In this last year, IBTS have launch a new journal called Baptistic Theologies. In the editorial for the first edition, Keith Jones says that ‘with this new journal we remove the focus upon a geographical area, Europe [so the JEBS], to an ecclesial grouping, baptistic … Baptistic Theologies is designed to strengthen the contribution of the “baptistic” communities to and within the world of theological publishing and to ensure such an important stream of theological reflection and dialogue is more fully exposed to the wider world … Our intention is that it should be thematic and we already see themes emerging to cover the first few years’ (‘Editorial’, Baptistic Theologies 1.1, Spring 2009)

Foreword – Ian M. Randall

Chapter 1: introduction

PART ONE: External Pressures on Identity
Chapter 2: Adjusting to New Patterns: 1945-1959

Chapter 3: From a Thunderstorm to Still Life: 1959-1972

Chapter 4: Light at the end of the Tunnel: 1972-1985

Chapter 5: Opening Doors: 1985-1991

PART TWO: Internal Dynamics of Identity
Chapter 6: Ecclesiological Perspectives: Unity out of Diversity

Chapter 7: Word and Spirit: A Creative Tension

Chapter 8: A Common Goal: Evangelism and Mission

Chapter 9: Bearing Fruit: Challenges in Ethics

Chapter 10: Conclusion

Introduction – David Coffey

‘Baptists “Relating and Resourcing” in difficult times: A historical perspective’ – Raymond Brown

‘New birth from Water and Spirit’ – Alastair Campbell

‘The Coherence of freedom: Can Church or State ever be Truly Free?’ – John Colwell

‘Being a minister: spirituality and the pastor’ – Chris Ellis

‘”The leadership of some …”: Baptist ministers as leaders?’ – Rob Ellis

‘Something will come of nothing: on A Theology of the Dark Side’ – Paul S. Fiddes

‘Inclusive representation revisited’ – Paul Goodliff

‘The radical ecclesiology of Nigel Wright’ – Steve Holmes

‘Church planting, peace and the ecclesial minimum’ – Stuart Murray

‘Part of a Movement: Nigel Wright and Baptist Life’ – Ian Randall

‘When Wright was right’ – Tom Smail

‘The Radical Evangelical: A Critical Appreciation’ – Derek Tidball

‘Crown rights of the Redeemer’ – Pat Took

Foreword – Ian M. Randall

Chapter 1: Baptists and Interdependency

Chapter 2: ‘Beyond the Local’: The Ecclesiological Basis of the European Baptist Federation

Chapter 3: The Ecumenical Dimension

Chapter 4: The International Baptist Theological Seminary

Chapter 5: A Focus of Unity – General Secretaries

Chapter 6: Partnership in Mission: Inter-Continental Mission Work from the USA

Chapter 7: Mission in the World

Chapter 8: The Ecclesial Reality of European Baptists

Appendix: EBF Presidents 1950-2009

Foreword – D. Densil Morgan

Chapter 1: The Changing Pattern of Baptist Life in the Eighteenth Century – John H. Y. Briggs

Chapter 2: Benjamin Keach (1640-1704): Tailor Turned Preacher – Austin Walker

Chapter 3: Stogdon, Foster, and Bulkeley: Variations on an Eighteenth-Century Theme – Stephen Copson

Chapter 4: James Fanch (1704-1767): The Spiritual Counsel of an Eighteenth-Century Baptist Pastor – Karen E. Smith

Chapter 5: Gilbert Boyce: General Baptist Messenger and Opponent of John Wesley – Clive Jarvis

Chapter 6: Benjamin Beddome (1717-1795): His Life and his Hymns – Michael Haykin

Chapter 7: Daniel Turner and a Theology of the Church Universal – Paul S. Fiddes

Chapter 8: Andrew Fuller and The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation – Peter J. Modern

Chapter 9: Caleb Evans and the Anti-Slavery Question – Roger Hayden

Chapter 10: Martha Gurney and William Fox: Baptist Printer and Radical Reformer, 1791-1794

Karen Smith has been teaching at the South Wales Baptist College since 1991, and is the pastor of Orchard Place Baptist Church in Neath. She was brought up in Georgia (U.S.A.) and graduated from Mercer University in Macon and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She then went to Oxford University where she did research on eighteenth century Baptist life under the supervision of B. R. White (DPhil 1987). Dr Smith has written a number of articles and contributed to scholarly works on Baptist history and spirituality. She gave the 1994 Hughey Memorial Lectures at IBTS.

