Journal of European Baptist Studies

Editorial

Toivo Pilli — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The Contribution of Bible Reading Habits to Finding Meaning in Life

Roald Zeiffert — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Drawing from both quantitative and qualitative data, this mixed-method article investigates how reading the Bible contributes to a meaningful life for young evangelicals in Norway. The analysis shows that three groups emerge from the data. The Coherent group regularly read the Bible and find it important for how they live their lives. Bible reading is an integrated part of their lives; they often read together with their peers and use the Bible as an important source of meaning. Members of the Frustrated group find the Bible important for their lives but read less. They experience a stressful, conflicted relationship with the Bible and a weaker experience of meaning. Those in the third group, the Distanced, do not find the Bible very important, or read it very often; for them, the Bible is neither a source of meaning nor a source of frustration. They do not seek meaning from the Bible.

The Nature of Theological Authority in Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy

Radostin Marchev — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0200

At first glance the understandings of theological authority in Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism are quite different. This fact has the potential to hinder effective dialogue between the two traditions. This article examines the possibility of the Protestant understanding of theological authority being read and interpreted through the reformer’s doctrine of the Testimonium Spiritus Sancti Internum (the Inner Witness of the Holy Spirit) such that it meets the Eastern Orthodox objections. Applying the teaching of the Spirit’s witness provides an opportunity to emphasise some important features and highlight nuances in the understanding of authority that otherwise could be easily neglected. While it does not solve all the problems in the dialogue, this approach could possibly lead to important rapprochement of the two positions.

George Borrow (1803–1881) in St Petersburg and the Scriptures in Manchu

Ian Randall — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0200

George Henry Borrow became well known in Victorian England as a novelist and travel writer. He wrote a brilliant description of the five years he spent working in Spain for the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS), The Bible in Spain (1843). It became a best-seller. This article examines Borrow’s multi-faceted work in St Petersburg — before his time in Spain — in which he was engaged in the translation of the New Testament into the Manchu language. This article also brings out Borrow’s Christian faith, an aspect which has been ignored or misrepresented in much of the literature about him. In 1911, it was reported that a bundle of letters by Borrow had been discovered — ‘a great literary treasure’. Here, his letters from St Petersburg, held in the Cambridge University Library, are used as the main primary source material to enable a picture of Borrow and his endeavours to be painted.

A Challenge to Change

Julian R. Gotobed — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Significant efforts were made in the 1990s to catalyse renewal in the life and witness of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. Several key Baptist thinkers identified racism as a problem impacting British society and Baptist churches but ignored any detailed consideration of the issue. This article seeks to account for this paradoxical phenomenon among contributors to the discourse about Baptist identity, denominational renewal, and engagement with mission within the larger story of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and racism in the 1990s. The writings of Nigel Wright, Rob Warner, and Derek Tidball are considered. All three authors self-identified as evangelical and advocated denominational renewal in the service of mission. The article explores factors that informed and limited discourse about race and racism among British Baptists in the 1990s, and the significance and outcome of these for Baptist life and witness in the ensuing decades of the twenty-first century.

Towards a Theology of Compassion

Thomas Sears — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The war in Ukraine ignited a significant response financially for relief efforts in and around Ukraine. The motivation behind the donations for the Ukraine Relief Fund established by the TCM International Institute serve as the specific case study for the findings outlined in this article. Utilising Oliver Davies’ ontological framework of compassion, the article explores some of the hidden complexities of financial stewardship in the modern world. It also considers the key factors of compassion outlined in Davies’ conceptual framework in engagement with the research results. This study provides considerations for readers as they pursue a more meaningful theology of compassion when compelled to respond and participate financially to relief efforts during times of international crisis.

