North American Baptist Theologians 9: Philip E. Thompson

PhD 1995 (Emory University)

2007-  Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Heritage, Sioux Falls Seminary, South Dakota

Publications

“People of the Free God: The Passion of Seventeenth Century Baptists.” American
Baptist Quaterly XV.3 (September 1996): 223-41.

“A New Question in Baptist History: Seeking a Catholic Spirit Among Early Baptists.”
Pro Ecclesia VIII.1 (winter 1999): 51-72.

“Re-Envisioning Baptist Identity: Historical, Theological, and Liturgical Analysis.”
Perspectives in Religious Studies 27.3 (Fall 2000): 287-302.

‘Memorial Dimensions of Baptism’ in Stanley E. Porter and Anthony R. Cross, eds.
Dimensions of Baptism: Biblical and Theological Studies (JSNTS 234. London: Sheffield
Academic Press, 2002) 304-24.

“Seventeenth Century Baptist Confessions in Context.” Perspectives in Religious Studies
29.4 (Winter 2002): 335-348.

“Baptists’ Sacraments and Religious Liberty: From Critical Ally to Rejected Encroachment.” Anthony R. Cross and Philip E. Thompson (eds.), Baptist Sacramentalism (Studies in Baptist History and Thought vol. 5; Carlisle: Paternoster, 2003) 36-54.

“Baptists and ‘Calvinism’ – Discerning the Shape of the Question.” Baptist History and
Heritage XXXIX.2 (spring 2004): 61-76.

‘‘As It Was In The Beginning’ (?): The Myth of Changelessness in Baptist Life and
Belief’ in Philip E. Thompson and Anthony R. Cross (eds.), Recycling the Past or Researching History? Studies in Baptist Historiography and Myth (Studies in Baptist History and Thought, vol. 11; Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2005), 184-206.

‘North American Baptists’ in W. Glenn Jonas, Jr., (ed.), The Baptist River:Essays on Many Tributaries of a Diverse Tradition (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2006) 182-205.

‘Introduction: Practicing Sacramentality in Baptist Modality’ in Anthony R. Cross and Philip E. Thompson (eds.), Baptist Sacramentalism 2 (Studies in Baptist History and Thought Vol 25; Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2008)

‘Dimensions of Memory: Challenges and Tasks in the Baptist Recovery of Tradition’ in
Roger A. Ward and Philip E. Thompson, (eds.), Tradition and the Baptist Academy
(Studies in Baptist History and Thought Vol 31; Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2011).

The Freedom of God: Towards Baptist Ecclesiology in Pneumatological Perspective.
(Studies in Baptist History and Thought; Milton Keynes: Paternoster, forthcoming)

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Recent North American Baptist Doctoral Dissertations

Steven Harmon is posting some abstracts of recent doctoral dissertations completed in the US.

So far:

Scott Bullard on eucharist, unity and Baptists

Jeffrey Cary on Jenson, Williams, McClendon and free church ecclesiology

Aaron James on language, eucharist identity and baptist vision

North American Baptist Theologians 6: Curtis W. Freeman

1987-2001 Professor of Christianity, Houston Baptist University
2001- Research Professor of Theology and Baptist Studies and Director of the Baptist House of Studies, Duke Divinity School

Major Publications

(ed.) with Gary Furr, Ties that Bind: Life together in the Baptist vision (Smyth & Helwys, 1994)

‘A Confession for Catholic Baptists’ in Ties that Bind: Life together in the Baptist vision (Smyth & Helwys, 1994), 83-97

‘Towards a Sensus Fidelium for an Evangelical Church: Postconservatives & Postliberals on Reading Scripture’ in T. R. Philips & D. L. Okholm (eds.),  The Nature of Confession: Evangelicals and Postliberals in Conversation (IVP, 1996), 162-180

‘Can Baptist Theology Be Revisioned?’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 24 (Fall 1997), 273-310

(ed.) with James W. McClendon & C. R. V. da Silva, Baptist roots: a reader in the theology of a Christian people (Judson, 1999)

‘”To Feed Upon the Faith”: Nourishment from the Lord’s Table’ in A. R. Cross & P. E. Thompson, Baptist Sacramentalism (Paternoster, 2003), 194-210

“Where Two or Three Are Gathered: Communion Ecclesiology in the Free Church.” Perspectives in Religious Studies, 31.3 (Fall 2004), 259-272.

