THE BAPTIST STUDIES BULLETIN

April 2002               Vol. 1 No. 4

Produced by The Center for Baptist Studies, Mercer University

Walter B. Shurden, Executive Director and Editor, BSB

Greg Thompson, Baptist Studies Associate

        I Believe . . .: by Walter B. Shurden

                "Why I Wish We Could Have Gone Home to the American Baptists"

        The Baptist Soapbox: by A. Roy Medley

                A New Leader Gives His Vision Statement for the American Baptists

        A BSB Special: The American Baptist Identity Statement

        A BSB Double Special: by Alan Neely

                Alan Neely reviews Duke McCall: An Oral History

        Baptists and Books: by Rob Nash

                Rob Nash reacts to three books on American Religion

        The Baptist Library: Baptist Books: by Jeff Pool

                Jeff B. Pool reviews McClendon’s three volume theology

        The Baptist Stacks: Perusing Periodicals for Baptistiana: by Pam Durso

                Pam Durso reads about ministry in the journals with Baptist eyes

        Baptist Bits: by Doug Weaver

                Doug Weaver surveys the Baptist past for quotes for preaching and teaching

        Q and A: by Greg Thompson

                Should CBF and ABC work toward closer cooperation in their ministries?

        Baptistville: by Greg Thompson

                Happenings in Baptistville

"Why I Wish We Could Have Gone Home to the American Baptists"

by Walter B. Shurden

Philip Jenkins. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 270 pp.

       Sometimes we fail to see the forest for the trees. This pithy saying sums up Philip Jenkins’ opinion of our tendency to speak of the effects of modernism, feminism, and environmentalism upon religion in the United States and western Europe while ignoring the influence of the explosive growth of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Jenkins refers to this transition as Christianity’s renewal in such places as Africa and Asia for it was on these continents that Christianity flourished in its first few centuries. His book acknowledges that Christianity in the northern hemisphere is atrophying, while Christianity in the southern hemisphere is rapidly changing to meet the spiritual needs of this part of the world.

       Why should Baptists read it? Well, we’ve been at the forefront of the Protestant world mission movement that is, arguably, the greatest contribution of western Christianity. We’re in the midst of learning to value the perspectives of southern (hemisphere) Christians. Jenkins warns against the prevailing idea among northerners (not Yankees, but northern hemisphere dwellers) that "our" Christianity is the right one and that somehow we’ve got to communicate it to the poor souls in the southern hemisphere who don’t have the brains to understand it as clearly as we do. He argues, in the end, that southern Christians actually have much more in common with the Bible and its world than we northerners do. Themes of persecution, exorcism, and healing are much better understood in the south. And it’s quite possible that we northerners are actually the ones who face a pretty steep learning curve.

Andrew Delbanco. The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1999. 143 pp.

       My students love short books. And, if I’m perfectly honest, so do I—especially ones that somehow contribute to my understanding of the reality in which I live. This little book by Andrew Delbanco, Professor of Humanities at Columbia University, contains his 1998 William E. Massey, Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization, delivered at Harvard University. In three lectures, Delbanco helps us to understand how the concepts of God, Nation, and Self have shaped the American reality through three different phases of our national history. For the first couple of hundred years, the Christian Story shaped our reality. In time, God was dethroned and the notion of human citizenship reflected in our participation in a common national life defined our reality. The trauma of the 1960s then led to the elevation of the human self as the center of reality.

       Glenn Hinson, a teaching mentor, used to encourage us to see the big picture in religious history, the development of ideas that shaped cultures. This is why Delbanco’s book is so important. It offers the handles that we sometimes need to be able to understand who we are as a people. I define religion as the way in which a particular group of people answer the ultimate questions of human existence. Delbanco holds up a mirror that enables us to see ourselves (as Americans) for who we really are. And he leaves us to work out the details of what these images ultimately mean.

Joel Kotkin. The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution is Reshaping the American Landscape. New York: Random House, 2000. 240 pp.

       Walter Truett Anderson has said that "Reality isn’t what it used to be." Joel Kotkin helps us to understand why. His scintillating assessment of the influence of the digital revolution upon American patterns of community posits that cities will cease to be industrial centers and will become the focus of intelligence and artistic creativity. His point is that the digital age makes it possible for people to locate businesses where they want to locate them in order to have the highest quality of life for themselves and their employees. But he also argues against the prevailing notion that this will lead to a sense of "placelessness." Instead, cities will become much better places to live in and will attract people to them.

       Kotkin posits that people will increasingly move to what he terms "nerdistans," cluster locations where the quality of life is high and people can avoid unsightly strip malls and heavy traffic. Small town life will return with a vengeance as people flee the difficulties of big city life. And it’s vitally important for good Baptist folk to keep up with these trends since we’re in the business of providing for the spiritual needs of the people who seem to be tired of that big city life.

       In this book, and in the larger three-volume project of which it represents the first volume, James Wm. McClendon, Jr. initiates a systematic theology from one Baptist perspective: more accurately, as he preferred to describe it, from one "baptist" perspective. Although a Baptist of the Southern Baptist Convention by heritage, McClendon derived the inspiration for the development of his own distinctive perspective from the Mennonite theological ethicist, John Howard Yoder. As a result of Yoder's influence, McClendon adopted a perspective shaped by traditions and doctrine that originated in the so-called "radical" (Anabaptist) reformations of the sixteenth century, which McClendon describes as "the baptist vision."

       McClendon begins his systematic theology with ethics, moral theology, or reflection on Christian morality, precisely because, in the "baptist" vision that McClendon affirms, the theologian writes the theology of the community, describing and elaborating the church's web of "common convictions." Thus, in this first volume, McClendon begins with the community's experience, "finding the shape of the common life in the body of Christ," which he calls "ethics" (p. 45). McClendon creatively organizes the structure of his Ethics with the major moments in the Christian narratives about Jesus as the Christ: incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. Correlative to this larger threefold narrative structure, McClendon develops his ethics with studies of the lives of exemplary Christian disciples: (1) Sarah and Jonathan Edwards, (2) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and (3) Dorothy Day.

       Although McClendon's "baptist" vision tends to assume and promote a sort of theological sectarianism, with such a sharp distinction between church and world, this first volume represents a creative "baptist" theology, even if it differs significantly from the major streams of the larger Baptist vision. All Baptists and baptists, however, will receive much inspiration and food for thought from this sensitive and profound study.

       In the first volume of his Systematic Theology, McClendon announced "doctrine" as the focus of his second volume, which he then described as "historical theology," the display of the "height and breadth and depth," through investigation, of "the common and public teaching that sanctions and supports [the church's] common life" (Ethics, pp. 41, 45). His second volume, then, seeks to elaborate the church's "doctrinal convictions," by answering the following question: "what must be taught in today's churches if they are to be what they claim to be?" (p. 21).

       Despite McClendon's identification of doctrine as "historical theology," he avoids merely a descriptive task in this volume, endeavoring to state doctrinal norms for the present (p. 24). One may rightly wonder whether McClendon has confused historical theology with dogmatic theology in his project. In any case, this tendency extends the experiential and practical direction of McClendon's first volume. In this respect, he develops a "practical understanding of doctrine," in which doctrines serve a larger end beyond themselves and, like games, "proceed according to rules" (p. 28). Readers should note how much McClendon's perspective both resembles and owes to the new postliberalism of George Lindbeck and others. Although McClendon continues his narrative theological approach in this volume, due to various limitations, he was unable to develop as systematically his narrative use of exemplary Christian disciples for each of the divisions of this book. Nevertheless, McClendon does construct the larger narrative framework of this second volume with reference to the three persons of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. This book represents perhaps the best example to date of a "baptist" theology done from the perspective of the new postliberalism.

       In the final volume of his Systematic Theology, McClendon, with his spouse, Nancey Murphy (who writes chapter three), addresses that which he described in volume one as "philosophical theology or apologetics," the task of "discovering those apologetic and speculative positions that [Christian] life and [Christian] teaching call forth" (Ethics, p. 45), that which he described in his second volume as "philosophical convictions," categories "that open out into a Christian vision or worldview" (Doctrine, p. 21). In this last portion of his project, McClendon describes his effort as a "theology of culture" and "missiology," which comprises both "the delineation of the mission field, and the strategy and tactics of the mission to that field" (p. 18) hence, the title of this third volume: Witness.

       Consistent with the countercultural theological sectarianism of the two previous volumes, this third volume finds its place in H. Richard Niebuhr's typology as "Christ against culture." This trait appears clearly in McClendon's focus on the notion of martyrdom. Clearly, the sorts of theology of culture and missiology proposed here operate on the basis of a conception of witness as confrontation with culture. In spite of the sectarian tendencies of his larger project, as consistently and forcefully realized even in this final portion of his trilogy, McClendon's project creatively presents the "baptist" vision as a strong and popular theological option for the larger religious culture of North America.

       One of the great pastors of the twentieth century, Eugene Peterson, retired in 1991 after serving for twenty-nine years as pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. In this interview with David Wood, Peterson offers advice that is especially instructive for Baptist ministers: "I remember early in my ministry listening to colleagues who often seemed irritated and angry with their congregations, as if the congregation was the enemy. I remember making a conscious decision to not adopt that view. The congregation is not the enemy. They are my friends. I am their friend. We are in this together, even when we don’t like each other very much."

