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Book Review: Recovering the Evangelical Sacrament by Anthony R. Cross (Pickwick, 2013)

Anthony R. Cross, Recovering the Evangelical Sacrament: Baptisma Semper Reformandum (Pickwick, 2013), 403pp

Anthony R. Cross has been thinking and writing about baptism for well over twenty years. His doctoral studies were published as Baptism and the Baptists (Paternoster, 2000) and he has now followed that with Recovering the Evangelical Sacrament, the product of his work done since then. Cross is an evangelical about baptism and, what he argues, as a proper evangelical understanding of baptism, which he says is the New Testament understanding of baptism, which is conversion-baptism. The book is a collection of essays and articles (some published) in the last ten years, which offer a sustained argument for conversion-baptism. In this Cross is a disciple of George Beasley-Murray, who argued to his own generation for a rich theological and biblical understanding of baptism. Beasley-Murray is the most cited name in the numerous (and often long) foonotes. 

Cross demonstrates that he has read almost everything possible on baptism - the biblography stretches to forty-two pages! The opening chapter sets the book in the context of ecumenical and evangelical studies of baptism, claiming that the baptism debate as been predicated on there being two forms of baptism - credo- and paedobaptism. Cross wants to question those presuppositions and argue for 'one baptism', so Ephesisians 4.5. From an evangelical perspectice, Cross believes evangelicals have not paid enough attention to baptism, it has been sidelined, to avoid it being a faultline within the movement.

Chapter 2 makes the argument for conversion-baptism, and then the following chapters argue that there is one baptism (chapter 3), and so no division between water-baptism and Spirit-baptism (chapter 4), baptism is properly understood as sacramental (chapter 5), and it is ecclesial (chapter 7). Chapter 6 makes the case for the possibility that baptism is regenerational and thus should not be dismissed out of hand by evangelicals and by Baptists. Chapter 8 offers some of Cross' most recent work on the ethical and political dimensions and implications of baptism. Cross presents a detailed, step-by-step approach, depending on the skilled scholarship of others, to make his case. This is generally convincing, although I think he too quickly (reduced to a footnote, p.99) dismisses a christological reading of Paul's pistis Christou phrases, which could have implications for his reading, which could either strengthen or weaken it.  

The final chapter culminates in Cross' argument for the reform of baptism, both in theology and practice. As he shows he is not alone in calling for reform, the likes of David Wright, Geoffrey Wainwright and Jurgen Moltmann all call for reform. Cross goes further than these other voices when he writes

What I am proposing in this book, then, is the recovery of New Testament baptism, not a force and unconvincing acceptance that paedobaptism completed in confirmation is equivalent to credobaptism, or a discerning of common features in patterns of initiation that are, in fact, theologically and practically different, nor the abandonment of infant baptism in favour of believers' baptism. Rather, it is a wholesale reform of credo- and paedobaptism to the faith-baptism, the conversion-initiation, mission-baptism of the earliest Christian communities (p.312)

In this we can see both a rejection of the attempts by the Baptist theologian Paul Fiddes and others towards a common pattern of initiation and those Baptists that practice an impoverished thin baptism. 

Cross presents six reforms to the theology and practice of baptism. First, baptism is primarily the action of the triune God; second, to counter an overly individualistic understanding of baptism; third, to reconnect baptism to the gospel; and so fourthly, baptism is part of conversion, not something that follows; fifthly, baptism is an act of believing prayer, so space should be made for a person's testimony; and sixthly, baptism must be integral to church membership.

The book could have done with some editing. Cross' love of the long footnote, sometimes gets in the way of the flow of his argument - it is distracting. Also because it is a collection of essays, there is a times a lot of repetition, which you could suggest is needed to make sure the book's argument gets heard. 

This is an important book for Baptists and Evangelicals. It is a clarion call for baptism to be taken a lot more seriously and centrally in our life, but in particular ways that are theologically-rich and thickly-practiced. I am left wondering whether enough attention is given to our preparing candidates (and at the same time the church) for baptism and to baptismal services in themselves and then also the ongoing importance of baptism in the Christian's life. I am left asking in all our conversations about emerging and missional church, what place does baptism have?

Report of the BWA - Roman Catholic Conversations

Its been delayed; there was some concern it might never see the light of day; but finally the report of the 2005-2010 conversations between the Baptist World Alliance and the Roman Catholic Church on The Word of God in the Life of the Church is now published in a special edition of the American Baptist Quarterly. Alongside the report is an editorial by Curtis Freeman, an introduction to the report from Paul Fiddes, and two responses from Stephen Holmes (Baptist theologian and senior lecturer University of St. Andrews) and Josue Fonseca (Baptist theologian and pastor from Chile).

Baptist Ministry in Question: Reflections from 1971

As Baptists are thinking about ministry and its future and questioning of training and formation, I discover that back in 1971, a little book was published called Ministry in Question with essays by Caryl Micklem, Neville Clark (Baptist), Ernest Marvin and Alec Gilmore (Baptist). The book offers four responses to the 'crisis in Free Church ministry'. What is interesting is how similar the conversation today is to forty years ago!

Caryl Micklem questions whether there is a need for full-time professional ministry. He writes 'it is extremely doubtful whether we ought to be accepting any further candidates for "the ministry" conceived of as normally full-time'.

Neville Clark maintains that our present trouble is the obsession with making ministry relevant. He writes this:

The contemporary minister is deafened by conflicting voices, claims and expectations. There is the ecclesiastical claim ... to service the familiar structures, tune the motors and oil the wheels ... There is the secular claim ... to put [herself] at the service of human need and be foremost in charitable enterprises ... at all costs [she] is to be relevant ... There is the personal claim ... to be the hero of the faith ... [She] must count, be significant, make a difference.  

