Southwestern Journal of Theology 67, 2 (2025) on Creed, Confession, and Cooperation

The latest volume of the Southwestern Journal of Theology contains the below essays on the theme of ‘Creed, Confession, and Cooperation’, with summaries taken from the Editorial.

The entire issue is available as a pdf here.

Editorial

David S. Dockery

Southwestern: A Century of Conviction, Cooperation, and Collaboration: A Time for Remembrance, Thanksgiving, and Recommitment

The first essay, preached by our President, David S. Dockery, during our Spring 2025 Convocation, sets the stage for the subsequent essays, all of which were commissioned to stress a truth emphasized in that important address.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III

Baptists Who Confess the Nicene Faith

The second essay… focuses on the universal Christian faith defined by the Nicene tradition as it has been received and affirmed by Baptists generally and by Southern Baptist theologians of the Southwest more particularly.

Michael D. Wilkinson

Baptist Convictions: The Cost of Being Baptist

The third essay… considers our Baptist convictions. Leading Baptists have courageously maintained these common convictions at great personal cost.

D. Jeffrey Bingham

Evangelicalism, the Word of God, and the Spirit

The fourth essay… considers what “Evangelicalism” means as a movement that treasures the divine Word with the divine Spirit. Engaging Martin Luther and his context, Bingham’s essay reminds us of the multivalent meanings attached to the term, “Evangelical,” alongside its core commitments to Scripture and its central place in Southern Baptist theology. 

W. Madison Grace II

Cooperation: A Baptist Essential

The fifth essay… demonstrates why cooperation is not merely a matter of convenience but an essential element of Baptist ecclesiology.

Ashley L. Allen

Collaboration for Christ

Dr. Allen’s essay on “collaboration” demonstrates its biblical basis and rightly argues that we work better when we work together

Book Reviews

Evangelical Review of Theology 45, 1 (February 2021)

The latest Evangelical Review of Theology, published by The World Evangelical Alliance, is now online and available in its entirety as a pdf here.

Editor’s Introduction

The Young, the Not-So-Young and the Very Old

Efraim Tendero

As I Hand Off the Baton

Wesley Hill

When Christians Disagree

In this essay, a widely respected author, known for both his defence of traditional marriage and his irenic treatment of those who view the issue differently, probes the problem of sharp divisions amongst professing Christians and challenges some of the prevailing approaches to these divisions.

Frank Hinkelmann

The European Evangelical Alliance: An Historical Sketch

In the April 2020 ERT, Frank Hinkelmann, Austrian church historian and president of the European Evangelical Alliance, told the fascinating tale of how the EEA, now part of the World Evangelical Alliance, was originally founded as a counter-movement to it. In this sequel, Hinkelmann continues the story by describing the EEA’s evolution and significance up to the present.

Benjamin Isola Akano

Promoting Quality Worship Experience in Contemporary Nigeria

Many churches around the world struggle to recognize diversity in ways that overcome racial and ethnic barriers and unify the body of Christ. This article draws on concepts from communication studies to develop ways to intentionally improve intercultural relationships, with illustrations from Nigeria where the presence of hundreds of distinct ethnic groups makes virtually every congregation intercultural.

Francis Jr. S. Samdao

A Baptist Quadrilateral? A Filipino Outsider’s Perspective on Baptist Identity

Baptists are a particularly diverse stream of Christians, partly because their theological convictions empower individual decision making. This article discusses colourfully how the diversity of Baptists is reflected in the Philippines today. It seeks to articulate the core features of the Baptist identity and encourages Baptists both to enrich and to be open to learning from other parts of the body of Christ rather than isolating themselves.

Wayne Detzler

J.B. Phillips: From Paraphrase to Translation

Eighty years ago, there were few modern Bible translations. In the 1940s, J. B. Phillips initiated a modern translation of the New Testament. But his work gets little notice today. This article tells the story of Phillips and his project, offering important insights on the value and limitations of attempts to modernize the Bible message.

Mary Douglas

God and Humanity Brought Together: The Incarnation as Gospel

The Incarnation is celebrated at Christmas but do we really grasp its full import? This essay draws on the fourth-century church father Athanasius – one of the greatest defenders of the orthodox Christian conviction that Jesus Christ was truly God and truly man – to support its claim that evangelicals today impoverish their gospel witness by highlighting Jesus’ death and resurrection and overlooking the essential contribution of the Incarnation to our redemption.

