Journal of European Baptist Studies

Call for Papers: Special Issue Autumn 2026: Baptistic Theologies from the Middle East: Identity, Mission, and Practice in Wartime and Post-Conflict Upheaval

2025-12-19T09:31:07+01:00

‘You Do Not Have the Freedom of Religion!’: A Postcolonial Analysis of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Context of Pakistan

2025-12-18T10:38:53+01:00

This article analyses Article 18 (Freedom of Religion or Belief, FoRB) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from a postcolonial perspective, using Pakistan as a case study. It challenges the assumption that FoRB is a Western construct, demonstrating that various cultures, including Islamic traditions, had established forms of religious tolerance long before the European Enlightenment. While Pakistan initially supported Article 18, advocating for the right to change one’s religion, its legal framework has since evolved, incorporating Islamic principles that restrict religious freedom. This shift has created tensions between Pakistan’s secular constitutional foundations and religious legislation, leading to increased limitations on minority rights. The study highlights the complex interplay between colonial legacies, religious identity, and human rights discourse, arguing that critiques of FoRB in postcolonial states must consider historical and cultural contexts rather than applying a purely Western framework.

Between Opposition and Dialogue: Anti-Racist and Anti-Fascist Practice Informed by Baptist Tradition

2025-12-18T11:11:14+01:00

This article responds to the recommendation in Helen Paynter and Maria Power’s The Church, The Far Right and the Claim to Christianity (2024). In the face of a far-right appropriation of Christian symbols and concepts, this invites those in ‘dissenting’ Christian traditions to identify ‘creative’ ways to ‘embody and articulate’ dissenting values in ‘fresh ways’. Informed by wider Baptist heritage, autobiographical reflections from practice, and particularly referring to the UK and Germany, the author argues for what he sees as the socio-political implications of a Christian anti-racist and anti-fascist practice, before setting out some tentative recommendations for individual and corporate Christian practice that seek to differentiate between the inclusive good news of Christianity and the Far Right’s ‘claims to Christianity’, while opposing the political parties, organisations, and initiatives of the Far Right, and maintaining the possibility of robust individual dialogue with those who have lent their support to such.

Why Women Doing Theology Matters for Everyone: Sexual Violence, Tainted Legacies, and the Integrity of Anabaptist Theology

2025-12-18T11:13:48+01:00

With the now public knowledge of the sexual abuse carried out by the twentieth century’s leading pacifist Mennonite theologian, the tainted legacies we are left with raise questions not only about the content of theology but also about the way theology is done. This article explores why women doing theology matters for everyone as part of the process of theology-making. It considers how the notion of taint is refracted through gender power relations to apply differently to women than to men and how this hinders the reception of women’s theological contributions. It argues that women doing theology matters because of the way this illuminates the partiality of everyone’s theology and, further, is necessary for the integrity of Anabaptist theology in the wake of sexual violence.

Reconceiving Success: Mission as Faithful Witness

2025-12-18T11:44:27+01:00

Explorations of success criteria for church-based missions are abundant, but they are not always helpful in supporting the well-being of practitioners. This article argues for abandoning success criteria in missions and instead viewing missions as a practice of faithful witness. Using David Bosch’s critiques of the evangelical and ecumenical models for missions, the discussion explores faithfulness as prophetic dialogue and witness as an eschatological concept to develop a more supportive approach to local church missions.

We are Pilgrims on a Journey: Reimagining Church Membership in Contemporary Wales

2025-12-18T11:48:06+01:00

This article is our theological and missional response to a practical and pressing question: what does it mean to be a member of a Baptist church in Wales today? The classic Baptist understanding is that a Baptist Christian will make a believer’s commitment to Christ (baptism) and simultaneously a commitment to belong to a specific group of Baptist believers (membership). It is our contention that this understanding has now been largely replaced by a tacit assumption that, instead, a Baptist Christian’s commitment is largely one to an organisation. In this article, we call for these two original commitments to be once again separated and individually honoured. We argue that, today, a commitment to a specific group of Baptist believers on a spiritual pilgrimage is a compelling metaphor for church membership. We also argue the case for seeing baptism as a pilgrim participation in Christ’s story.

Shared Leadership in the Early Church: The Plural Office of Elder/Bishop

2025-12-18T12:50:31+01:00

Ecclesiastical governance reflects underlying theological commitments, embodying and reinforcing beliefs about ministry and leadership. Conceptions of church governance also contribute to the well-being and the dysfunction of congregations. Therefore, this study explores Christian polity by examining key New Testament terms — presbuteros (elder), episkopos (overseer/bishop), and poimen (shepherd/pastor) — to gain a better understanding of early church governance. We find that New Testament texts do not distinguish between the offices of elder and bishop. The mono-episcopacy, with a sharp delineation between these two positions, appears to have emerged at the very end of the first century or the beginning of the second century CE. Additionally, elders/bishops, rather than ‘pastors’ occupying a unique office, pastored or shepherded God’s people. Finally, early churches practised plural leadership with multiple individuals leading simultaneously. These insights challenge contemporary governance models in which a single pastoral authority dominates, reminding us that ministry is the shared responsibility of the body of Christ.

‘Living the Good News’: An Assessment of the Significance and Impact of the 23rd Baptist World Congress

2025-12-18T14:41:44+01:00

The twenty-third World Congress of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) took place on 7–12 July 2025 in Brisbane, Australia. The Congress theme was ‘Living the Good News’ (Luke 4:18–19), inviting participants to explore the following questions: How do we live the good news in today’s world? How can we effectively proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind? How can we set the oppressed free and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour? How can we work together to achieve this? What can we learn to take back to our own settings? This article explores the Congress’s programming and key themes, identifies new organisational developments and initiatives, and considers the significance of the event in light of the 120-year-old journey of the BWA. Although no new statements or resolutions were proposed or passed in Brisbane, attention is paid to how the Congress heard and applied the rich corpus of resolutions and statements that the BWA has adopted throughout its history.

Book Reviews

2025-12-18T14:44:18+01:00

Mark Stirling and Mark Meynell (eds), Not So with You: Power and Leadership for the Church (Wipf & Stock, 2023). ISBN: 9781666760163

Wendy J. Porter, Worship, Music and Interpretation: Exploratory Essays. McMaster General Studies Series (Pickwick Publications, 2024). ISBN: 9798385223305

Carlo Calleja, Communities of Kinship: Retrieving Christian Practices of Solidarity with Lepers as a Paradigm for Overcoming Exclusion of Older People (Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2024). ISBN: 9781978711976

Teun van der Leer, Looking in the Other Direction: The Story of the Believers Church Conferences. Amsterdam Series in Baptist and Mennonite Theologies (Pickwick Publications, 2023). ISBN: 9781666766790

J. August Higgins, The Crisis of Conversion: Reimagining Religious Experience for a Postmodern Evangelical Spirituality. Amsterdam Series in Baptist and Mennonite Theologies (Pickwick Publications, 2024). ISBN: 9798385204618

Klaus Koschorke, A Short History of Christianity Beyond the West: Asia, Africa, and Latin America 1450–2000 (Brill, 2025). ISBN: 9789004699823

Pontien Ndagijimana Batibuka, Baptism as an Event of Taking Responsibility (Langham Academic, 2022). ISBN: 9781839732348

Mark Valeri, The Opening of the Protestant Mind: How Anglo-American Protestants Embraced Religious Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2023). ISBN: 978-0197663677

Editorial

2025-12-18T10:31:43+01:00