He argues that ministers reassert their understanding as one of being shaped by word and sacrament, and ends his essay with suggesting the minister is perhaps best seen as a 'clown' where 'in word and life and action they embody the crazy, incredible paradox of redemption, whispering the story to those who will listen, singing it to those who will rejoice, re-enacting it in the incongruity of worship.'

Ernest Marvin argues that the minister needs be more free to engage with the world (i.e. life beyond the congregation). He speaks of the church needing to be re-structured for mission. He says this:

The minister ... is expected to preach, to visit, to counsel, but [she] lives in a society which does not come to hear [her] preach, does not require [her] to visit, and, if it needs counselling, will go elsewhere for it.

Alec Gilmore argues that we need to 1) re-vitialise preaching and worship - taking note of new forms of communication and being more grounded in rea life; 2) simplify church structures, what we might call shift from maintenance to mission; and 3) adjust their time balance to be more involved in the community, helping people discover their vocation, offering pastoral care (without it being a cover for evangelism), and'initiating new programmes of caring or education' and be a networker between various voluntary and statutory bodies. He writes 'the minister is the one free person n the community able to adjust [her] time if [she] wills.'

Clint Bass on the (General) Baptist theology of Thomas Grantham

The latest book in the Centre for Baptist History and Heritage Studies is Clint Bass' Thomas Grantham (1633-1692) and General Baptist Theology, which is a published version of his DPhil completed at Oxford under John Briggs. It can ordered via the Regent's Park College website).

The book tells the life of Thomas Grantham in its first chapter, followed by an account of Grantham’s ecclesiology in its second chapter. Chapter three deals with Thomas Grantham’s view of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Chapter four explains the controversy over the laying of the hands, a divisive practice among Baptists of the period. Chapter five covers Grantham’s understanding of salvation. Lastly, chapter six focuses on Grantham’s role in opposition to the Christological deficiency adopted by a small party of his churchmen. In writing the book Dr. Bass addresses some of the misconceptions about the General Baptists, namely when and to what extent they became heterodox in their Christology. He also critiques what some recent authors have said about early Baptist views of the ordinances. “There is a trend to attribute to Grantham a higher sacramentalism than what he actually held in baptism and the Lord’s Supper,” Bass said. The book focuses on Thomas Grantham’s life and thought; however, by interacting with the wider context, Bass also explains how the General Baptists are to be understood in relation to the religious milieu of Restoration England.

This is a welcome contribution to Baptist theology and history. A number of monographs have appeared and appearing on key Baptist theologians from the 17th-19th centuries - Dan Taylor, Charles Spurgeon, John Rippon, Marianne Farningham, Anne Steele, Andrew Fuller, Benjamin Keach, Hanserd Knollys (thanks to Paternoster Studies in Baptist History and Thought series and Regent's Park College Centre for Baptist History and Heritage Studies). Jonathan Arnold's doctoral study on Benjamin Keach (completed at Oxford also under John Briggs) will also being published soon.

Where To Study Theology in the UK? A Suggested List

If I was looking to study theology at undergraduate or graduate level, based on staff line-ups.

1. St. Andrews - N. T. Wright, John Webster*, Alan Torrance, Stephen Holmes, Ivor Davidson, Grant Macaskill, John Perry*, James Davila, Trevor Hart, David Brown (Strengths - Doctrine and New Testament)

2. Durham - John Barclay, Lewis Ayres, Francis Watson, Karen Kilby*, Mike Higton*, Anna Rowlands*, Matthew Guest, Walter Moberly, Mark McIntosh, Paul Murray, Gerald Loughlin (Strengths - New Testament and Catholic Theology)

3. Aberdeen - Bernd Wannenwetsch, John Swinton, Brian Brock, Paul Nimmo*, Tom Greggs, Christopher Brittain, Philip Ziegler (Strengths - Practical Theology and Ethics)

4. Cambridge - David Ford, Sarah Coakley, Janet Martin Soskice, Simon Gathercole, Nathan MacDonald, Katherine Dell, Eamon Duffy, Anna Williams, Judith Lieu (Strengths - Doctrine and Philosophical Theology / InterFaith)

5. Edinburgh - David Fergusson, Paul Nimmo, Michael Northcott, Brian Stanley, David Grumett (In the Emeritus category they have Duncan Forrestor, Larry Hurtado, and now Oliver O'Donovan) (Strengths - Doctrine and Ethics)

6. Oxford - Nigel Biggar, Paul Fiddes, Graham Ward, Markus Bockmuhel, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christopher Rowland, John Barton, Christopher Hays, Martyn Percy, George Pattison, Sarah Foot (Strengths Doctrine, Ethics and Old and New Testament)

7. King's College London - Ben Quash, Oliver Davies, Edward Adams, Alister McGrath, Pete Ward, Paul Janz, Dominic Erdozain, Susannah Ticciati, Paul Joyce (Strengths - Practical Theology and Doctrine)

8. Nottingham - John Milbank, Connor Cunningham, Simon Oliver, Richard Bell, Philip Goodchild (Strengths - Home of Radical Orthodoxy)

9. Exeter - Timothy Gorringe, David Horrell, Esther Reed, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Morwenna Ludlow, Christopher Southgate

10. Chester - David Clough, Chris Baker, Ben Fulford, Elaine Graham, Willam Kay, Hannah Bacon, Wayne Morris, Steve Knowles (Strengths - Practical Theology)

* new appointment this summer

Where some theology and biblical studies departments have been under threat in recent years (Sheffield, Gloucester), both St. Andrews and Durham are currently expanding their departments.