        John Claypool spent most of his life among Southern Baptists, and his preaching and writings have been influential to preachers across denominational lines. In this interview with Baptists Today editor Johnny Pierce, Claypool discusses his contributions in the area of confessional preaching, the persons who influenced him, and the ways in which the pulpit ministry has changed in the past few years. One change that Baptist preachers of today face is the need to connect with a postmodern generation. Claypool states, "I think the need to be personally authentic is much, much greater today than it used to be. There was a time when people kind of looked on the preacher as an authority. He was fullness; they were emptiness. Now I think this younger generation has been so disillusioned by so much that they're very distrustful of authority figures. My sense is that authenticity--the congruence between what you say and what you are--is really much, much more important. That doesn't mean you have to be confessional. It just means that you really better be sure that what you're saying resonates with who you are and what you're doing. Nothing loses people's confidence more than you saying a lot of stuff and then being a different kind of person."

       Most surveys done in churches reveal that the great majority of church members do not participate in the life of the church, they exhibit little or no obvious spirituality, and they lack basic theological and biblical knowledge. Alice Cullinan, Professor of Religious Education at Gardner-Webb University, identifies some of the key factors that have lead to these overwhelming statistics, and more importantly, she offers insightful guidance that Baptists can use to broaden the scope of religious education and spiritual formation in their churches.

       In "Nuptial Agreements," Agnieszka Tennant reviews two models of marriage which claim to be biblically based and which vie for evangelicals’ allegiance. One of these models is promoted by the Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) movement, which began in the late 1980s. Proponents of this view speak of biblical equality and mutual submission. The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) promotes the other model which advocates the headship of husbands and the submission of wives. Tennant’s article clearly spells out the differences between these two models but accurately concludes that the tendency of most evangelicals is to adopt and live out an intriguing mixture of the egalitarian and the complementarian models. An understanding of these two biblical models and their implications for Christian living is vital to Baptists as they struggle with the issue of the "proper" place for women in the church, in society, and in the family.

       Baptists have historically been among the chief advocates of freedom, especially during difficult days of oppression and war. In his article "Freedom for and Freedom From: Baptists, Religious Liberty, and World War II," Brad Creed, Associate Provost and Professor of Religion at Samford University, recounts the views and actions of Baptists during World War II, and he concludes that the Baptists of that era "reaffirmed their historic commitment to religious liberty as the bedrock of democratic freedom and the only sound basis for establishing a just and durable peace at the war’s conclusion." Creed’s article is instructive for Baptists today who are watching the "War on Terrorism" on the nightly news and are wondering about their own commitment to religious freedom.

        Thomas Helwys, founder of the first Baptist Church in England (1612) penned a confession of faith that spoke to the importance of the individual congregation and the autonomy of its members. Every congregation, "though they be but two or three, have CHRIST given them, with all the means of their salvation." Each congregation is a "body of Christ and a whole Church." "And therefore may, and ought, when they are come together, to Pray, Prophecie, break bread, and administer in the holy ordinances, although as yet they have no Officers, or that their Officers should be in Prison, sick or by any other means hindered from the Church." Helwys elaborated clearly upon congregational autonomy: "that as one congregation hath Christ, so hath all. And that the Word of God comes not out from any one, neither to any one congregation in particular. But unto every particular Church as it does unto all the world. And therefore no church ought to challenge any prerogative over any other."

        The social gospel was a much more potent force among Baptists in the industrialized North than in the South during the early twentieth century. Samuel Zane Batten was a leading advocate for the social gospel through his work in the Social Service Commission. In 1909 he made a report to the annual meeting of Northern Baptists and expressed his understanding of the social commitment of Scripture. "The Kingdom of God, in the Christian conception, may mean much more than a human society on earth, but it is certain it can never mean less…. The Christian who cherishes the hope of a Christian and offers the Lord’s Prayer, expects the coming of a social order where the Beatitudes are always operative, and justice never falters, and truth excludes all lies…. Society needs saving as much as the individual, and in the long run the power of Christianity to save individuals will be measured by its power to save society."

       Nannie Helen Burroughs was secretary of the Women’s Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention. In 1905 she spoke to the first Congress of the Baptist World Alliance. Burroughs told of a deacon who insisted upon repeating the Lord’s Prayer before giving a piece of bread to a beggar. When the beggar saw how small a slice he was about to receive, he said, "Deacon, did you say ‘Our Father’? Then that means you are my brother. Then if that is so, will you please cut it thicker since we are kin?" An African-American, Burroughs asked her fellow Baptists to cut thick slices of compassion and love for their brothers and sisters in starving Africa.

        Walter Rauschenbusch, known as the father and prophet of the social gospel in America, also peered into the future and spoke to the changing roles of women in society. Writing in 1913, the American Baptist leader saw a social revolution in the making. Subtle change was occurring in Baptist church life: "Women have not occupied our pulpits, but the men in the pulpits were conscious of talking to women who could speak their mind and who did their own thinking. The profoundest changes in theology come by silences. Things are left unsaid because they sound awkward or arouse contradiction." Rauschenbusch concluded with his support for the changes, "Plainly women are here as our equals in religion, in the intellectual life, in industry, and in the life of our commonwealths. When a thing is both right and inevitable we might as well accept it and go ahead."

