Festblog for Fiddes (updated with "Festblogging" links)

Portrait of Paul S. Fiddes in Helwys Hall,
Regent's Park College, University of Oxford

Today (April 30, 2012) is the 65th birthday of Paul Fiddes, one of my favorite theologians and the most significant writing theologian identified as a Baptist on the contemporary theological scene. Fiddes is Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford and Principal Emeritus of Regent's Park College of the University of Oxford, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1977 and served as Principal from 1989 until 2007. A short list of representative publications appears on Professor Fiddes's profile page on the University of Oxford web site; a Wikipedia entry on Fiddes includes a fuller (but not complete) listing of publications along with information on his life, education, and theological career. A future issue of the Pacific Journal of Baptist Research will be devoted to the theology of Paul Fiddes.

One thing that deeply impresses me about Professor Fiddes is his appreciation for and commitment to serving the communion of his Christian nurture and calling. His international and ecumenical standing as a theologian means that he does not have to identify himself as a Baptist or even remain a Baptist, yet this ordained Baptist minister continues to make the Baptist tradition the explicit concrete ecclesial community of reference in his theological work and to serve the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Baptist World Alliance in myriad ways.

Fiddes is must reading for Baptists as well as non-Baptists. Below is a list of his books with links to Amazon.com where available:

Tracks and Traces: Baptist Identity in Church and Theology (Studies in Baptist History and Thought, vol. 13; Paternoster, 2003)

The Promised End: Eschatology in Theology and Literature (Blackwell, 2000)

Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity (Darton, Longman, & Todd, 2000; Westminster John Knox, 2000)

Freedom and Limit: A Dialogue between Literature and Christian Doctrine (Macmillan, 1991; Mercer University Press, 1991)

The Trinity in Worship and Preaching (London Baptist Preachers' Association, 1991)

Past Event and Present Salvation: The Christian Idea of Atonement (Darton, Longman, & Todd, 1989)

The Creative Suffering of God (Clarendon Press, 1988)

A Leading Question: The Structure and Authority of Leadership in the Local Church (Baptist Publications, 1986)

Charismatic Renewal: A Baptist View (Baptist Publications, 1980)

Happy birthday, Professor Fiddes!

Update: "Festblogging" on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Paul Fiddes has gone global (the idea originated with British Baptist minister and former Fiddes student Andy Goodliff, who floated it to his social media contacts last Friday). Below are links to other Fiddes posts for the occasion; I'll update them periodically here:

Andygoodliff: Church, World and the Christian Life (Andy Goodliff)

Shored Fragments (Steve Holmes)

Sean the Baptist (in the UCA) (Sean Winter)

A Skinny Fairtrade Latte in the Foodcourt of Life: Everyday adventures of a Baptist minister (Catriona Gorton)

Baptist Bookworm (Simon Woodman)

Nah Then (Glen Marshall)

Distinct Reflections (Neil Brighton)

Svenka Baptisters Bekännelse 1861

High Heels, Short Skirts and Clerical Collars (Rowena Wilding)

Diary of Daftness (Louise Polhill)

Festblog for Fiddes

Portrait of Paul S. Fiddes in Helwys Hall,
Regent's Park College, University of Oxford

Today (April 30, 2012) is the 65th birthday of Paul Fiddes, one of my favorite theologians and the most significant writing theologian identified as a Baptist on the contemporary theological scene. Fiddes is Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford and Principal Emeritus of Regent's Park College of the University of Oxford, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1977 and served as Principal from 1989 until 2007. A short list of representative publications appears on Professor Fiddes's profile page on the University of Oxford web site; a Wikipedia entry on Fiddes includes a fuller (but not complete) listing of publications along with information on his life, education, and theological career. A future issue of the Pacific Journal of Baptist Research will be devoted to the theology of Paul Fiddes.

One thing that deeply impresses me about Professor Fiddes is his appreciation for and commitment to serving the communion of his Christian nurture and calling. His international and ecumenical standing as a theologian means that he does not have to identify himself as a Baptist or even remain a Baptist, yet this ordained Baptist minister continues to make the Baptist tradition the explicit concrete ecclesial community of reference in his theological work and to serve the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Baptist World Alliance in myriad ways.

