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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Baptist Churches
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Remade
(Paperback)
Gracefully Truthful
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R274
Discovery Miles 2 740
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Ships in 18 - 22 working days
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Baptists originated as a protest movement within the church but
have developed over time into a distinct sect, one committed to
preserving its place in the hierarchy of denominations. In today's
postmodern, disestablished context, Baptists are in danger of
becoming either a religious affinity group, a collection of
individuals who share experiences and commitments to a set of
principles, or a countercultural sect that retreats to early
Enlightenment propositions for consolation and support.In
Contesting Catholicity, Curtis W. Freeman offers an alternative
Baptist identity, an "Other" kind of Baptist, one that stands
between the liberal and fundamentalist options. By discerning an
elegant analogy among some late modern Baptist preachers,
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Baptist founders, and early
patristic theologians, Freeman narrates the Baptist story as a
community that grapples with the convictions of the church
catholic. Deep analogical conversation across the centuries enables
Freeman to gain new leverage on all of the supposedly distinctive
Baptist theological identifiers. From believer's baptism, the
sacraments, and soul competency, to the Trinity, the priesthood of
every believer, and local church autonomy, Freeman's historical
reconstruction demonstrates that Baptists did and should understand
themselves as a spiritual movement within the one, holy, catholic,
and apostolic church. A "catholic Baptist" is fully participant in
the historic church and at the very same time is fully Baptist.
This radical Baptist catholicity is more than a quantitative sense
of historical and ecumenical communion with the wider church. This
Other Baptist identity envisions a qualitative catholicity that is
centered on the confession of faith in Jesus Christ and historic
Trinitarian orthodoxy enacted in the worship of the church in and
through word and sacrament.
This work offers a survey on the history of Baptists. When John
Smyth organized the first Baptist church, he wanted to establish
the New Testament church; believer's baptism was the missing link.
Baptists of subsequent eras often continued the search to embody
'New Testament Christianity'. Unique to surveys of Baptist life,
Doug Weaver highlights this restorationist theme as a way to
understand Baptist identity. Weaver does not force the theme, but
the 'search' is ever present. It is found in the insistence upon
believer's baptism, but also in examples like the Sabbath worship
of Seventh Day Baptists, the 'nine rites' of colonial Separate
Baptists, the women preachers of Free Will Baptists, the 'trail of
blood' of Landmarkism, the social gospel of Walter Rauschenbusch,
the 'fundamentals' of fundamentalism and the ministry of the
European pioneer Johann Oncken. Like other recent Baptist studies,
Weaver describes Baptist diversity. Still, he highlights the
persistent commitment of most Baptists to an informal constellation
of 'Baptist distinctives'. Alongside the quest for the New
Testament church (and congregational community), Weaver especially
highlights the Baptist commitment to religious liberty and the
individual conscience. This emphasis, while later reinforced by
Enlightenment ideals, could already be found in the biblicist piety
of the earliest Baptists who insisted that individual believers
must have the right to choose their religious beliefs because they
would stand alone before God at the final judgment. Both
chronological and thematic, this book addresses such themes as the
role of women, the social gospel, ecumenism, charismatic
influences, and theological emphases in Baptist life. The book's
focus is America, but it also includes helpful introductory
chapters on early English Baptists and international Baptists.
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