‘A Theology for Brethren, radical believers, and other Baptists: A Review Essay of James McClendon’s Systematic Theology’, Brethren Life and Thought 51.1-2 (Winter/Spring 2006), pp106-115

‘Can the Secular be Sanctified?’ in D. Schmeltekopf & D. Vitanza (eds.), The Future of Baptist Higher Education (Baylor University Press, 2006)

‘God in Three Persons: Baptist Unitarianism and the Trinity’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 33 (Fall 2006)

‘Roger Williams, American Democracy and the Baptists’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 34.3 (Fall 2007)

‘Back to the Future of Trinitarianism?’ in T. George & E. Mason, Theology in the Service of the Church: Essays Presented to Fisher H. Humphreys (Mercer, 2008)

‘Practicing the faith in the Baptist tradition: a response to Ian Randall’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 36.2 (Summer 2009)

‘Alerity and Its Cure’, Cross Currents 59.4 (December 2009)

‘Visionary Women Among Early Baptists’, Baptist Quarterly 43 (January, 2010)

(ed.), A Company of Women Preachers: Baptist Prophetesses in Seventeenth-Century England. A Reader (Baylor, 2011)

‘E. Y. Mullins and the Siren Songs of Modernity’ in Keith Harper (ed.) Through a Glass Darkly: Contested Notions of Baptist Identity (University of Alabama, 2012)

Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists (Baylor, 2014)

Undomesticated Dissent (Baylor, 2017)

North American Baptist Theologians 4: Steven R. Harmon

1997 (PhD) Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

1998-2008 Associate Professor of Christian Theology, Campbell University Divinity School
2008-         Associate Professor Divinity, Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School

2005-2010 Vice-chair of the Doctrine and Interchurch Cooperation Commission, Baptist World Alliance
2005            Vivian B. Harrison Memorial Lectures, Mount Olive College

Major Publications

‘Baptist Confessions of Faith and the Patristic Tradition’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 29.4 (Winter 2002)

Every Knee Should Bow: Biblical Rationales for Universal Salvation in Early Christian Thought (University Press of America, 2003)

‘The Authority of the Community (of All the Saints): Toward a Postmodern Baptist Hermeneutic of Tradition’, Review and Expositor 100.2 (Fall 2003)

‘Baptist Understandings of Theological Authority: A North American Perspective’, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 4.1 (2004)

‘Karl Barth’s Conversation with the Fathers: A Paradigm for Ressourcement in Baptist and Evangelical Theology’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 33.1 (Spring 2006)

‘From Triadic Narrative to Narrating the Triune God: The Development of Patristic Trinitarian Theology’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 33.3 (Fall 2006)

Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision (Paternoster, 2006)

‘The Sacramentality of the Word in Gregory of Nyssa’s Catechetical Oration: Implications for a Baptist Sacramental Theology’ in A. R. Cross and P. E. Thompson, Baptist Sacramentalism 2 (Paternoster, 2008)

‘Remembering the Ecclesial Future: Why the Church Needs Theology’ in T. George and E. F. Mason, Theology in the Service of the Church: Essays Presented to Fisher H. Humphreys (Mercer, 2008)

‘Scripture in the Life of the Baptist Churches: Openings for a Differentiated Catholic-Baptist Consensus on Sacred Scripture’, Pro Ecclesia 18.2 (Spring 2009)

‘Why Baptist Catholicity, and by What Authority?’, Pro Ecclesia 18.4 (Fall 2009)

‘Die Verbum 9 in Baptist Perspective’, Ecclesiology (forthcoming)

North American Baptist Theologians 3: Clark H. Pinnock

Born 1937.

