The “Plainly Revealed” Word of God?: Baptist Hermeneutics in Theory and Practice edited by Helen Dare and Simon Woodman (Mercer, 2011)

Section 1: Baptist Biblical Engagement Reviewed

(Early) Baptist Identity and the Acts of the Apostles: Hermeneutical Insights from the Baptists’ Bible Project – Mikeal C. Parsons

A Sample of Baptist Contributions to Johannine Scholarship – R. Alan Culpepper

Prophecy, Corporate Personality, and Suffering: Some Themes and Methods in Baptist Old Testament Scholarship – Paul S. Fiddes

Response to Paul Fiddes – Rex Mason

Section 2: Baptist Biblical Encounters Analysed

Gathering Round the Word: Baptists, Scripture and Worship – Christopher J. Ellis

The Bible in the Flesh: Pragmatism and Community in Lewis Misselbrook’s Bible Study Notes – Simon Perry

Hermeneutics: The Interface between Critical Scholarship and the Faith of the Community – Rex Mason

Section 3: Baptist Biblical Hermeneutics Explored

Baptists and Biblical Interpretation: Reading the Bible with Christ – Ian Birch

Baptist Convictional Hermeneutics – Parush R. Parushev

The Word of His Grace: What’s So Distinctive About Scripture? – John E. Colwell

Section 4: Baptist Interpretative Difference Negotiated

The Dissenting Voice: Journeying Together toward a Baptist Hermeneutic – Simon Woodman

‘In the Fray’: Reading the Bible in Relationship – Helen Dare

Persuading Friends: Friendship and Testimony in Baptist Interpretative Communities – Sean Winter

Section 5: Baptist Hermeneutics in Wider Perspective

The Grammar of Baptist Assent – Brian Brock

In Appreciation of ‘Reluctant’ Prophets – William John Lyons

 

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Baptist Quarterly, July 2010

C. H. Spurgeon and Baptism Part 2: The Importance of Baptism – Peter J. Modern

Baptists and the Bible – Stephen R. Holmes

James Merriman: A Baptist Engineer – Brian Bowers

18th-Century Baptists: A Review Article – Raymond Brown

Reviews include:
Toivo Pilli, Dance or Die: The Shaping of Estonian Baptist Identity under Communism – Ruth Gouldbourne

John H. Y. Briggs (Gen. Ed.), A Dictionary of European Baptist Life and Thought – Keith Clements

James M. Renihan, Edification and Beauty: The Practical Ecclesiology of the English Particular Baptists, 1675-1705 – Jonathan Arnold


Under the Rule of Christ: Dimensions of Baptist Spirituality, edited by Paul S. Fiddes (Regent’s Study Guide 14; Smyth & Helwys, 2008)

1. Baptists and Spirituality: a Rule of Life – Paul S. Fiddes and Stephen Finamore

2. Spirituality as Attentiveness: Stillness and Journey – Paul S. Fiddes

3. Spirituality as Suffering: a Defining Experience – Richard Kidd

4. Spirituality as Discipleship: the Anabaptist Heritage – Nigel Wright

5. Spirituality and Scripture: the Rule of the Word

6. Spirituality in Everyday Life: the View from the Table – John Weaver

7. Spirituality in Mission: Gathering and Grace – Christopher Ellis

Exploring Baptist Origins

Anthony R. Cross and Nicholas J. Wood (eds.), Exploring Baptist Origins (Centre for Baptist History and Heritage Studies, Vol 1; Regent’s Park College, 2010), 163pp (£20 – order a copy here)

This is the first volume of the new series emerging out of the Centre for Baptist History and Heritage based at Regent’s Park College. The collection of papers were first delivered in the autumn of 2009 in celebration of 400 years since the birth of Baptist beginnings. Including some of the UK’s leading Baptist theologians – Paul Fiddes, Stephen Holmes, Brian Haymes – the book seeks to examine historically and theologically the beginnings of Baptist life.

Haymes, not for the first time, engages with Thomas Helwys’ The Mystery of Iniquity, asking whether it has relevance for today and concluding with a challenge for more ‘unashamedly political theologies’.  Fiddes explores the question of whether Baptists are a church or a sect, interacting with the famous studies of Weber and Troeltsch, and highlighting the distinctive covenant theology of early Baptists.  Holmes extends earlier published arguments of the dangers of just reading the Bible through the Salters’ Hall incident of 1719. Keith Jones assesses Baptists and Anabaptists through the life of the Lithuanian Baptist Jonas Inkenas, exploring five themes: ecclesial interdependency; leadership; communities in hostile surroundings; spirituality; and women at the heart of Baptist life. Anthony Cross and Larry Kreitzer provide historical studies of why baptists adopted believers’ baptism and the anabaptist petitions of 1660 and 1661 respectively. The other contributer is Crawford Gribben who looks at the beliefs about millennialism in early Baptist life in relation to their ecclesiology.

