Nurturing Faith draws on Ecumenism Means You, Too

Nurturing Faith, a new Bible study curriculum for adults and youth published in the monthly issues of Baptists Today and supplemented by online resources, included references to/quotations from my book Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity (Cascade Books, 2010) along with a series of follow-up questions for discussion and a suggested "transformational exercise" in the supplemental online adult teaching resources for the lesson dated September 25, 2011 (click on hyperlink to read the lesson supplement).

Interested in Ecumenism Means You, Too? Order the book directly from Cascade Books or via Amazon.

Baptists and Catholics on Scripture and Tradition: Irreconcilable Differences or Differentiated Consensus?

The promotional flier above advertises my upcoming public lecture "Baptists and Catholics on Scripture and Tradition: Irreconcilable Differences or Differentiated Consensus?" which I will deliver as part of the Joyce Compton Brown Lecture Series at Gardner-Webb University on Monday, October 3, at 7:00 PM in the Ritch Banquet Hall in the Dover Campus Center at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

In this lecture I will argue that Baptists and Catholics share surprisingly much in common in their perspectives on the relationship between Scripture and church tradition—the very matter on which the two communions would seem to be polarized. The Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum is replete with affirmations about the nature of revelation and the authority of Scripture which Baptists can affirm, but the seeming equation of the authority of Scripture and tradition in article 9 is a sticking point that must be addressed before proceeding to other points of difference that owe much to differing perspectives on the authority of tradition. A close reading of article 9 highlights points of Baptist disagreement even while revealing some openings for a Baptist appreciation of the trajectory in the development of Catholic teaching on tradition evident in this text. Baptists cannot offer an unqualified endorsement of article 9, but they can find a place within the pattern of theological contestation that produced it. This text with which Baptists cannot unequivocally agree thus points to a larger opening for convergence between Catholics in their practice of conciliar contestation and Baptists in their identity as dissenting catholics.

This lecture is rooted in material that will appear as a chapter in my forthcoming book with working title The Baptist Vision and the Ecumenical Future: Radically Biblical, Radically Catholic, Relentlessly Pilgrim. I'll post details about its publication here on Ecclesial Theology as they're available.

"Ecumenism Means You, Too" story wins Australasian Religious Press Association award

Last year a post at Ecclesial Theology called attention to the August 2010 issue of Insights, the official publication of the Synod of New South Wales of the Uniting Church in Australia, which began with editorial reviewing my book Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity (Cascade Books, 2010) and included a feature story on the importance of grassroots ecumenical engagement that borrowed "Ecumenism Means You Too" for its title. Earlier this month the Austalasian Religious Press Association awarded Insights its Gold Award for Best Feature for Emma Halgren's story "Ecumenism Means You, Too."

I'm glad for this well-deserved recognition of the good work being done by Insights and its writers, and I'm grateful for the publicity not only for the book but also for the practices of grassroots ecumenism encouraged in the feature story (and the book that supplies its title).

Interested in Ecumenism Means You, Too? Order the book directly from Cascade Books or via Amazon.

A Baptist BCP?

In a previous post I mentioned the use I'm making this semester in my Christian Theology course of the worship book Gathering for Worship: Patterns and Prayers for the Community of Disciples published in 2005 by the Baptist Union of Great Britain. While Baptists do not have a fixed or mandated liturgy, many Baptist churches are beginning to draw selectively and creatively from the liturgical riches of other Christian traditions, adapting these resources in light of Baptist ecclesiology and incorporating them into distinctively Baptist patterns and practices of worship. Gathering for Worship is both a significant exemplar of the liturgical dimension of Baptist receptive ecumenism and a resource with much potential for enriching Baptist worship beyond the context of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

Gathering for Worship is published by Canterbury Press, which can be forgiven for describing the book on the Canterbury Press web site as "the authorised service book of the Baptist Church in England and Wales." While in certain respects Gathering for Worship is the Baptist worship book that most closely approximates the Book of Common Prayer, it is not only not an "authorised" liturgy for "the Baptist Church" (an inaccurate description of the ecclesial status of the Baptist Union of Great Britain besides); it is a much more flexible and adaptable collection of worship resources than the BCP, though Gathering from Worship does draw upon the BCP (and the liturgical resources of other traditions) for a number of collects, forms, and other liturgical texts, guided by the "core worship values" of Baptist communities identified in the rich theological account of Baptist worship elaborated in the book's preface:

• attention to scripture
• a devotional relationship with God and an openness to the Holy Spirit
• an understanding of the church as community
• a concern for the kingdom of God
• the Lordship of Jesus Christ, which is an over-arching commitment that binds these other values together (p. xvi)

In Gathering for Worship one will find multiple patterns for celebrations of the Lord's Supper, meaningful rites of dedication at the beginning of life, baptismal and baptismal renewal services (which include several options for use of the Apostles' Creed as a baptismal confession--in keeping with its ancient origins and use), congregational covenant-making, ordination and commissioning (including services for "Inducting a Chaplain into a Chaplaincy Team" and "Inducting a College Tutor or Principal"), marriage ceremonies, funerals, prayer services, hospital and home visitations, and services related to various Sundays and seasons of the full Christian Year, along with extensive collections of prayers for various circumstances and for personal devotion. A CD-ROM included inside the cover contains the full text of Gathering for Worship in PDF format along with some additional resources, facilitating easy electronic cutting-and-pasting into printed orders of service (though American users will probably want to alter British spellings, and all users will need to proof carefully, as there are several typographical errors scattered throughout the text).

Gathering for Worship is a treasury of resources that deserves to be better known and widely utilized throughout the English-speaking Baptist world. Baptists in my own American context have long needed such a resource, and I hope that my students as well as others will begin turning to it regularly when they plan and lead worship.

On divinity school theology papers

Across the almost fifteen years I've spent teaching theology in graduate/professional divinity school/seminary settings, my customary research paper assignment for the introductory M.Div. courses in systematic theology has been a paper exploring a particular doctrine in the thought of a theologian of the student's choosing. Students have learned from this assignment how to do a certain sort of academy-oriented theological writing and have been able to explore their interests in particular doctrines and specific theologians much more deeply than the course content would otherwise provide. Some students have been able to re-task these papers successfully as writing samples for applications to Ph.D. programs. I've long had the nagging feeling, however, that this assignment has not done the best job of encouraging what a seminary/divinity school course in theology ought to encourage: the integration of the practice of theological reflection with the practice of ministry in congregational settings (though I should point out that these papers did include the requirement of a concluding section reflecting on the implications of the chosen theologian's articulation of that doctrine for the life of the church).

Thanks to inspiration from a conversation last year with my fellow Baptist theologian Mark Medley, Associate Professor of Christian Theology at the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky in Georgetown, Kentucky, my theology students at the Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity are working on a different kind of theology paper this semester, which I'm provisionally calling their "Lex orandi, lex credendi worship service/sermon project." Students will choose one of the following Sundays in the Christian year that begins this Advent (Year B in the Revised Common Lectionary) with particular connections with the doctrines explored in this course:

• The Epiphany of the Lord (January 6, but with optional observance on the nearest Sunday—January 8, 2012)—the doctrine of revelation. Lectionary readings: Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
• Trinity Sunday (June 3, 2012)—the doctrine of the Trinity. Lectionary readings: Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17.

Students will then plan a worship service for the chosen Sunday and prepare a sermon manuscript intended as an act of worship within this service, drawing upon two of their required textbooks--Baptist Union of Great Britain, Gathering for Worship: Patterns and Prayers for the Community of Disciples, ed. Christopher J. Ellis and Myra Blyth (Norwich, U.K.: Canterbury Press, 2005) and the Celebrating Grace Hymnal (Macon, Ga.: Celebrating Grace, Inc., 2010)--as the primary worship resources for the project (in addition to the lectionary texts) and giving special attention to the theological framework that informs and is informed by these acts of worship on these particular Sundays of the Christian Year. The final paper presenting this project will consist of three parts: (1) 4-5 double-spaced pages offering a theological commentary on the order of service and sermon manuscript; (2) an order of service of 1-2 pages; and (3) a sermon manuscript of 8-10 double-spaced pages. (In addition to the requisite introductory theology textbook, we're using the Baptist Union of Great Britain's Gathering for Worship book of worship and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-connected Celebrating Grace Hymnal throughout the course as resources that help us explore the connections between theology and liturgy suggested by Prosper of Aquitaine's lex orandi, lex credendi tag ("the rule of praying is the rule of believing.") By mid-December I should know whether this new approach to the theology paper is accomplishing my intentions for it.

Baptists and the church as "vehicle of authority"

Lately I’ve been working through the joint reports from the international bilateral ecumenical conversations in which the Baptist World Alliance has been involved during the past four decades in connection with a current book project. One surprise thus far has been the manner in which the 1989-1992 dialogue between the Baptist World Alliance and the Mennonite World Conference, co-chaired by William H. Brackney (Baptist) and Ross T. Bender (Mennonite), characterized Baptist and Mennonite perspectives on sources of authority for faith and practice.

Baptists are routinely stereotyped as holding to a radicalized version of the sola scriptura hermeneutic of the Reformation that amounts to nuda scriptura. Yet in the context of international ecumenical dialogue Baptists have consistently affirmed that the Bible functions in a pattern of authority in which Christ as the revelation of the Triune God is the ultimate source of authority, Scripture is the supreme earthly source of authority that discloses the ultimate authority of Christ for Christian faith and faithfulness, and the traditioned teaching of the church in its diachronic continuity along with the mind and experience of the church in its synchronic solidarity are indispensable guides for discerning Christ’s Lordship through the practice of reading Scripture. In other words, as the report of the conversations between the BWA and the Anglican Consultative Council puts it, “it would be more accurate to regard the Baptist view of Scripture as suprema scriptura rather than sola scriptura” (Anglican Consultative Council and Baptist World Alliance, Conversations Around the World: The Report of the International Conversations between the Anglican Communion and the Baptist World Alliance 2000-2005 [London: Anglican Communion Office, 2005], § 26 [p. 36]).

One might expect to encounter less explicit distancing of Baptist theology from an unqualified adherence to sola scriptura in the dialogue with the close free church kindred of Baptists in the Mennonite World Conference. Indeed, the section articulating “Baptist Perspectives on Authority” in the report of those conversations includes this statement: “Baptists therefore have no difficulty in embracing the Reformation dictum of sola scriptura: in contrast to many Reformation churches, Baptists do not accord any official authority to creeds” (Baptist World Alliance and Mennonite World Conference, “Theological Conversations, 1989-1992,” in Growth in Agreement III: International Dialogue Texts and Agreed Statements, 1998-2005, ed. Jeffrey Gros, Thomas F. Best, and Lorelei F. Fuchs [Geneva: WCC Publications; Grand Rapids MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2007], p. 434).

In light of two related statements in the same section, however, this seeming reiteration of the stereotype in fact points in the direction of a thick ecclesial embodiment of a suprema scriptura pattern of authority. First, immediately prior to the affirmation of sola scriptura is an acknowledgment that “Scripture is also an important source of authority for Baptists” (note the indefinite article). It is important because of its relationship to the ultimate source of authority: “Thoroughly trinitarian, Baptists affirm in all matters of faith and practice the Lordship of Christ,” which is “revealed in Scripture and present in the church” (GA-III, p. 433).

Second, the presence of Christ in the church means that there is an ecclesial embodiment of authority beyond the text of Scripture. Two paragraphs after the affirmation of sola scriptura is the insistence on the part of the Baptist delegation that an “emphasis among Baptists is the church’s role as a vehicle of authority” (GA-III, p. 434). This description of how ecclesial authority functions for Baptists then follows:

"Among Baptists, the mind of Christ is sought through prayerful submission of the individual to the community which seeks the will of the Spirit through scripture. The commanding impulse is personal but never private. Liberty of conscience, a vital plan in Baptist doctrine, is never meant to imply privatized religion....Liberty of conscience is sometimes misconstrued as freedom from the church rather than freedom in the church" (GA-III, p. 434).

That specifically Baptist perspective on authority is subsequently reaffirmed as something Baptists were able to affirm together with Mennonites: a summary of convergences on authority includes “‘the gathered congregation’ as [the] primary locus of discernment and decision-making” (GA-III, p. 435). Not exactly what one might expect to discover in this report—but then, if there’s anything that’s consistently typical of Baptists, it’s the Baptist resistance to conformity to stereotypes of Baptists.

Denomination: Assessing an Ecclesiological Category available in North America

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 North America (the book was released June 16 in the U.K.). 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.

Review & Expositor reviews Christianity and the Soul of the University

The current issue of Review and Expositor (vol. 108, no. 2 [Spring 2011], pp. 328-30) includes a review of Christianity and the Soul of the University: Faith as a Foundation for Intellectual Community, ed. Douglas V. Henry and Michael D. Beaty (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2006), a book to which I contributed chapter 8, "Communal Conflict in the Postmodern Christian University."

Reviewer T. Perry Hildreth, Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, engages each of the book's ten chapters and offers this concluding commendation: "As Christian scholars continue to reflect about the defining marks of a Christian university and the role of Christian scholars in the larger academic community, this book will prove to be a helpful resource. Anyone associated with a Christian university and committed to maintaining fidelity to a Christian vision of higher education would be enriched by this collection of essays."

I'm glad to see this review appear in this journal and in this particular issue. I previously served from 2002 through 2006 as Associate Editor of the Review and Expositor, a journal founded by The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and now published by a consortium of Baptist theological schools that includes Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity where I currently teach. GWU School of Divinity Associate Dean Gerald Keown serves as the journal's recording secretary, and this issue of the journal includes other reviews by Gardner-Webb faculty in addition to Hildreth's review: James R. McConnell, Assistant Professor of New Testament Interpretation in the School of Divinity, reviews Anthony C. Thiselton, Hermeneutics: An Introduction (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2009), and Jeff L. Hensley, an adjunct professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy and pastor of Kings Mountain Baptist Church in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, reviews Constance M. Cherry, The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblical Faithful Services (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2010).

Called Together: Identity, Accountability, Hospitality (North American Academy of Ecumenists 2011 Annual Conference)

The North American Academy of Ecumenists will hold its next annual conference September 23-25, 2011 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The conference theme "Called Together: Identity, Accountability, Hospitality" is rooted in the World Council of Churches Faith and Order paper Called to be the One Church (Porto Alegre, 2006), which calls churches to acknowledge their mutual responsibility to one another. "Yet," the conference announcement on the NAAE web site observes, "churches continue to act independently and to seek renewal by accenting distinctive identities. The call to mutual responsibility is challenged in substantial ways: pressures for organizational survival, growing cultural disenchantment with religion, and wide diversity in decision-making procedures that can address current questions of faith and life in contravening ways.The 2011 NAAE Conference will study possibilities for mutual accountability, analyze specific forms of ecclesial identity and query the habit of hospitality toward one another as a means for realizing how 'The Church's oneness is an image of the unity of the Triune God in the communion of the divine Persons' [Called to Be the One Church II.3]."

Registration information and additional materials related to this upcoming conference are available on the NAAE web site.

More on Baptist commemoration of the saints

Baptist Saints window, Highland Baptist
Church, Louisville, KY (John Smyth,
William Carey, John Bunyan, Dr.
Zhidkov, John Oncken, C. H. Spurgeon)

Yet more ruminations on the possibility of a Baptist practice of the commemoration of saints Baptist and ecumenical from elsewhere in the blogosphere and social media posts:

First, Facebook friends Beth Maynard (Episcopal priest, leader of the Boston-area intentional community Mill Street House, and adjunct professor of Anglican/Episcopal studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, author of the U2sermons blog--and, just coincidentally, provider of a back-cover commendation blurb for Ecumenism Means You, Too) and J. David Waugh (interim pastor, Madison Chapel [Baptist] in Madison, MS) have pointed out that the Standing Commission on Music and Liturgy of the Episcopal Church U.S.A. has produced an updated trial calendar, "Holy Women, Holy Men," which includes entries for Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4), Walter Rauschenbusch (July 2), William Carey (October 19), and Lottie Moon (December 22). As I replied to Beth and David, it seems that the Episcopalians are ahead of the Baptists in their recognition of exemplary Baptist saints!

Second, Keith G. Jones, Rector of the International Baptist Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic, has continued the discussion related to previous Ecclesial Theology posts on "The Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin" and "Towards a Baptist Commemoration of the Saints" by posting on the IBTS community blog a post titled "Baptist Saints?" in which he proposes his own list of often-overlooked exemplary Baptist saints. I was especially delighted to see British Baptist ecumenical pioneers J. H. Shakespeare and Ernest Payne listed, as well as a number of otherwise overlooked exemplars of "ordinary" faithfulness.

Third, Stan Dotson, founding director of In Our Elements, offers on his own blog the post "Oh When the Saints," a reflection on the significance of the saints, known and unknown, for the living of the Christian life that kindly references what I've posted here at Ecclesial Theology.

I'm glad to see this conversation continuing.

Related posts:

More on Baptist commemoration of the saints

Towards a Baptist commemoration of the saints

The Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin

A Baptist commemoration of the saints