Fiddes is must reading for Baptists as well as non-Baptists. Below is a list of his books with links to Amazon.com where available:

Tracks and Traces: Baptist Identity in Church and Theology (Studies in Baptist History and Thought, vol. 13; Paternoster, 2003)

The Promised End: Eschatology in Theology and Literature (Blackwell, 2000)

Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity (Darton, Longman, & Todd, 2000; Westminster John Knox, 2000)

Freedom and Limit: A Dialogue between Literature and Christian Doctrine (Macmillan, 1991; Mercer University Press, 1991)

The Trinity in Worship and Preaching (London Baptist Preachers' Association, 1991)

Past Event and Present Salvation: The Christian Idea of Atonement (Darton, Longman, & Todd, 1989)

The Creative Suffering of God (Clarendon Press, 1988)

A Leading Question: The Structure and Authority of Leadership in the Local Church (Baptist Publications, 1986)

Charismatic Renewal: A Baptist View (Baptist Publications, 1980)

Happy birthday, Professor Fiddes!

Roberts-Thomson on Baptists and the ecumenical movement

While doing research for the chapter on the Baptist tradition I'm contributing to the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Ecumenical Studies, I recently came across Edward Roberts-Thomson's book With Hands Outstretched: Baptists and the Ecumenical Movement (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1962). Roberts-Thomson (1909-1987), an Australian Baptist who after pastorates in Australia served as principal of New Zealand Baptist Theological College and the Baptist Theological College of New South Wales (Morling Baptist College) in Sydney, Australia, sought with his book to "widen the knowledge and understanding of his own denomination and at the same time to show those of other Christian communions the reasons why Baptists often seem intransigent and suspicious in the face of ecumenical developments" (from Ernest A. Payne's foreword to the book, p. 5). Before I return it to the library on today's inter-library loan due date, I'll pass along a few brief excerpts below.

All Baptists honour their great historian K. S. Latourette for his insight into the history of the Church. Speaking of the Ecumenical Movement, he reminds us that in regard to it we must learn the way of humbleness and teachableness. This is by no means easy. For if there is one sin above all others that characterises Baptists as a people it is that of pride in their Scriptural correctness (p. 20).

Chapter 3, "How Baptists Think of Ecumenicity," begins with a subsection titled "Baptist Catholicity" (a choice in terminology interesting to me in light of the title of one of my own books and the responses of some who have taken exception to it):

Catholicity is not a term Baptists like....Their doctrine of the Church stems from their conception that personal encounter with, and response to, the living Christ is the fundamental thing which makes for incorporation into the Church which is His Body....Thus, for Baptists, Catholicity is measured in terms not of denominational adherence but in terms of allegiance to Christ. For them ecumenism conveys the same idea. Both Catholicity and Ecumenicity are meaningless for them apart from Christ....But Baptists are guilty of misunderstanding their own history if they think this closes the issue for them. Therefore it is imperative that close attention should be given to early beliefs and practices as well as to modern developments amongst them in an endeavor to discover how fixed are the judgments given. When we search their own history we will find that it is not true to say that Baptists are purely "Sect" types, nor that they have been anti-ecumenical in their history. Where Baptists have become obsessed with the individual to the exclusion of the institution, and where they have closed their hearts and minds to fellowship with Christians of other traditions, they have been untrue to their own highest ideals (pp. 34-35).

In the same chapter is a subsection titled "John Smyth Leads the Way":

John Smyth's Confession of Faith breathes the true spirit of Baptists in relation to divisions within the Church. He was far in advance of most in his day, and of very many Baptists even in this twentieth century.John Smyth declared that "all repenting and believing Christians are brethren in the communion of the outward visible Church, wherever they may live, or by what name they can be named, be they Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, Brownists, Anabaptists, or other pious Christians, who in truth, and by godly zeal, strive for repentance and faith, although they are implicated in great ignorance and weakness. Nevertheless, we greet them altogether with a holy kiss, deploring with our whole hear that we, who strive for one faith, one Spirit, one Lord, one God, one Body, one Baptism, should be so divided and severed into so many sects and splittings, and that for so less considerable reason." Would Baptists today repudiate this early plea for unity? (pp. 35-36).

Later in the book Roberts-Thomson notes Southern Baptist M. E. Dodd's vitriolic opposition to any involvement of the Baptist World Alliance in ecumenical affairs voiced from the floor of the 1947 BWA Congress, observing:

Thus was brought into the open what has since become apparent to all who look closely at the Baptist reactions to ecumenicity throughout the world. That is, that the Baptist world, ecumenically, can be divided into two groups: those who are of the Southern Baptist point of view, or are closely influenced by it, and those who are not (p. 94).

While one can easily point to exceptions to Roberts-Thomson's generalization in the final excerpt, it seems to me that in general it holds true, and that what was true in 1947 has only been exacerbated in recent years. It also seems to this theologian who identifies with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship but was ordained as a Southern Baptist minister that not everything many in my circles perceive as problematic in the current configuration of the Southern Baptist Convention can be attributed to the outcome of "the controversy" of 1979 and subsequent years, for much that was problematic was with us long before then.

What Does It Mean to "Do This"?

This year's Pro Ecclesia Annual Conference for Clergy and Laity sponsored by the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology, to be held June 11-13, 2012 on the campus of Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland, will focus on the theme "What Does It Mean to 'Do This'?" I'll be unable to attend, but the theme and speakers should be of interest to many readers of Ecclesial Theology. A substantially discount registration fee is available for students; full registration information appears on the conference page on the CCET site. An explanation of the conference theme and a list of speakers from the conference page follows below:

One of the clearest commands of Christ came at the Last Supper, when he said: “Do this in remembrance of me.” But just what are we to do, how are we to do it, and what does it mean? The last century saw deep changes in the eucharistic practices of many churches and a perceptible narrowing of differences among many of the church in both the liturgy and the theology of the Supper. Where do we stand today? The 2012 Pro Ecclesia conference will take up such questions, with particular attention to the ecumenical and pastoral implications of the Eucharist. Typical themes to be addressed will be:

• Where are we today theologically on the two most central divisive issues in eucharistic theology – sacrifice and presence?
• How should preaching relate to the Eucharist in a way that fosters it as the sacrament of unity?
• Can we find new ways to think about forms of communion short of full fellowship that avert the stale deadlock of recent years?
• Why have differences over ordained ministry proved such an obstacle to fuller eucharistic fellowship?
• Have ecumenical discussions of the Supper made progress since BEM 30 years ago?
• Where have the liturgical changes of the last century left the Eucharist?

The Speakers:

• Peter Bouteneff, St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary
• George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary
• Bruce Marshall, Southern Methodist University
• Martha Moore-Keish, Columbia Theological Seminary
• Francesca Aran Murphy, University of Notre Dame
• Frank Senn, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Evanston, IL
• Telford Work, Westmont College
• Banquet Speaker: R. R. Reno

Baptist leaders meet with Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (updated)

A news service associated with the Russian Evangelical Alliance reports that on March 29, 2012 Patriarch Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, met with a group of Baptists that included John Upton of Virginia, President of the Baptist World Alliance; Hans Guderian, President of the European Baptist Federation; and Aleksey Smirnov, President of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (see linked article "Baptist Leaders Meet Patriarch Kirill"). This meeting may bode well for exploratory conversations now underway regarding the possibility of a formal international dialogue between the Baptist World Alliance and the Eastern Orthodox churches.

Update: The Baptist World Alliance has also issued a press release regarding this meeting.

Baptist leaders meet with Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

A news service associated with the Russian Evangelical Alliance reports that on March 29, 2012 Patriarch Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, met with a group of Baptists that included John Upton of Virginia, President of the Baptist World Alliance; Hans Guderian, President of the European Baptist Federation; and Aleksey Smirnov, President of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (see linked article "Baptist Leaders Meet Patriarch Kirill"). This meeting may bode well for exploratory conversations now underway regarding the possibility of a formal international dialogue between the Baptist World Alliance and the Eastern Orthodox churches.

Denomination: Assessing an Ecclesiological Category now available in e-book format (a steal of a deal!)

Denomination: Assessing an Ecclesiological Category, ed. Paul M. Collins and Barry Ensign-George (Ecclesiological Investigations, vol. 11; T & T Clark International, 2011), a book to which I contributed the chapter written from a Baptist perspective ("The Ecumenical Dimensions of Baptist Denominational Identity") is now available in e-book format. The Amazon Kindle edition of the book is listed for $14.82--as opposed to $110.00 for the hardcover edition! The book description, table of contents, and reviews from the book's page on the Continnum / T & T Clark International web site appear below.

Description

The term "denomination" is now widely used to describe a Christian community or church. But what is a ‘denomination’? In this highly creative collection of essays representatives of all major Christian traditions give an answer to this question. What does the term mean in their own tradition? And does that tradition understand itself to be a ‘denomination’? If so, what is that understanding of ‘denomination’; and if not, how does the tradition understand itself vis à vis those churches which do and those churches which do not understand themselves as ‘denominations’? In dialogue with the argument and ideas set forth in Barry Ensign-George’s essay each essay offers a response from the perspective of a particular church (tradition). Each essay also considers questions concerning the current landscape of ecumenical dialogue; ecumenical method and the goals of the ecumenical movement; also questions of Christian identity and belonging.

Table of Contents

Introduction Paul M. Collins

'Denomination as Ecclesiological Category: Sketching an Assessment' Barry Ensign-George (Reformed/Presbyterian)

Anglican 'Denomination: An Anglican Appraisal' Paul Avis

Baptist: 'The Ecumenical Dimensions of Baptist Denominational Identity' Steven R. Harmon

Lutheran: 'The Lutheran Church: Church, Confession, Congregation, Denomination' Gesa Thiessen

Methodist: 'United Methodism: Its Identity as Denomination' Russell Richey

Orthodox: 'The Orthodox Church on Denomination' Elena Vishnevskaya

Pentecostal: 'The Denomination in Classical and Global Pentecostal Ecclesiology: A Historical and Theological Contribution' Wolfgang Vondey

Quaker: 'Denomination beyond the North Atlantic Ecclesial World' Ann Riggs

Reformed/Presbyterian: 'Presbyterianism and Denomination' Amy Plantinga Pauw

'Is there a future for denominationalism? Reflections from the perspective of Roman Catholic ecclesiology and from the perspective of the future of the ecumenical movement' Peter de Mey

'Afterword: A Global Perspective' Kirsteen Kim

Editors

Revd Dr Paul M. Collins, formerly Reader in Theology at the University of Chichester, is Parish Priest on Holy Island, Northumberland, England.

Barry Ensign-George is a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which he serves as Associate for Theology in the denomination’s Office of Theology & Worship. His reaserch is focused on ecclesiology, particularly on formulating a theological assessment of denomination as an ecclesiological category.

Reviews

‘With the collapse of classical ecumenism and the emergence of new divisions in the church, the time is ripe for a fresh theological look at the contentious issue of denominationalism. This volume tackles the thorny issues cleanly and forthrightly. Both those who are repelled by the whole idea of denominationalism and those who want to retrieve and fix it will find this splendid volume invaluable in thinking through their positions.’ - William J. Abraham, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, USA.

‘What is a denomination? Does it differ from a convention, fellowship, synod, or church? Is it primarily a sociological or a theological term? Denominational consciousness stands for particularity relative to the whole church. The premier ecclesiologists who discuss the nature, function, and relevance this term in an ecumenical age display the diversity of their denominational points of view. As denominations wane in the West and never quite take hold in cultures that do not share the history that generated them, will the gifts that each preserves for the whole church be lost? These analysts throw distinctive light on these issues and by so doing relativize the narrowness of denominational consciousness and help expand the vision of the larger church in which the denominations participate. This topic and these superb treatments of it provide a unique entrée into the ecumenical vision that people from all the denominations will appreciate. As a whole the book represents a quiet, conversational but brilliant essay in comparative ecclesiology that no course in ecumenism can neglect.’ - Roger Haight, S. J., Scholar in Residence, Union Theological Seminary, USA.