Engaging with the Margins

Victoria Aleksandravicene — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The Baptist evangelical mission among the Bulgarian Roma traces its roots to the beginning of the twentieth century. Waves of persecution, discrimination, and a hate-speech narrative have continuously placed the Roma community at the fringes of society. Despite ineffectual state efforts and strategies, many churches manage to make a difference in the lives of the Roma in their surrounding communities. The church adopts a holistic approach — meeting spiritual needs, together with physical and social needs. This article provides an overview of the development of Baptist mission to the Roma people, its transformative outcomes, and its impact on both church life and the surrounding community.

The Challenge of Boko Haram in Nigeria and Lessons from the Sierra Leone Civil War

Jari Portaankorva — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The civil war in Sierra Leone was one of the most vicious conflicts in Africa’s recent history. Baptists and other religious communities worked together to end the conflict between the government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Today, Nigeria has similar challenges and there is a need for close cooperation between religious communities to mediate peace between the government and Boko Haram. Faith-based peacebuilding aims at a just peace and reconciliation through non-violent means, and this study compares faith-based peace building in Sierra Leone during the 1990s with the Boko Haram uprising in Nigeria today and considers the lessons to be learnt. The article discusses how the efforts of faith-based peace building actors in Nigeria may support both the peace process and the peaceful coexistence of religious communities, arguing that within this there is an urgent need to discuss poverty and social marginalisation, build stronger relationships between governments and local communities, and open direct dialogue with Boko Haram.

Book Reviews

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Lee B. Spitzer, Sympathy, Solidarity, and Silence: Three European Baptist Responses to the Holocaust (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2022), 231 pages. ISBN: 9780817018351.

Paul S. Fiddes (ed.), Loving the Planet: Interfaith Essays on Ecology, Love, and Theology (Oxford: Firedint Publishing, 2022), 229 pages. ISBN: 9781999940744.

Ian Randall, Mission Not Impossible: Baptist Missionaries’ Experiences and Reflections (Didcot: The Baptist Historical Society and BMS World Mission, 2023), 188 pages. ISBN: 9780903166492.

Ashley Cocksworth, Rachel Starr, and Stephen Burns (eds), with Nicola Slee, From the Shores of Silence: Conversations in Feminist Practical Theology (London: SCM, 2023), 236 pages. ISBN: 9780334060963.

Dennis C. Bustin and Barry H. Howson, Zealous for the Lord: The Life and Thought of Seventeenth Century Baptist Hanserd Knollys (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2019), 121 pages. ISBN: 9781532636288.

Deborah Bingham Van Broekhoven (ed.), Baptists in Early North America Vol VII: 1st Baptist Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2021), 472 pages. ISBN: 9780881467864.

Corneliu Constantineanu and Peter Penner (eds), Central and Eastern European Bible Commentary (Carlisle, Cumbria: Langham Global Library, 2022), 1676 pages. ISBN: 9781783688227.

James S. Currie, The Church Beyond the Wall: Life and Ministry in the Former East Germany (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2019), 91 pages. ISBN:9781532652219.

Jameson E. Ross, Bonhoeffer as Biblical Interpreter: Reading Scripture in 1930s Germany (London: T&T Clark, 2023), 202 pages. ISBN: 9780567702241.

Joseph C. L. Sawatzky, Toward an Anabaptist-Pentecostal Vision: Exploring Ecclesial Identities in North American Mennonite Mission with Pentecostal-Type Churches in Southern Africa (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2023), 258 pages. ISBN: 9781666739114.

Alexei Bodrov and Stephen M. Garret (eds), Theology and the Political: Theo-political Reflections on Contemporary Politics in Ecumenical Conversation (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 291 pages. ISBN: 9789004431744.

Jehu J. Hanciles (ed.), The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Vol. IV: The Twentieth Century: Traditions in a Global Context (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 449 pages. ISBN: 9780199684045.

Mark P. Hutchinson (ed.), The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Vol. V: The Twentieth Century: Themes and Variations in a Global Context (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 449 pages. ISBN: 9780198702252.

Ulinka Rublack (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Protestant Reformations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 823 pages. ISBN: 9780199646920.