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Guest Blog: Sam Sharpe and the Quest for Liberation Conference Report

(A guest blog from Ed Kaneen a Baptist minister, currently working on a PhD at Durham University on the use and meaning of slavery as a metaphor for discipleship in the gospels, who attended the recent Sam Sharpe Conference held at Regent's Park College):

Three years ago we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The Christian contribution to this was rightly acknowledged. Most Baptists would know the name of the British MP, William Wilberforce. Many British Baptists would also know the name of William Knibb, the BMS Missionary who came (eventually) to support the cause of emancipation in Jamaica. However, I suspect that few Baptists in this country know the name, much less the story, of Samuel ‘Daddy’ Sharpe.

He was a slave in Jamaica, and a leader in the native Baptist church, who, along with others, planned a peaceful protest, a work-stoppage at Christmas 1831, in the light of their reading of Scripture and hoped-for liberation. This strike became an armed uprising, which resulted in religious persecution, and ultimately the execution of Sam Sharpe and three hundred others in the central square of Montego Bay. It is acknowledged that this so-called ‘Baptist War’ was a catalyst for change in Jamaica, which is why he is today recognised as an official National Hero of the country.

This conference on the ‘Context, Theology and Legacy for Today’ of ‘Sam Sharpe and the Quest for Liberation’ brought together scholars and church leaders from Jamaica, the USA, and the UK to reflect on the history and historical context of Sharpe, and just as importantly the struggle for liberation today. The senior leaders of BUGB, BMS, JBU (Jamaican Baptist Union), and BWA were all in attendance which made it a significant event in Baptist relationships. I went to the conference with an academic interest in slavery and the Bible. I fully expected the usual scholarly discourse. I came away, however, having been profoundly and deeply challenged.

It is perhaps the first time in my life that I’ve felt uncomfortable being white (I don’t mean simply intellectually). I only wish that I’d felt it sooner, because perhaps I would then have better understood what it means to be black. Because one of the unexpressed themes that ran through the conference was this: while I relate to Sharpe on the level of his faith, many of the Jamaicans and Black British relate to him on the level of his blackness. The consequence of this is that his story can be appropriated as part of a theology of black liberation. When we heard accounts of some sections of the black population in Britain today, and the unlevel playing field they face, it was evident how necessary this is.

The plenary session was particularly challenging, and of the questions asked, one in particular will stay with me long after the conference: whether, in the light of black theology, theology now needs to resource an approach to white hegemony – in other words, what does theology have to say to whites like me about our privileged status (whether we acknowledge this or not), and what we should do about it? Apart from the obvious answer that theology should have something to say, it was appropriately left for us to consider. And it was particularly poignant that we should go straight from the plenary to the after-hours session in which we heard readings from Daddy Sharpe by Fred Kennedy. This is a fictional narrative created around the actual accounts of Sharpe’s life and death, and an excellent read. Hearing the plausible prison dialogue between British missionary Henry Bleby as he visited Sam Sharpe prior to his execution, was a very moving experience. The former, with his ‘correct’ English accent, and the latter in his Jamaican tongue, says, ‘The only way to save your eternal soul, Sam, is to beg forgiveness for your sin.’ ‘What sin, Sir?’ ‘The sin of inciting others to rebellion.’ ‘If I have done wrong in that, I trust that I shall be forgiven, for I cast myself upon the atonement’(1). The latter is taken from Bleby’s actual account of his visit(2). In this, Sam Sharpe surely identifies both the theological hope for black liberation, and the theological challenge to white hegemony.

The conference itself came out of the ongoing dialogue following BUGB’s apology to the JBU over the transatlantic slave trade and all that stemmed from it. I wrote a short article in the recent Baptist Minister’s Journal (April 2010) in support of the apology. However, I realise now that I did not say enough. Both in light of the tensions surrounding the apology at the time, and the ongoing black struggle, the apology was not just a good idea, but a gospel imperative. But, as the BUGB statement puts it, ‘we are only at the start of the journey’(3). This conference certainly marked a milestone on that journey, and due thanks should be accorded to the organisers’ at BUGB, BMS, and Regent’s Park College for their willingness to take up the challenge. If this has been typical of the steps along the way, it bodes well for the road ahead.

(1) Fred W. Kennedy, Daddy Sharpe (Kingston: Ian Randle, 2008): 324f. www.daddysharpe.com
(2) Henry Bleby, Death Struggles of Slavery, 3^rd edn. (London: Hamilton, Adams and Co., 1868): 130. Available as a free download from Google Books.
(3) www.baptist.org.uk/news_media/latest_news/slave-trade.html

Women and Ordination

As the letters page of the Baptist Times over the last few weeks has seen discussion other the recent affirmation of the ministry and leadership of women within Baptist churches by the Baptist Union. The focus of the debate is not that the affirmation was wrong, but whether the Council can speak for all Baptists and so the usual cry of liberty for every Baptist church to determine the mind of Christ can be heard. It's interesting that this concern for liberty only appears in issues like the ministry of women. Catriona makes a lot of sense here.

