New Books from the Centre for Baptist and Heritage

‘A World-Order of Love’:Baptists and the Peace Movements of 1914

The essays in this volume explore the Baptist contributions to peace-making at the time of the First World War and afterwards. Like the Conference in Oxford on which the book is based, the  chapters are  a collaboration between British and German Baptist historians, in a centenary remembrance of the tragic conflict of 1914-1918. This partnership also echoes the contribution made by both British and German Baptists to the first moves towards peace in the period from 1914 onwards, even as war broke out between their two nations and others. The authors consider the two substantial peace movements which were conceived at an international conference for peace held at Lake Constance on 3-4 August 1914, on the very eve of war. The story is taken on further into the twentieth century, demonstrating the influence of these movements, born in the turmoil of their own time, on the Civil Rights Movement in America five decades later. Reading the essays together makes the reader aware of the rich web of acts and words through which Baptists hoped (in the words of the founding document of the Fellowship of Reconciliation) to create a ‘world-order based on love’.

Authors: 
Keith Clements, Paul S. Fiddes (editor), Frank Fornaçon, Ian Randall, Andrea Strübind.

 

Covenant and Church for Rough Sleepers: A Baptist Ecclesiology in Conversation with the Trinitarian Pastoral Theology of Paul S. Fiddes

‘Covenant’ is now a term widely used among Baptists to describe the relating of members to each other in a local church, the associating of churches together, and the binding of associations, churches and colleges into a national union. Use, however, is one thing, and understanding is quite another. Dr Sutcliffe-Pratt puts us in his debt by reflecting on the way that covenant may be seen as the basis for an exciting and experimental church-plant among rough sleepers and drug addicts – 57 West in Southend-on-Sea. In conversation with the Baptist theologian Paul S. Fiddes, he shows how this kind of covenant is rooted in a vision of the triune God whose life is an interweaving of loving relations. He also draws on a range of Protestant and Catholic theologians in this remarkable piece of practical theology, which develops a Baptist tradition in new ways. As we see how the idea of ‘covenant’ makes sense of the complicated and challenging relationships in his own community, we can see better how it might throw light on our situation.

Author: Daniel Sutcliffe-Pratt is a Baptist minister at 57 West, Southend-on-Sea.

 

The Early English General Baptists and Their Theological Formation

A scholarly treatment of the first generations of the English General Baptists that identifies their character as a sect, their emerging theological consensus as distilled from their principal literature, and a listing and analysis of published works about the General Baptists. The book uniquely provides biographical details, works about, and details of works by twenty-eight writers and several confessional documents. The span dates cover the roots of the General Baptist tradition from 1609 to its period of mature expression in the late 1680s, ranging from John Smyth and Thomas Helwys to Thomas Grantham and Matthew Caffyn.

Author: William H. Brackney is Millard R. Cherry Distinguished Professor of Christian Thought and Ethics at Acadia University and Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada