Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision: 27 (Studies in Baptist History and Thought) - Softcover

Harmon, Steven R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1597528323 ISBN 13: 9781597528320

Publisher: Wipf and Stock, 2006

Synopsis

Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision contends that the reconstruction of the Baptist vision in the wake of modernity's dissolution requires a retrieval of the ancient ecumenical tradition that forms Christian identity through liturgical rehearsal and ecclesial practice. Themes explored include catholic identity as an emerging trend in Baptist theology, tradition as a theological category in Baptist perspective, the relationship between Baptist confessions of faith and the patristic tradition, the importance of Trinitarian catholicity for Baptist faith and practice, catholicity in biblical interpretation, Karl Barth as a paradigm for a Baptist and evangelical retrieval of the patristic theological tradition, worship as a principal bearer of tradition, and the role of Baptist higher education in shaping the Christian vision. This book submits that the proposed movement towards catholicity is neither a betrayal of cherished Baptist principles nor the introduction of alien elements into the Baptist tradition. Rather, the envisioned retrieval of catholicity in the liturgy, theology, and catechesis of Baptist churches is rooted in a recovery of the surprisingly catholic ecclesial outlook of the earliest Baptists, an outlook that has become obscured by more recent modern reinterpretations of the Baptist vision and that provides Baptist precedent of a more intentional movement towards Baptist catholicity today.

About this title

About the Authors

Steven R. Harmon teaches Christian Theology at Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. A member of the Baptist World Alliance delegations to the international theological conversations with the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches and a plenary member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, he is the author of Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision (2006). He blogs about his work in ecumenical theology at www.ecclesialtheology.blogspot.com.

The Reverend Prebendary Dr. Paul Avis is General Secretary of the Council for Christian Unity of the General Synod of the Church of England, Sub Dean of Exeter Cathedral, and Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Theology at the University of Exeter. He also serves as Director of the Centre for the Study of the Christian Church. He is the author of 'Faith in the Fires of Criticism' and editor of 'The Resurrection of Jesus Christ'.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1597528323
• ISBN 13: 9781597528320
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 322