Selected Publications

‘Beyond Public and Private Spheres: Another Look at Women in Baptist History and Historiography’, Baptist Quarterly 34.4 (1991), 79-87

‘The Role of Women in Early Baptist Missions’, Review and Expositor 89.1 (Winter, 1992), 35-48

‘The Liberty Not to Be a Christian: Robert Robinson (1735-1790) of Cambridge and Freedom of Conscience’ in Distinctively Baptist essays on Baptist history: a festschrift in honor of Walter. B. Shurden (Mercer, 1995)

‘The Covenant Life of some Eighteenth-Century Calvinistic Baptists in Hampshire and Wiltshire’ in Pilgrim Pathways: essays in Baptist history in honour of B. R. White (Mercer, 1999)

‘Forgotten Sisters: The Contributions of Some Notable but Un-noted British Baptist Women’ in Recycling the Past or Researching History?: Studies in Baptist Historiography and Myths (Paternoster, 2005)

‘British Women and the Baptist World Alliance: Honoured Partners and Fellow Workers?’, Baptist Quarterly 41.1 (January 2005), 25-46

‘Preparation as a Discipline of Devotion in Eighteenth-Century England: A Lost Facet of Baptist Identity?’ in Baptist Identities: International Studies from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Centuries (Paternoster, 2006)

‘Women in Cultural Captivity: British Women and the Zenana Mission’ Baptist History and Heritage 41.1 (Winter 2006), 30-41

Christian Spirituality (SCM, 2008)

The Community and the Believers: A Study of Calvinistic Baptist Spirituality in Some Towns and Villages of Hampshire and the Borders of Wiltshire, c.1730-1830 (Paternoster, forthcoming)

C. H. Spurgeon and Baptism: Part 1: The Question of Baptismal Sacramentalism – Peter J. Modern

A Baptist View of Ordained Ministry: A function or way of being?: Part 2 – Brian C. Brewer

Baptists in Amsterdam – Henk Bakker

Thomas Helwys’ First Confession of Fath, 1610 – Antony D. Rich

The Intimacies of Letters and Diaries: Nonconformist life as seen from the inside – (Review article) John Briggs

Reviews

Nigel G. Wright reviews On Being the Church: Revisioning Baptist Identity by Brian Haymes, Ruth Gouldbourne and Anthony R. Cross

Tony Peck reviews European Baptists and the Third Reich by Bernard Green

Keith G. Jones reviews Communities of Conviction: Baptist Beginnings in Europe by Ian M. Randall

The BUGB website has now added Paul Fiddes’ A Leading Question to its list of free downloads. This is a 30-40 page book written by Paul in the mid-1980s on the subject of leadership in Baptist churches. Well worth a read. On a related note, I have written a short article in the latest Baptist Minister’s Journal on leadership amongst Baptists.

Eight years in the making. This is a fantastic and unique dictionary of Baptist life and theology written by Baptists. John Briggs is to be congratulated in pulling the project together … we looked forward to its companion biographical dictionary of Baptists in the future. John is stepping down soon from his position as Director of the Centre for Baptist History and Heritage (at Regent’s Park College) and will be replaced by Anthony R. Cross. 

Contributers include: Keith Jones, Ian Randall, Anthony R. Cross, Derek Tidball, Catriona Gorton, Ernest Lucas, John Weaver, Karen Smith, Paul Fiddes, Paul Goodliff, Nigel Wright, Stephen Holmes, Nicholas Wood, Roger Hayden

With entries (amongst many others) on: atonement, baptism, BWA, bible, BUiLD, Calvin, catechumenate, charismatic movement, children, christology, church discipline, church meeting, covenants, ecclesiology, ecumenical movement, evolution, free will, gospel and culture, homosexuality, incarnation, infant baptism, IBTS, love, Luther, ministries, ordination, pastoral call, pneumatology, practical theology, preaching, prophecy, Regent’s Park College, sacrament, sin, suffering, systematic theology, tithing, trinity, women, worship, youth work

1980-83 Regent’s Park College, Oxford.