Anyway, I was reading a review of Women and Ordination in the Christian Churches edited by Ian Jones, Janet Wootten and Kirsty Thorpe (T & T Clark, 2008) by Angela Shier-Jones who concludes that the book

reads as an invitation to discover the contribution of women’s ministry to the wider
life of the Church and the world-wide body of Christ whilst, at the same time, becoming more fully conscious of the nature and extent of the resistance afforded that ministry. Some books should be distributed free to all ordinands and clergy on the basis that their content is simply too important to risk not being known. This is such a book.

The only problem being that the book is only in hardback and costs £70.

New Book from Paul Goodliff available at Baptist Assembly

Paul Goodliff, Ministry, Sacrament and Representation: Ministry and Ordination in Contemporary Baptist Theology, and the Rise of Sacramentalism (Oxford: Regent's Park College, 2010), £20.

This is a revised version of my dad's doctoral thesis, which was based on survey of Baptist ministers and interviews with recent Baptist College principals. It is volume 2 in the new Centre for Baptist History and Heritage Series. It will be available at the Baptist Assembly this weekend and shortly after here.

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Methodological Considerations

3. A Narrative Account of the Formal Documents

4. The Documents: A Systematic Analysis

5. Analysis of the Survey Data

6. Analysis of the Interview Data

7. Five Factors Shaping Changing Belief

8. The Sacramental Turn

9. Postscript: Creation, Eschaton, and the Formation and Practice of Ministry

Easter Icons article

For the few people who may be visiting my blog after reading my article on 'Easter Icons' in the April 2010 edition of the Baptist Minister's Journal, you can download the full paper here: Download Reflections on easter icons.

The appendix to the paper is fairly big, but contain pictures of some of the stations we created over the years: you can see some of the pictures by visiting here.

For those who don't get the Baptist Minister's Journal, easter icons was a contemporary stations of the cross which I organised for a number of years and for part of my MTh, I wrote a paper reflecting theologically on it.

Book Review: Ecumenism Means You, Too

Steven R. Harmon, Ecumenism Mean You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity (Cascade, 2010), 120pp

Baptist theologian Steven Harmon's new book is a short, concise, and helpful introduction to ecumenism and the ecumenical movement. Part of the problem with the ecumenical movement is knowing where to start, and Harmon's book answers this problem (the World Council of Churches should be very pleased!). In five chapters Harmon covers what is ecumenism, a history of why the church is divided and the 20th century moves towards finding unity, a theology of ecumenism, ten things you can do for the unity of the church, and why ecumenism is eschatological and what is means (patience over despair). Harmon then adds two appendixes - on places to read more and glossary of key ecumenical terms.

Particularly helpful with Ecumenism Means You, Too is the practical chapter on what ordinary Christians can do. However, part of Harmon's challenge is to commit to a church and tradition and get to know it well (in part take church history seriously), which in a post-denominational age, where people want to say they are Christians, without seeming to care whether they are Baptist, Anglican or New Frontiers, means a new recognition that denominations are not the same and that isn't bad.

The book would be a great starting point for theology or ministerial students, who want to to begin to understand what the ecumenical movement is all about. The book equally would work in a church small group. Ecumenism has lost ground in recent years, most Christians ignorant or the work of the WCC and not too bothered about ecumenism, and books like Harmon's are a great way to get a new generation excited about, and committed to, working towards church unity. 

The book currently only has an American publisher (its not yet available through amazon.co.uk), hopefully it will find a UK publisher and be widely read.

Forthcoming from Eerdmans

A few highlights that I spotted from the latest Eerdmans catalogue

Re-Imaging Election by Suzanne McDonald

Christian Ethics in a Technological Age by Brian Brock (a revised version of his King's PhD)

Lamentations by Robin Parry (Two Horizons Commentary Series)

What Can we learn from the Disabled? Responses to Jean Vanier from Theology and the Sciences edited by Hans S. Reinders (with chapters from Stanley Hauerwas, John Swinton and Brian Brock amongst others)

Christology and Ethics edited by F. LeRon Shults and Brent Waters (with chapters from John Webster, Kathryn Tanner and Bernd Wannenwetsch amongst others)

Exploring Baptist Origins

Anthony R. Cross and Nicholas J. Wood (eds.), Exploring Baptist Origins (Centre for Baptist History and Heritage Studies, Vol 1; Regent's Park College, 2010), 163pp (£20 - order a copy here)

 This is the first volume of the new series emerging out of the Centre for Baptist History and Heritage based at Regent's Park College. The collection of papers were first delivered in the autumn of 2009 in celebration of 400 years since the birth of Baptist beginnings. Including some of the UK's leading Baptist theologians - Paul Fiddes, Stephen Holmes, Brian Haymes - the book seeks to examine historically and theologically the beginnings of Baptist life.