Benjamin Marx

Clothing and Exchange of Garments in the Bible, as a Picture of God’s Dealings with His People

This article investigates the imagery of clothing and exchange of garments through the entire Christian canon (in nine books from Genesis to Revelation) to identify the redemptive analogies drawn by the biblical writers. From the beginning, God takes the initiative to clothe his people and thus restore our dignity, worth and relationship to him.

Jim Reiher

Did the Gospel of Matthew Come First? An Historian’s View

This essay takes us on an enlightening trip through numerous early church fathers to explain why the author believes Matthew was the first Gospel and why this issue is important. It provides a valuable introduction to and critical examination of what we know about the origin of the Gospels.

Book Reviews

Perichoresis 16, 1 (2018) on European Baptist Theology and History

Perichoresis is the theological journal of Emanuel University, Romania, published twice a year.

The latest volume, freely available from here, contains the below essays, continuing a series on ‘Celebrating 500 Years since the Reformation, 1518-2018’, with this issue devoted to ‘Insights into Contemporary Baptist Thought: Perspectives on European Baptist Theology and History.

Tim Noble

Nowhere is Better than Here: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Early Sixteenth Century Utopias

This article examines the utopian vision present in the eponymous work by Thomas More and in the early Anabaptists. In the light of the discussion on the power and dangers of utopian thinking in liberation theology it seeks to show how More struggled with the tension between the positive possibilities of a different world and the destructive criticism of the present reality. A similar tension is found in early Anabaptist practices, especially in terms of their relationship to the state and their practice of commonality of goods. The article shows that that all attempts to reduce visions of a better world to a particular setting end up as ideological.

Rupen Das

Becoming a Follower of Christ: Exploring Conversion Through Historical and Missiological Lenses

Conversion is a critical part of Evangelical theology and missiology. It has been defined as a crisis experience or a decision at a specific point in time. However, there is always an aspect of development, a process, involved. Increasingly, the phenomenon of conversion of those from non-Christian backgrounds, for example from other world religions, indicates that how they become followers of Christ is often characterised by a gradual journey, sometimes accompanied by visions and dreams. This paper looks at the phenomenon of conversion through a historical and missiological lens to explain and understand the dynamics of the conversion.

Marion L.S. Carson

In Whose Interest? Ante-Bellum Abolitionism, the Bible, and Contemporary Christian Ethics

Christians look to Scripture to inform their ethical decision-making, believing that God speaks through it. However, disagreement as to what the Bible requires us to do can often lead to acrimonious splits within the church. So long as sharp divisions amongst Christians over ethical issues remain, injustices continue, and the reputation of the church is undermined. This article suggests that lessons may be learned from the story of the use of the Bible in the American Abolitionism debate which can help the contemporary church to discuss and perhaps even resolve some enduring ethical questions which are dividing Christians today.

Stuart Blythe

Open-Air Preaching: A Long and Diverse Tradition

For many people, open-air preaching is associated with a particularly limited understanding of the nature of the event. In part this is related to the fact that open-air preaching has received relatively little serious academic study. From a variety of sources, however, it is possible to piece together something of a critically analytic sketch of the practice. This sketch demonstrates that not only can open-air preaching claim longevity but that in turn it is a practice with considerable diversity as open-air preachers seek to make meaning through their gathering and encounter with audiences.

Anthony R. Cross

The Place of Theological Education in the Preparation of Men and Women for the British Baptist Ministry then and Now

Using principally, though not exclusively, the learning of the biblical languages, this paper seeks to demonstrate four things. Firstly, from their beginnings in the early seventeenth century the majority of British Baptists have believed that the study of theology is essential for their ministers, and that the provision of such an education through their colleges is necessary for the well-being of the churches. Secondly, and contrary to misconceptions among Baptists and those of other traditions, Baptists have always had ministers who have been highly trained theologically, and that this has enriched their service as pastors. Thirdly, it reveals that Baptists today have a wealth of both academically-gifted and theologically-astute pastor-theologians and pastor-scholars. Finally, it argues that theology has always played its part in the renewal of Christian life and witness for which so many Christians today are praying.