        In 1903, the Stone Mountain Baptist Association of Georgia experienced conflict over the issue of alien immersion, the practice of accepting immersion from non-Baptist churches. The young growing Tabernacle Baptist Church in Atlanta affirmed alien immersion but other churches wanted to exclude the congregation from the Association. Second Baptist Church of Atlanta, the most influential church in the Association said that they wholeheartedly agreed with the tradition among Georgia Baptist churches not to accept alien immersion. They believed that alien immersion was not consistent with the polity of a biblical church. Second Baptist, however, also affirmed the Baptist emphasis on liberty of conscience in resisting an associational doctrinal test of fellowship on this issue: "we should not impose on sister churches a test of fellowship in the Stone Mountain Association which we do not impose on our own members, and which we do not and cannot insist upon in our relations with the State and Southern Baptist Conventions." Beliefs were important to fellowship, but freedom and toleration were too.

       My favorite is a little known Southern Baptist by the name of Joseph Judson Taylor. Taylor, a pastor in Savannah, Georgia, cast the lone vote against the report of the Committee on the World Crisis at the 1917 SBC meeting, because of his opposition to war and because he felt the convention had “too much of Caesar and too little of Christ.” The next day, he presented  five separate peace resolutions, all of which were defeated. He went home to his church and had to resign as pastor. He continued his pacifist crusade in his 1920 book God of War. He is someone we ought not to forget

       For me, hands down, among many great candidates, it's Harry Emerson Fosdick. Clyde Fant calls him "The Father of Modern Preaching." In an environment of "thought police," he was one of the first Baptists to invite people to bring their minds into church. Priest and Prophet, Theologian and Preacher, Baptist scholar and Ecumenicist--he was a servant-leader who used his gifts to minister to people rather than build his own pedestalized kingdom. His allegiance was neither to liberalism or conservatism--and he bore scars from both sides to show for that. He fought for liberty, freedom and truth. According to his stated goal, he did make a contribution to the spiritual life of his generation.

       To me ROGER WILLIAMS is foremost among early Baptists as he was the first to proclaim complete religious liberty, when the States were forming in America, allowing the right to choose to have no religious beliefs as well as a particular belief. Though unpopular at the time, as it was picked up and proclaimed by others, it gained the attention of such men as James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. Even the historian William Warren Sweet, himself a Methodist, said, "The end of the Revolution found Baptists in a very different position. Their agitation for Separation of Church and State and complete Religious Liberty...was now bearing fruit in the writing of that great principle in all the state constitutions." ROGER WILLIAMS was the initiator of what we still have now as a nation--though in great jeopardy.

       I think of all the Baptist personalities in history . . . Clarence Jordan is my all-time favorite. Let's be honest, he was practicing "Planting God's Kingdom" in the 1940s in ways that are still viewed . . . as quite radical: Blacks and whites, living together, sharing all things under the name of "a demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God?" And all this in the heart of the rural South? Where the confederate flag still flies? . . . Come on!

       My favorite person in Baptist History is not a surprise -Lottie Moon. But not just for the inspiring story that we have all learned. I admire her for the things I learned after I went to Seminary. Like her pioneering work in contextualization, her indefatigable spirit, her progressive activism on the part of women in ministry, her spunk and her ain't-gonna-take-no-gruff attitude toward her superior, T.P. Crawford. Unfortunately, not many laypeople get exposed to the Lottie that was such a trail blazer.

       For me it is Herschel Hobbs. Hobbs represented the best of Southern Baptists. It was through his writings that I understood Baptist beliefs. If only the present leaders of the SBC would follow his leadership pattern. His book, "My Faith My Message" is must reading for anyone serious about the pastorate and the denomination for he led the denomination as a pastor.

The Baptist History and Heritage Society will hold its annual meeting June 20-22, 2002, at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN. The theme will be "Baptist Diversity." Contact Charles Deweese for more information <cdeweese@tnbaptist.org>.

Annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Fort Worth, TX, June 26-29, 2002.

Nineteenth annual Baptist Women in Ministry meeting, Thursday, June 27, 2002, Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth, TX. Contact Kim Snyder at <kim.snyder@att.net> .

The Glenn Hinson Spiritual Formation Institute, June 10-15, at Furman University, sponsored by Advent Spirituality Center. Theme: "Baptist Contributions to Christian Spirituality;" Presenters: Dr. Loyd Allen, Professor of Church History and Spirituality at McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University; Dr. Karen Smith, Professor at the University of Cardiff [Wales], Dr. E. Glenn Hinson, retired. For information visit http://main.nc.us/adventspiritualitycenter.