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.