Lina Toth

Strangers in the Land and True Lovers of the Nation: the Formation of Lithuanian-Speaking Baptist Identity, 1918-1940

How does an emerging community of faith develop its identity in the context of a semi-hostile and increasingly nationalistic culture? The story of the early years of Lithuanian-speaking Baptists provides an interesting and informative case study. This article focusses on the formative stage of the Lithuanian-speaking Baptist movement during the interwar period of the independent Republic of Lithuania (1918-1940). It considers four main factors which contributed to the formation of Lithuanian-speaking Baptist identity: different ethnic and cultural groupings amongst Baptists in Lithuania; the role of the global Baptist family in providing both material and ideological support; the community’s relationship with the Lithuanian state; and their stance towards the dominant religious context, i.e. the Lithuanian Catholic Church. Out of this dynamic emerges a picture of the particular ways in which these congregations, and especially their leadership, navigated their understanding of loyalty to the Kingdom of God in relation to their belonging to a particular national grouping.

The Pacific Journal of Baptist Research

Just today I came across The Pacific Journal of Baptist Research, an open-access online journal published twice a year, ‘which aims to provide an international vehicle for scholarly research and debate in the Baptist tradition, with a special focus on the Pacific region’.

All issues are available online here as pdfs. Some of the essays are (understandably) focused on the history of, and issues related to, Baptist traditions in the Pacific region, but others offer a broader reach, including the following that caught my eye from a quick glance at tables of contents:

Graham Hill on atonement and healing – 8, 1 (2013)

Brendon Neilson on James McClendon – 7, 2 (2011)

A whole issue devoted to Stanley Grenz – 6, 1 (2010)

Andrew Picard on Baptist ecclesiology and missional church – 5, 1 (2009)

Myk Habets on anthropological dualism – 4, 1 (2008)

Baptist Quarterly 1922-2000

Andy Goodliff notes that every article in the Baptist Quarterly from 1922 to 2000 is now available to download here. This is, in very large part, thanks to the sterling work of Rob Bradshaw who hosts the biblicalstudies.org.uk website.

Brian Stanley on a Vision for Mission

The text of the 2011 G.R. Beasley-Murray Lecture, delivered by Brian Stanley (Professor of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh) at the 2011 Baptist Assembly in Blackpool, is available here.

Its title is ‘Renewing a Vision for Mission among British Baptists: Historical Perspectives and Theological Reflections’.

Stanley does a nice job, in my opinion, of weaving together historical discussion with theological reflection around the topic of mission, under three main points:

• Rediscovering the missionary purpose of God

• Restoring the centrality of missionary discipleship

• Re-envisioning the shape of missionary fellowship

Here are some highlights:

‘[B]y “renewing a vision for mission” I mean, not simply expanding and deepening our commitment to evangelism within Britain, but, more fundamentally, bringing into the very centre of our church life a passionate absorption with the theme of God’s missionary purposes for the world’ (1-2).

‘The mission of God is an overflowing of the incessant dance of selfgiving in relationship... which characterizes the inner life of the triune God, into the community of the people of God, and from them into the world’ (6).

‘The missionary responsibility of the church is to make not converts, but disciples whose communal life together will be a visible embodiment of “all that I have commanded you” – in other words, the mind of Christ and the values of his kingdom. Hence the church as a missionary community is called to be what Lesslie Newbigin loved to refer to as “the hermeneutic of the gospel”, an icon or exemplification of what the gospel of the kingdom is all about’ (9).

Baptist Review of Theology

With the support of Stanley K. Fowler, Academic Dean of Heritage Seminary in Ontario, Rob Bradshaw has made available online an almost complete set of the Baptist Review of Theology. Although the journal only ran between 1991 and 1998, it contains a number of interesting-looking articles. I’ll be checking out Don Garlington’s essays as well as William Webb on Revelation 20, Paul Helm on Calvin on accommodation, Stephen Dempster on Amos 3, and Clint Sheehan on the structure and theology of Zephaniah.

Regent’s Reviews 1, 1 (2009)

It has just come to my attention that Regent’s Park College in Oxford recently relaunched Regent’s Reviews, an online publication of book reviews, birthed by current postgraduate students Andy Goodliff and Matthew Tennant. The book reviews are written ‘with an eye to the needs of those engaged in pastoral practice’.

The first volume (available as a pdf here) carries a special focus on recent books written by Baptists in light of the 400th celebration of Baptist beginnings.