PhD (Manchester, 1963, supervised by F. F. Bruce)

1965-1969 Lecturer, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
1969-1974 Lecturer, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Illinois
1974-1977 Lecturer, Regent College, Vancover
1977-2002 Professor of Systematic Theology, McMaster Divinity College

Major Publications

A Defense of Biblical Infallibility
(1967)

New Reformation: A Challenge to Southern Baptists
(1968)

Biblical Revelation: The Foundation of Christian Theology
(Moody Press, 1971)

‘Baptists and Biblical Authority’, Journal of Evangelical Theological Society 17 (1974)

Reason Enough: A Case for Christian Faith (IVP, 1980)

The Scripture Principle (Harper & Row, 1984)

‘Assessing Barth for Apologetics’ in How Karl Barth Changed My Mind (Eerdmans, 1986)

‘God Limits His Knowledge’ in Predestination and Free Will: Four Views of Divine Sovereignty (IVP, 1986)

‘Between Classical and Process Theism’ in Process Theology (Baker, 1987)

(ed.) The Grace of God, The Will of Man
(Zondervan, 1989)

Tracking the Maze: Finding our Way through Modern Theology from an Evangelical Perspective (Harper & Row, 1990)

A Wideness in God’s Mercy: The Finality of Jesus Christ in a World of Religions (Zondervan, 1992)

The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God, with Richard Rice, John Sanders, William Hasker and David Basinger (IVP, 1994)

Unbounded Love: A Good News Theology for the 21st Century
with Robert C. Brow (IVP, 1994)

Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit
(IVP, 1996)

‘God’s Sovereignty in Today’s World’, Theology Today 53.1 (April, 1996)

‘New Dimensions in Theological Method’ in New Dimensions in Evangelical Thought: Essays in Honour of Millard J. Erickson (IVP, 1998)

(ed.) with John Cobb, Searching for an Adequate God: A Dialogue Between Process and Free Will Theists (Eerdmans, 2000)

Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God’s Openness
(Paternoster, 2001)

‘The Physical Side of Being Spiritual: God’s Sacramental Presence’ in Baptist Sacramentalism (Paternoster, 2003)

American Baptist Theologians 2: Stanley J. Grenz

Born 1950. Died 2005

University of Munich, Germany (D.Theol. magna cum laude, 1978)

(1981-1990) Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics at the North American Baptist Seminary, Sioux Falls SD
(1990-2002) Pioneer McDonald Professor of Baptist Heritage, Theology and Ethics at Carey Theological College and at Regent College in Vancouver BC
(2002-2003) Distinguished Professor of Theology at Baylor University and Truett Seminary in Waco TX (2003-2005) Pioneer McDonald Professor of Baptist Heritage, Theology and Ethics at Carey Theological College and at Regent College in Vancouver BC

Baptist World Alliance
Doctrine and Interchurch Cooperation Commission, 2000-2005
Ethics Commission, 1986-2000
Theological Education Committee, 1990-2005

Major Publications

The Baptist Congregation Judson, 1985

Reason for Hope: The Systematic Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg Oxford University Press, 1990. 2nd ed. Eerdmans, 2005.

Twentieth Century Theology: God and the World in a Transitional Age
co-authored with Roger E. Olson InterVarsity, 1992

Theology for the Community of God 1st edition. Broadman & Holman, 1994. 2nd edition, Eerdmans, 2000.

“The AIDS Epidemic and Sin” Baptist Faith and Witness: The Papers of the Study and Research Division of the Baptist World Alliance 1990-1995 ed. William H. Brackney and L.A. Cupit, Samford University Press, 1995

A Primer on Postmodernism
Eerdmans, 1996

The Moral Quest: Foundations of Christian Ethics
InterVarsity, 1997

Welcoming But Not Affirming: An Evangelical Response to Homosexuality Westminster John Knox, 1998

“The Christian Vision of the Moral Life” Baptist Faith and Witness Book 2: The Papers of the Study and Research Division of the Baptist World Alliance 1995-2000 ed. L. A. (Tony) Cupit Baptist World Alliance, 1999

Renewing the Center: Evangelical Theology in a Post-theological Era (Baker, 2000)