MPhil (London Bible College)
PhD (University of Wales)

1992-2007 Tutor in church history and spirituality, Spurgeon’s College
1999 to 2002 Director of Baptist and Anabaptist Studies, International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague, Czech Republic.
2002 – Senior Research Fellow, International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague, Czech Republic.
2007- Director of Research, Spurgeon’s College

2009-  Editor, Baptist Quarterly

Major Publications

‘Mere Denominationalism: F B Meyer and Baptist Life’, Baptist Quarterly 25.1 (1993)

‘Capturing Keswick: Baptists and the Changing Spirituality of the Keswick Convention in the 1920s’, Baptist Quarterly 36.7 (1996)

‘”Austere Ritual”: the Reformation of Worship in Inter-War English Congregationalism’ in R. N. Swanson (ed.), Continuity and Change in Christian Worship. Studies in Church History Vol 35 (Boydell, 1999)

Evangelical Experiences: A Study in Spirituality of English Evangelicalism 1918-1939 (Paternoster, 1999)

‘”Arresting People for Christ”: Baptists and the Oxford Group in the 1930s’, Baptist Quarterly 38.1 (1999)

Educating Evangelicalism: The Origins, Development and Impact of London Bible College (Paternoster, 2000)

with Charles Price, Transforming Keswick (Paternoster, 2000)

‘”Pious Wishes” Baptist Quarterly 38.7 (July 2000)

with David Hilborn, One Body in Christ: The history and significance of the Evangelical Alliance (Paternoster, 2001)

‘The blessings of an enlightened Christianity : North American involvement in European Baptist origins’, American Baptist Quarterly 20.1 (2001)

‘”Days of Pentecostal Overflowing”: Baptists and the Shaping of Pentecostalism’ in D. Bebbington (ed.), The Gospel in the World. SBHT Vol 1 (Paternoster, 2002)

with Tim Grass, ‘C. H. Spurgeon on the Sacraments’ in A. R. Cross and P. E. Thompson (eds.), Baptist Sacramentalism. SBHT Vol 5 (Paternoster, 2003)

Spirituality and Social Change: The Contribution of F.B. Meyer (1847-1929) (Paternoster Press, 2003)

‘A Good Bench of Bishops?’ in S. Murray-Williams (ed.), Translocal Ministry (Baptist Union, 2004)

The English Baptists of the 20th Century (Baptist Historical Society, 2005)

‘The Breath of Revival’: The Welsh Revival and Spurgeon’s College’ Baptist Quarterly 40.4 (2005)

‘English Baptists in the Twentieth Century’ Baptist Quarterly 41.7 (2005)

“‘The Low Condition of the Churches’: Difficulties Faced by the General Baptists in England – the 1680s to the 1760s”, Pacific Journal of Baptist Research, 1.1 (October 2005), 3-19.

What a Friend we have in Jesus: The Evangelical Tradition (Darton, Longmann & Todd, 2005)

‘A Mission Spirituality: Moravian Brethren and eighteen-century English evangelicalism’, Transformation 23.4 (October 2006)

‘Introduction’ in I. M. Randall, T. Pilli & A. R. Cross, Baptist Identities: International Studies from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Studies. SHBT Vol. 26 (Paternoster, 2006)

‘Mission in post-Christendom: Anabaptist and Free Church Perspectives’, Evangelical Quarterly LXXXIX.3 (Jul 2007)

‘”The world is our parish”: Spurgeon’s college and World Mission, 1856-1892′ in I. Randall & A. R. Cross (eds.), Baptists and Mission. SBHT Vol 29 (Paternoster, 2007)

‘Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Pastor’s College and the Downgrade Controversy’ in K. Cooper and J. Gregory (eds.), Discipline and Diversity. Studies in Church History Vol 43 (Boydell, 2007)

‘Baptist Revival and Renewal in the 1960s’ in K. Cooper & J. Gregory (eds.), Revival and Resurgence in Christian History. Studies in Church History Vol 44 (Boydell, 2008)

Communities of Conviction: Baptist Beginnings in Europe and the Middle East (European Baptist Federation, 2009)

‘Part of a movement: Nigel Wright and Baptist Life’ in P. Lalleman (ed.), Challenging to Change: Dialogues with a radical baptist theologian. Essays presented to Dr Nigel G. Wright on his sixtieth birthday (Spurgeon’s College, 2009)