Forthcoming/recent books on Baptist studies from Baylor University Press

Over the past few months, Baylor University Press has released several notable books on themes in Baptist studies. Now another is scheduled for a September 2015 release: Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia: The History and Transformation of a Free Church Tradition by Malkhaz Songulashvili, whose leadership of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia has been noted in previous Ecclesial Theology posts.

This will follow some significant titles in Baptist studies published by BUP in the second half of 2014:

Baptists and the Community of Saints: A Theology of Covenanted Disciples by Paul S. Fiddes, Brian Haymes, and Richard Kidd

Decoding Roger Williams: The Lost Essay of Rhode Island's Founding Father by Linford Fisher, J. Stanley Lemons, and Lucas Mason-Brown

Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists by Curtis W. Freeman

The Collected Works of James Wm. McClendon, Jr., edited by Ryan Andrew Newson and Andrew C. Wright, Volume 1 and Volume 2

Earlier in 2012, BUP re-issued the Systematic Theology of James Wm. McClendon, Jr. (originally published by Abingdon Press) with a new introduction by Curtis W. Freeman: Ethics: Systematic Theology, Volume 1; Doctrine: Systematic Theology, Volume 2; and Witness: Systematic Theology, Volume 3.

I'm looking forward to passing along information about another forthcoming BUP release in Baptist studies here at Ecclesial Theology in the near future. Stay tuned!

Baptists and liturgy, women, popes, and monasticism

The current issue of the magazine Baptist World published by the Baptist World Alliance (vol. 60, no. 2 [April-June 2013]) includes several articles related to themes of interest to readers of Ecclesial Theology--in particular, articles on "The Importance of a Fixed Liturgy" (pp. 8 and 10-11), a BWA-sponsored forum on violence against women held in conjunction with a session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (p. 26), women serving in leadership roles in national and international denominational life (p. 27), BWA responses to the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis (p. 28), and a notice of a book by Baptist historian Paul Dekar on the Community of the Transfiguration, a monastic community in Australia connected with the Baptist Union of Victoria (p. 28). Yes, there are Baptist monks, and nuns, too--in addition to the Community of the Transfiguration, the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia (in Eastern Europe) has a women's monastic order, the Order of St. Nino, along with the New Desert Brothers order for men.