“Wolfhart Pannenberg” The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought ed. Adrian Hastings, Alistair Mason and Hugh Pyper (Oxford University Press, 2000)

“Articulating the Christian Belief-Mosaic: Theological Method after the Demise of Foundationalism” Evangelical Futures: A Conversation on Theological Method ed. John G. Stackhouse, Jr. (Baker, 2000)

“Conversing in Christian Style: Toward a Baptist Theological Method for the Postmodern Context” Baptist History and Heritage 35.1 (Winter 2000): 82-103

Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context co-authored with John R. Franke (Westminster John Knox, 2001)

The Social God and the Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei (Volume 1 of The Matrix of Christian Theology, Westminster John Knox, 2001)

“Celebrating Eternity: Christian Worship as a Foretaste of Participation in the Triune God” Semper Reformandum: Studies in Honour of  Clark H. Pinnock ed. Anthony R. Cross and Stanley E. Porter (Paternoster, 2003)

“Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as Community Acts: Toward a Sacramental Understanding of the Ordinances” Baptist Sacramentalism ed. Anthony R. Cross and Philip E. Thompson (Paternoster, 2003)

“How Do We Know What to Believe: Revelation and Authority” Essentials of Christian Theology
ed. William C. Placher (Westminster John Knox, 2003)

“Ecclesiology” The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

“Stanley Hauerwas, the Grain of the Universe, and the Most ‘Natural’ Natural Theology” (review essay) Scottish Journal of Theology 56/3 (August 2003): 381-86

‘Toward an undomesticated Gospel: a response to D A Carson’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 30.4 (Winter 2003), 455-461

“The Divine Fugue: Robert Jenson’s Renewed Trinitarianism” (review essay) Perspectives in Religious Studies 30/2 (Summer 2003): 211-16

“(Pop) Culture: Playground of the Spirit or Diabolical Device?” Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture 1/1 (2004)

‘Jesus as symbol: Robert Neville’s christology and the neo-liberal theological project’, Modern Theology 20.3 (2004), 467-473

Rediscovering the Triune God: The Trinity in Contemporary Theology (Fortress, 2004)

The Named God and the Question of Being: a Trinitarian theo-ontology (Volume 2 of The Matrix of Christian Theology, Westminster John Knox, 2005)

Secondary Literature

Edwin C. Laurenson, ‘Theology, science and postmodernism: responding to Stanley Grenz’, Zygon 35.4 (2000), 907-918

Mark S. Medley, ‘An evangelical theology for a postmodern age: Stanley J. Grenz’s current theological project’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 30.1 (Spring 2003), 71-94

M. Erickson, P.K. Helseth and J. Taylor (eds), Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accomodation in Postmodern Times (Wheaton, 2004)

Archie J. Spencer, ‘Culture, community and commitments: Stanley J. Grenz on theological method’, Scottish Journal of Theology 57.3 (2004)

Princeton Theological Review (Spring 2006)

Jonathan Wilson, ‘Stanley J. Grenz: Generous Faith and Faithful Engagement’, Modern Theology 23.1 (2007)

Jason Sexton, ‘Stanley Grenz’s Relatedness and Relevancy to British Evangelicalism’, Scottish Bulletin for Evangelical Theology 28.1 (Spring 2010)

The Pacific Journal of Baptist Research 6.1 (April 2010)

Jason Sexton, ‘The Imago Dei Once Again: Stanley Grenz’s Journey Toward a Theological Interpretation of Gen 1:26-27’, Journal of Theological Interpretation 4.2 (Fall 2010), 187-206.

Jason Sexton, ‘A Match Made in Munich: The Origin of Grenz’s Trinitarian Theology’, American Theological Inquiry 4.1 (January 2011), 23-46.

American Baptist Theologians 1: James McClendon

Theological Autobiography from The Mennonite Quarterly Review October 2000

Born 1924. Died October 30, 2000.

1954-1966 Lecturer, Golden Gate (Southern) Baptist Seminary
1971-1990 Lecturer, Church Divinity School of the Pacific
1990-2000, Scholar-in-residence, Fuller Theological Seminary

Major Publications

‘Some reflections on the future of trinitarianism’, Review and Expositor 63.2 (Spring 1966), 149-156.

