Friday, June 18, 2010

"How Baptists Receive the Gifts of Catholics and Other Christians" in Ecumenical Trends

My article "How Baptists Receive the Gifts of Catholics and Other Christians" has been published in the journal Ecumenical Trends (vol. 39, no. 6 [June 2010], pp. 1/81-5/85). I delivered an earlier version of the article in March as the 2010 Lourdes College Ecumenical Lecture. This issue of Ecumenical Trends is currently available only in print, but here's a snippet from the article that summarizes its essence:

In many respects, receptive ecumenism is friendlier to Baptist participation in ecumenical engagement than some earlier models may have been. It assumes that because Baptists have been entrusted with a unique journey as a people of God, they possess distinctive gifts to be offered to the rest of the body of Christ. It also suggests the possibility that Baptists can incorporate the gifts of others into their own faith and practice without abandoning or distorting the gifts that already define the Baptist identity. Receptive ecumenism may also reveal Baptists as being much more receptive ecumenically than one might assume. Throughout their history and in their ecclesial life today, Baptists have received from Catholics and other Christians much that forms the core of Baptists’ identity as Christians while also enriching their distinctive identity as Baptists (p. 2/82).

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