Journal of European Baptist Studies

‘A Gathered Congregation of People which Is Built on Christ’: Core Ecclesial Principles Anabaptists and Early Baptists Held in Common

Brian C. Brewer — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The Anabaptists of the Continental Reformation era and the early English Baptists a century later may have derived from different ecclesial-political and geographic settings, but they shared a number of theological sentiments. While several more theological parallels might be demonstrated, this article will focus on four major areas of overlap: ecclesiology, baptism, covenant, and religious liberty/freedom of conscience. Not only are these four distinctives significant for both traditions but these particular doctrines and practices also coalesce to establish a cohesive ecclesiological model that notably differs from other early Protestant traditions.

Theological Discussions between Mennonites and Baptists Past and Present

Uwe Swarat — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The first Baptist congregation (John Smyth’s congregation in 1609) did not emerge from the Mennonite community in the Netherlands, but sought out the Mennonites living there as its first dialogue partners outside its own Puritan-Separatist tradition. After describing the Baptist origins in Puritan Separatism, the article presents the documents exchanged between Dutch Mennonites and English Baptists. It also shows the parting of the ways between John Smyth and Thomas Helwys. The article then moves on to the nineteenth century, when new contacts between Baptists and Mennonites were established in Russia and Germany, and finally looks at the theological dialogue in the twentieth century between the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and the Mennonite World Conference (MWC). It concludes with a plea for continued theological dialogue, identifying two themes (historical and theological) that need to be explored in greater depth.

Baptists and Anabaptists after Christendom: Opportunities for Mutual Learning

Stuart Murray Williams — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Although early Baptists differentiated and distanced themselves from Anabaptism for a number of understandable reasons, these traditions have much in common as a recent Baptist/Mennonite dialogue demonstrates. But there are also divergencies and opportunities for mutual learning, especially in the emerging post-Christendom context in western societies. This article reflects on examples in the areas of ethics, missiology, and ecclesiology. Contemporary Baptists and Anabaptists can learn from each other in relation to issues of war and peace, different approaches to evangelism and interpretations of the atonement, participative communities and mutual accountability. An acknowledged limitation of this article is its western focus. It concludes by recognising that both traditions have much to learn from Baptists and Anabaptists in and from the Majority World.

Baptists and Anabaptists: The Australian Experience in its Global Context

Graeme R. Chatfield — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The article provides an overview of Baptist and Anabaptist connections in a global context, followed by detailed exploration of three key areas: Anabaptist connection with Baptist origins, Anabaptist connection with Baptist identity, and Baptist affinity with specific Anabaptist ideals. The Australian Baptist knowledge of and response to each of these themes is outlined. It is concluded that while Australian Baptist leadership alerted Australian Baptists to all three themes, apart from a minority of Australian Baptists that identified passionately with some Anabaptist ideals, the leadership essentially remained focused on maintaining unity among Baptists so they could corporately engage in evangelism and mission.

Believers’ Baptism as an Ongoing Practice of Constellating Identities: Historical and Theological Insights after the Radical Reformation’s 500th Year

Jacob Alan Cook — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200

As Anabaptism celebrates its 500th year, authoritarianism and partisan violence loom menacingly on the horizon of possible futures. This article revisits early Anabaptists and English Baptists, who insisted upon believers’ baptism amidst a broader struggle to distinguish between the loyalties generated by the orders of church and state. Before this insistence, however, these reformers worked within their local, mainstream reform movements. They became increasingly radical, advocating for soul liberty and the separation of church from state, only as their reforms were rejected and they were alienated from state-church spaces. Well-adjusted to the prevailing social order, their neighbours could not begin to fathom the radicals’ worldview, and believers’ baptism came to symbolise the radicals’ break with reality itself. Ultimately, this article offers a constructive theology of baptism to prepare ‘small b’ baptists to discern intentionally the tensions among modernity’s many loyalties and to navigate faithfully the twenty-first century’s environmental pressures.

Discipleship Without Borders: Anabaptist Lessons for Baptists on Rejecting the Idea of a Christian Nation

Joshua T. Searle — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200

This article offers an Anabaptist-informed critique of the tendency in contemporary politics to conscript Christian identity into the service of nationalistic agendas. By drawing upon the historical witness of the Anabaptists, I argue that the idea of a ‘Christian Nation’, despite its seductive appeal, is not a sacred archetype, but a profane illusion and a self-contradiction. Instead, I will argue that Baptists today are called to a transformative engagement with the world that is grounded in radical discipleship and inspired by shared Baptist–Anabaptist convictions, such as freedom, dignity, and the importance of living out our faith as Baptists in a way that transcends political and national boundaries.

Robert Robinson (1735–1790), Baptist Minister in Cambridge, on Anabaptistic Convictions

Ian Randall — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Robert Robinson (1753–1790) was an influential Baptist minister and thinker, whose ministry spanned three decades in St Andrew’s Street Baptist Church, Cambridge. There has been no recent scholarly treatment of Robinson’s life and work as a whole. What has been done tends to see him through the eyes of others. Robinson’s ability as a speaker and writer led to his being asked to write a history of the Baptist movement. In the completed History of Baptism, a work ultimately of 566 pages, Robinson was wide-ranging. The focus of this article is on what Robinson wrote about Anabaptism. Sections of his book covered many other aspects of baptismal practice. The article examines what Robinson said about the different types of Anabaptists that existed. It then goes on to consider the contested convictions which Robinson found in Anabaptism. Finally, Robinson’s work on Anabaptism in relation to baptism and the church is covered.

‘A Believing Church’ Reconsidered

G Jones Keith — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The first part of the article describes the author’s journey towards discovering the meaning and relevance of Anabaptist tradition for the present day. From a formal theological education in a state university which concentrated on the Magisterial Reformation, the author was challenged during a period of sabbatical study leave in 1984 to consider the Radical Reformation and, especially, the Swiss Anabaptists and those who followed Balthasar Hubmaier to Moravia. Post sabbatical, the author engaged with the work of Mennonite scholars, Alan and Ellie Kreider, leading to his involvement with various Anabaptist initiatives in England. This caused the author to write a book for English Baptists on insights gained from this exploration of the Anabaptist heritage. The second part of the article explores some of the issues in the book A Believing Church, which was published in 1998, and re-evaluates those insights for baptistic Christians in 2025.

Book Reviews

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Editorial

Ian Randall — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200