Baptism and the Baptists : Theology and Practice in Twentieth-Century Britain

Since its first publication in 2000, Baptism and the Baptists has become the definitive work on the subject. It examines the theology and practice of believers' baptism among twentieth-century Baptists associated with the Baptist Union of Great Britain, and identifies the major influences which have led to its development. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the majority of Baptists concentrated predominantly on the mode and subjects of baptism (immersion and believers), understanding the rite merely as an ordinance--the believer's personal profession of faith in Christ. However, in continuity with a tradition of Baptists going back as far as the first Baptists in the second and third decades of the seventeenth century, there were also a significant number of ministers and scholars who saw the inadequacy of this view of baptism both biblically and theologically. This sacramental view developed and grew throughout the twentieth century, and influenced a resurgence of baptismal sacramentalism in the early twenty-first century among Baptists not just in Britain, but also in North America, Europe, and further afield. ""Dr. Cross has accomplished a notable task in this book. He has worked carefully through an immense amount of primary and secondary material. While his primary purpose is that of reporting and evaluating, he has brought to light in a masterly way issues and their importance for the whole Christian church. This work will be illuminating for all who read it."" George R. Beasley-Murray was a Principal of Spurgeon's College, London, and also Professor of New Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. ""Anthony R. Cross places twentieth-century Baptist convictions about baptism clearly in their context, showing with particular force how they have been affected by ecumenical involvement."" David Bebbington is Professor of History, University of Stirling. ""English Baptists, it seems, are not agreed about most aspects of baptism. So Anthony R. Cross demonstrates in meticulous detail and broad perspective in this comprehensive study. It documents the growing influence of ecumenical engagement on Baptist attitudes, the increasing attention paid to theology and to the category of initiation, and a tendency for Baptists to be less preoccupied with baptism as such. The book throws light on many facets of Baptist thought and practice. It will be indispensable for understanding English Baptists in the twentieth century."" David F. Wright was Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Reformed Christianity, New College, University of Edinburgh. Anthony R. Cross has written extensively on the subject of baptism, most recently in his Recovering the Evangelical Sacrament: Baptisma Semper Reformandum (Pickwick Publications, 2013). He has also written on the issues of the place of theology in Baptist ministerial preparation, and the factors which led to English Baptist acceptance of the Evangelical Revival in the eighteenth century. He is an Adjunct Supervisor at The International Baptist Theological Seminary Centre, Amsterdam, having previously served as a Baptist minister, and taught church history and theology at the Universities of Surrey, Roehampton, and Oxford.