January 13, 2026.
Pinson’s book is the latest in UT Press’s America’s Baptists series, edited by Dr. Andrew Smith of Carson-Newman University. The series explores the complex history of the Baptist tradition through scholarly monographs and edited collections of primary and secondary documents.
In the book, Pinson offers a comprehensive history of the Free Will Baptist movement—a distinct theological tradition within the larger Baptist family. (Welch College is the educational institution of the National Association of Free Will Baptists.)
University of Tennessee Press has nominated The Free Will Baptists for the Susanne M. Glasscock Book Prize at Texas A&M University. The prize, first awarded in 1999, was permanently endowed in December 2000 by Melbern G. Glasscock and his wife, Susanne, for whom the prize is named. This unique prize honors outstanding, original interdisciplinary research in the humanities that appeals to both academic and wider audiences.
Several scholars have endorsed the book:
“Matthew Pinson has given us here a thorough, comprehensive survey of Free Will Baptist history, theology, and church life. The story bristles with drama.”
—From the Foreword by Timothy George, founding dean and distinguished professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School of Samford University
“I welcome the opportunity to add my enthusiasm for Pinson’s new book on Free Will Baptist history. . . . Kudos to him and to the University of Tennessee Press for this innovative book.”
—Robert E. Picirilli, professor emeritus of New Testament and former academic dean, Welch College
“. . . a well-written and very readable book for twenty-first-century students and interested readers and researchers of denominational history.”
—Gary Fenton Barefoot, curator, Free Will Baptist Historical Collection, University of Mount Olive
“Students and scholars of Baptist and American history now have a definitive resource for teaching and researching a diverse and evolving Baptist tradition.”
—John Inscore Essick, associate professor of Church History, Baptist Seminary of Kentucky
“The subtitle of this book could easily read, “A New and Definitive History” . . . will shape this field of study for decades to come.”
— Anthony Chute, professor of Church History, California Baptist University
“We are indebted to Pinson for this critical monograph . . . it helps us to see that the Baptist story is diverse and contested.”
—Curtis W. Freeman, research professor of Theology and Baptist Studies and Ruth D. Duncan director of the Baptist House of Studies, Duke University Divinity School
“Traversing four centuries of history in his analysis, Pinson divides his study into five parts, arranged in chronological and geographical order,” the announcement said. “He traces the beginnings of the Free Will Baptists in the Carolinas from the late 1600s; the denomination’s early expansion across the Southeast; the rise and decline of the Northern Freewill Baptists; and the identity and development of the Free Will Baptist movement into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.”
“The scarcity of archival evidence for the history of Free Will Baptists in the American South makes the chronicling of their history challenging. To illustrate the development of ideas within the tradition over time, Pinson creatively engages a unique combination of primary source materials, including general conference and local church minutes, confessional documents, and worship materials such as hymnals. A scholarly history as accessible as it is comprehensive, The Free Will Baptists: A New History is a valuable resource for students of religious history as well as Baptist historians.”
The Free Will Baptists: A New History will be available for purchase at utpress.org and wherever books are sold. Amazon link – https://amzn.to/4bwmrrW