Molly Marshall on Baptist Identity and the Ecumenical Future

In her Baptist News Global opinion column "Can a Baptist Be a Catholic?" published today, Molly T. Marshall, President and Professor of Theology and Spiritual Formation at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas, references my new book Baptist Identity and the Ecumenical Future: Story, Tradition, and the Recovery of Community (Baylor University Press). Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the column:

A cadre of Baptist scholars has been writing about emerging catholicity, the holy desire for unity among all ecclesial communions. Taking tradition more seriously as a source for theological construction, these Baptists urge usage of the ancient creeds of the apostolic heritage of the whole church to supplement their reading of Scripture. A leading theologian in the movement, Steven Harmon, contends, “Baptists have their own distinctive ecclesial gifts to offer the church catholic, without which even the churches currently in communion with the bishop of Rome are something less than fully catholic themselves.”

As a staunch Baptist I, too, long for catholicity. In many respects the future of Christianity depends upon a greater ecumenicity .... (read the full column at Baptist News Global)

Interested in reading Baptist Identity and the Ecumenical Future? Order the book from Baylor University Press or via Amazon.

Journal of Baptist Studies engages Towards Baptist Catholicity and Contesting Catholicity

The current issue of the Journal of Baptist Studies (sponsored by California Baptist University) includes a pair of articles engaging proposals regarding the relation of Baptist identity to the larger Christian tradition in my book Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision and Curtis Freeman's more recent book Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists: “Baptists and the Catholicity of the Church: Toward an Evangelical Baptist Catholicity” by Matthew Y. Emerson and R. Lucas Stamps, and “Baptists and the Apostolicity of the Church” by James Patterson. Stamps also reviews Freeman's book in the issue. This engagement by Southern Baptist theologians is informed by a "post-conservative" theological trajectory exemplified by Kevin J. Vanhoozer, contrasted with the postliberal trajectory exemplified by George Lindbeck and within which they place Harmon and Freeman (a fair assessment). Last year Emerson and I had a constructive interchange regarding our perspectives on our respective blogs.

The full issue is available online; the Table of Contents appears below:

Volume 7 (2015)

Editorial, p. 1

Contributors, p. 3

Articles

“Baptists and the Unity of the Church,” by Christopher W. Morgan, p. 4

“Baptists and the Holiness of the Church: Soundings in Baptist Thought,” by Ray Van Neste, p. 24

“Baptists and the Catholicity of the Church: Toward an Evangelical Baptist Catholicity,” by Matthew Y. Emerson and R. Lucas Stamps, p. 42

“Baptists and the Apostolicity of the Church,” by James Patterson, p. 67

Book Reviews

Currid, John D. Against the Gods: The Polemical Theology of the Old Testament, reviewed by Kenneth J. Turner, p. 83

Freeman, Curtis W. Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists, reviewed by R. Lucas Stamps, p. 86

George, Timothy. Theology of the Reformers, rev. ed., reviewed by John Gill, p. 91

Hays, Christopher M. and Christopher B. Ansberry, eds. Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism, reviewed by Matthew Y. Emerson, p. 95

Holmes, Stephen R. The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity, reviewed by Michael A. G. Haykin, p. 99

Sanders, Fred. Wesley on the Christian Life: The Heart Renewed in Love, reviewed by Christopher Bosson, p. 101

Baptists and Classical Christian Worship--podcast interview

Previous posts on Ecclesial Theology have called attention to the new book Gathering Together: Baptists at Work in Worship edited by Rodney Wallace Kennedy and Derek C. Hatch and an Associated Baptist Press story exploring issues raised by the book. Yesterday (October 3, 2013) the talk radio program Issues, Etc. (with Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod associations) posted an hour-long podcast interview with book editors Kennedy and Hatch. It's fascinating and informative listening that provides insight beyond the book into what it means to implement worship grounded in liturgical catholicity in flesh-and-blood Baptist communities.

Listen to the interview "Baptists and Classical Christian Worship" either in online streaming format or as an mp3 download. (Disclaimer: my recommendation of this interview in no way constitutes an endorsement of any of the commentaries or advertisements in the interludes between segments of the interview.)

For what it's worth, a couple of delightful features of the interview with differing levels of significance: my gratifying discovery that Dr. Hatch is opening many of his classes at Howard Payne University--my undergraduate alma mater and the place where my academic theological pilgrimage that led to my present work began--with acts of worship from the Daily Office and structuring his Christian Doctrines course around the framework of the Apostles' Creed (and that First Baptist Church in Brownwood, Texas where he is a member has engaged in a congregational study of the Apostles' Creed and has recited it in worship), and the use of a little Coldplay as bumper music in the interview.

Related posts;

Gathering Together: Baptists at Work in Worship

Associated Baptist Press on Baptist reception of the liturgical riches of the whole church