This is an interesting and revealing set of essays, engaging with how Baptists began. The best or most interesting are those that ask questions of Baptists today in light of their forebears, showing how they can offer challenge and help as we seek to be Baptist Christians.

Beyond this book, it is exciting to see Regent’s begin a new series of Baptist studies, especially as its other series, Regent’s Study Guides, is coming to an end. If your a British Baptist and engaged in postgraduate study on baptistic themes, here is a potential place for your research to reach a wider audience. Coming soon are volumes on a theology of ministry and ordination from Paul Goodliff and membership and belonging from Darrell Jackson.

Lectures on Exploring Baptist Origins (advance warning)

The Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture lectures in Michaelmas Term 2009 will be on Exploring Baptist Origins. 5pm at Regent’s Park College.

20 October: Baptists and Anabaptists Reassessed – Keith Jones

27 October: Early Baptist Views on Baptism – Anthony Cross

3 November: William Kiffin and Particular Baptist Origins – Larry Kreitzer

10 November: The Dangers of Just Reading the Bible: Orthodoxy and Christology – Stephen Holmes

17 November: A Radically Different World: In and Out of Time – Crawford Gribben

24 November: Thomas Helwys’ The Mystery of Iniquity: Is it still relevant in the Twenty-First Century? – Brian Haymes

1 December: Sect and Chruch: A Critical Dialectic – Paul Fiddes

On Being the Church: Revisioning Baptist Identity by Brian Haymes, Ruth Gouldbourne, Anthony Cross (SBHT 21, Paternoster, 2008)

This book re-examines Baptist theology and practice in the light of contemporary biblical, theological, ecumenical and missiological perspectives. It is not a study in denominationalism, but rather attempts to revision historical insights from the believer’s church tradition, essentially within a trinitarian emphasis. It is a re-expression of that tradition, seeking to re-appropriate forgotten emphases, bringing them together in a revised ecclesiology.

Foreword – Paul S. Fiddes

By Way of Introduction

1. The God of the People

2. The People of God

3. Authority

4. Baptism: Becoming a Christian

5. Discipleship

6. The Lord’s Supper

7. Ministry

8. The One Church, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic

9. Institution and Organization

The Whitley Lectures (1997-)

1997 Nigel Wright Power and Discipleship: Towards a Baptist Theology of the State

1998 Ruth Gouldbourne Reinventing the Wheel: Women and Ministry in English Baptist Life

1999 Keith Jones A Shared Meal and a Common Table: Some Reflections on the Lord’s Supper and Baptists

2000 Anne Dunkley Seen and Heard: Reflections on Children and Baptist tradition

2001 Steve Finamore Violence, the Bible and the End of the World

2002 Nicholas Wood Confessing Christ in a Plural World

2003 Stephen Holmes Tradition and Renewal in Baptist Life

2005 Andrew Rollinson Liberating Ecclesiology: Setting the church free to live out its missionary nature

2006 Kate Coleman Being Human: A Black British Christian Human’s Perspective

2007 Sean Winter More Light and Truth? Biblical Interpretation in Covenantal Perspective

2008 Craig Gardiner How Shall We Sing the Lord’s Song? Worship in and out of the church

2009 Sally Nelson A Thousand Crucifixions: The material subversion of the church?

2010 David Southall The Poetic Paul: On Creating New Realities for Righteousness in Romans

2011 E. Anne Clements Wrestling with the Word: A Woman reads Scripture

2012 Ian Randall Religious Liberty in Continental Europe: Campaigning by British Baptists, 1840s to 1930s

2013 Michael Peat Answering Mendel’s Dwarf: Thinking Theologically about Human Genetic Selection

2014 Helen Dare Always on the way and in the fray: Reading the Bible as Baptists

2015 Ed Kaneen What is Biblical Ministry? Revisiting diakonia in the New Testament

2016 Joshua Searle Church without Walls: Post-Soviet Baptists after the Ukranian Revolution, 2013-14

2017 Richard Pollard The Pioneering Evangelicalism of Dan Taylor (1738-1816)

2018 Helen Paynter Dead and Buried? Attending to the Voices of the Victim in the Old Testament and today

2019 Jo Kapolyo Theology and Culture:: An African Perspective 

2020 Robert Parkinson Finding a Friend: The Baptist Encounter with Judaism