The Challenge of Being Baptist: Owning a Scandalous Past and an Uncertain Future

by Bill J. Leonard

Overview

The largest Protestant denomination in the United States is in the midst of a serious identity crisis; many Baptists are revisiting or turning away from the tradition, leaving others to become increasingly uncertain that the denomination can remain viable. Here, however, noted Baptist historian Bill Leonard wades through the murky waters of the Baptist past and explores the historic commitments of this unique people—all in an effort to shed light on its contemporary dilemmas and evaluate the prospects for a Baptist future. While encouraging members of the faith to thoroughly and fairly evaluate their heritage—and its many blunders along the way—Leonard ultimately argues that the Baptists' contentious "audacious witness" shown throughout its history still has a worthy role to play in the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602584877
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	166
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Bill J. Leonard is Dean of the School of Divinity and Professor of Divinity, Emeritus at Wake Forest University. A prolific writer, Leonard is the author of Baptist Questions, Baptist Answers: Exploring Christian Faith (2008), Baptists in America (2007), and Baptist Ways: A History (2003). He lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Read an Excerpt

"Why would anyone want to be a Baptist? What are the best reasons for remaining Baptist? Does the name Baptist hurt more than it helps? This book is an attempt to address those questions by examining certain distinguishing marks of Baptist identity with particular attention to past approaches and current confusions. It explores classic Baptist approaches to polity, Scripture, conversion, and mission as they have impacted a Baptist witness in the church and the public square."

— excerpted from chapter one

Table of Contents

Preface: What’s in a Name?

1 Being Baptist: Scandalous Past, Uncertain Future

2 Historical Consciousness among Baptists: Owning and Disowning a Tradition

3 Baptist Polity: A Peoples’ Church

4 Biblicist but Not Bible? Revisiting Baptist Hermeneutics

5 Once Saved, Almost Saved: Revisiting Baptists and Conversion

6 A Congregational Sacramentalism: Revisiting Baptist Ecclesiology

7 Toward a Baptist Future: The Challenge Ahead

What People are Saying About This

This is the kind of conversation that Baptists need to have in the remaining part of the twenty-first century. With his unique style of writing, Bill Leonard conveys his thoughts as if in personal conversation, talking about Baptist life while sitting on the deck at his home in Winston-Salem.

Doug Weaver

Deftly written with the delightful prose and the keenly insightful narrative that we have come to expect from Bill Leonard. In the context of contemporary pluralism, Baptists can still identify with a focus on believers' church, covenant communities, individual conscience, individual and communal dissent, global mission, and commitment to Scripture.

Steven R. Harmon

Engaging and accessible, a must-read for everyone who thinks the church still needs Baptists and others who wonder if it might be better off without this contentious lot.

David W. Key Sr.

This is the kind of conversation that Baptists need to have in the remaining part of the twenty-first century. With his unique style of writing, Bill Leonard conveys his thoughts as if in personal conversation, talking about Baptist life while sitting on the deck at his home in Winston-Salem.

Editorial Reviews

...A 'warts and all' approach, unafraid of confronting the divisiveness of much Baptist history over matters both of grave importance and of apparent trivial nature... Leonard's deployment of language is well-focused and rich in meaning.

Baptist Quarterly - John Briggs