‘Baptism as a performative sign’, Theology Today 23.3 (1966), 403-416.

‘Can there be talk about God-and-the-world’, Harvard Theological Review 62.1 (1969), 33-49.

‘Martin Luther King: politician or American church father?’, Journal of Ecumenical Studies 8.1 (Winter 1971), 115-121.

‘Biography as theology’, Cross Currents 21.4 (Fall 1971), 415-431

‘Twice-born religion of Dag Hammarskjold’, Review and Expositor 70.2 (Spring 1973), 223-238.

Biography as Theology: How Life Stories Can Remake Today’s Theology (Abingdon, 1974. Revised edition, Trinity, 1990. Reprinted, 2002)

Coauthor (with James M. Smith). Understanding Religious Convictions (University of Notre Dame Press, 1975. Revised and enlarged edition published as Convictions: Defusing Religious Relativism. Trinity, 1994)

‘Three strands of Christian Ethics’, Journal of Religious Ethics 6 (Spring 1978), 54-80.

Co-editor (with Axel D. Steuer). Is God God? (Abingdon, 1981)

“What Is a ‘baptist’ Theology.” American Baptist Quarterly 1 (October 1982)
16-39.

‘More on narrative’, Theology Today 40.1 (April 1983), 49-53.

Ethics: Systematic Theology. Volume I (Abingdon, 1986. Revised edition 2002; Baylor, 2012)

‘Evangelical ethics: a review article’, Modern Churchman 29.4 (1987), 42-48.

Co-author (with Nancey C. Murphy). “Distinguishing Modern and Postmodern Theologies: George A. Lindbeck, Harvey Cox, Ronald F. Thiemann, Thomas J. J. Altizer, Mark C. Taylor.” Modern Theology 5 (April 1989) 191-214.

“The Concept of Authority: A Baptist View.” Perspectives in Religious Studies 16 (Summer 1989) 101-07.

(with John Howard Yoder), ‘Christian identity in ecumenical perspective: a response to David Wayne Layman’, Journal of Ecumenical Studies 27.3 (Summer 1990), pp561-580.

“How is Christian Morality Universalisable.” in The Weight of Glory: A Vision and Practice for Christian Faith: The Future of Liberal Theology; Essays for Peter Baelz. Edited by D. W. Hardy and P. H. Sedgwick.  (T. & T. Clark, 1991)

‘In light of last things: a theology for the believers church. A Review article’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 18.1 (Spring 1991) 71-78.

Doctrine: Systematic Theology. Volume II (Abingdon, 1994; Baylor, 2012)

‘Primitive, Present, Future: A Vision for the Church in the Modern world’ in Richard Thomas Hughes (ed.), The Primitive church in the modern world (1995)

‘Four New Theologies: A Review Essay’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 22.2 (Summer 1995)

“The Practice of Community Formation.” in Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics After Maclntyre. Edited by Nancey Murphy, Brad J. Kallenberg and Mark Nation.
(Trinity, 1997)

“The Voluntary Church in the Twenty-first Century.” in The Believers Church: A Voluntary Church. Edited by William H. Brackney (Pandora Press, 1998)

Coeditor with Curtis W. Freeman and C. Rosalee Velloso da Silva, Baptist Roots: A Reader in the Theology of a Christian People (Judson, 1999)

“The Believers’ Church in Theological Perspective.” in The Wisdom of the Cross: Essays in Honor of John Howard Yoder. Edited by Stanley Hauerwas, Chris K. Huebner, Harry J. Huebner, and Mark Thiessen Nation (Eerdmans, 1999)

“The Radical Road One Baptist Took.” Mennonite Quarterly Review (October 2000)

Witness: Systematic Theology. Volume III (Abingdon, 2000; Baylor, 2012)

Ryan Andrew Newson & Andrew C.Wright (eds.), The Collected Works of James McClendon Volumes 1-3 (Baylor University Press, 2014-2016)