Haymes, not for the first time, engages with Thomas Helwys' The Mystery of Iniquity, asking whether it has relevance for today and concluding with a challenge for more 'unashamedly political theologies'.  Fiddes explores the question of whether Baptists are a church or a sect, interacting with the famous studies of Weber and Troeltsch, and highlighting the distinctive covenant theology of early Baptists.  Holmes extends earlier published arguments of the dangers of just reading the Bible through the Salters' Hall incident of 1719. Keith Jones assesses Baptists and Anabaptists through the life of the Lithuanian Baptist Jonas Inkenas, exploring five themes: ecclesial interdependency; leadership; communities in hostile surroundings; spirituality; and women at the heart of Baptist life. Anthony Cross and Larry Kreitzer provide historical studies of why baptists adopted believers' baptism and the anabaptist petitions of 1660 and 1661 respectively. The other contributer is Crawford Gribben who looks at the beliefs about millennialism in early Baptist life in relation to their ecclesiology.

This is an interesting and revealing set of essays, engaging with how Baptists began. The best or most interesting are those that ask questions of Baptists today in light of their forebears, showing how they can offer challenge and help as we seek to be Baptist Christians.

Beyond this book, it is exciting to see Regent's begin a new series of Baptist studies, especially as its other series, Regent's Study Guides, is coming to an end. If your a British Baptist and engaged in postgraduate study on baptistic themes, here is a potential place for your research to reach a wider audience. Coming soon are volumes on a theology of ministry and ordination from Paul Goodliff and membership and belonging from Darrell Jackson.

John Weaver's SCM Core Text on Christianity and Science

The tutors at South Wales Baptist College in recent years have been busy. In 2007 Karen Smith published the SCM Core Text on Christian Spirituality. In 2008 Simon Woodman published the SCM Core Text on The Book of Revelation. And now the Principal John Weaver has published the SCM Core Text on Christianity and Science.

John Weaver has been principal at South Wales Baptist College since 2001, before which he was tutor in pastoral theology at Regent's Park College. He is the author of two Regent Study Guides: In the Beginning and Outside In.

Reviews of the Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

Here are some of the reviews of Pullman's new book from the last week.I've got a copy now and enjoying Pullman's reading of the gospel stories.

Rowan Williams (Guardian)

Sally Vickers (Telegraph)

Boyd Tonkin (Independent)

Richard Holloway (Observer)

Nick Renninson (Sunday Times)

Tony Watkins

Roger Scruton to give 2010 Gifford Lectures

Roger Scruton is giving the 2010 Gifford Lectures on the theme of 'The Face of God' at the University of St. Andrew's.

Science has a unique authority among thinking people today, and its popularisers have presented a picture of the human condition from which God is absent. Evolutionary psychology and neuroscience are invoked in order to explain our deepest and most precious emotions – the love of God included – as ‘adaptations’, ‘hard wired’ in the human cortex. The earth is seen as an ecosystem, of which we are a part, as transient in our tenure as every other organism. And our social motives are rewritten as ‘reproductive strategies’, the origin of which lies not in the love between self-knowing individuals but in the mindless impulse of their genes.

This picture of the human condition leaves out what is most important, namely the relation between freely choosing persons, who see each other face to face. By understanding the world in the way of popular science we fortify those destructive tendencies in our culture which are wiping away the face of the world. These lectures will be devoted to showing that this is so, and to pointing to the remedy.

Through the series of six lectures some of the most fundamental philosophical, ethical and human issues will be addressed including those of religion and science, of freedom and determinism, of self and other, of the meaning of art, architecture and music, and of sacrifice and scapegoating.

Tuesday April 20th    Lecture 1    The view from nowhere
Thursday April 22nd    Lecture 2    The view from somewhere
Tuesday April 27th    Lecture 3    Where am I?
Thursday April 29th    Lecture 4    The face of the person
Tuesday May 4th    Lecture 5    The face of the earth
Thursday May 6th    Lecture 6    The face of God

Roger Scruton is one of Britain’s best known and most distinguished philosophers and public intellectuals. He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, where he was also a research fellow of Peterhouse, and is a barrister of the Inns of Court, He has held Professorships at the universities of London and Boston and Visiting positions at Princeton and most recently at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a fellow of the British Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Roger Scruton’s very many publications include Art and Imagination (1974), The Aesthetics of Architecture (1979), The Politics of Culture (1981), The Aesthetic Understanding (1983), Kant (1983), Sexual Desire (1986), Spinoza (1987), The Philosopher on Dover Beach (1989), Modern Philosophy (1994), Animal Rights and Wrongs (1996), The Aesthetics of Music (1999), Death Devoted Heart (2004), Culture Counts (2007), Beauty (2009), Understanding Music (2009) and a volume of autobiography Gentle Regrets (2006).