Journal of European Baptist Studies, Volume 9, Number 2, January 2009

designed and controlled from the outside; rather, the world is in a constant process of self-creation. Following these presuppositions and conclusion, the idea of the development of religion is viewed here as a result of the dialogue occurring between representatives of particular traditions and theological trends. This idea, far from being confined to the changing doctrines, is vital for the development of man in the whole cycle of life and to the harmonious coexistence of various human communities in the contemporary world. Even a general survey of the basic formulations of the twentieth century theology of religions (the simultaneous complementariness and completeness of the economy of salvation of the individual persons of the Holy Trinity, the progressive character of God’s Epiphany) provides a background against which possible examples of interpenetration of religious ideas could be presented. Of significance is Cobb’s belief in the existence of more than one irreducible sphere: apart from God, he isolates the category of Creativeness as equivalent to notions like Sunyata or Dharmakaya but different from specific exemplifications of the Supreme Being, such as e.g. Ishvara, Jahveh or Christ. This distinction is to enable a dialogical development of particular theologies while at the same time 17 preventing them from ideological homogenisation. 16 John B. Cobb, Thinking with Whitehead about Nature, [in:] J. Polanowski, D. Sherburne (ed.), Whitehead’s Philosophy. Points of Connection (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004), pp. 175-196. 17 John B. Cobb, Concluding Reflections, in Paul F. Knitter (ed.). Transforming Christianity and the World , p. 184-185. 28 Journal of European Baptist Studies The fact that theology is construed socially leads one to consider not the dogmatic essence of Christianity but rather the Christian structure of existence, rooted in the awareness of God’s presence in the world and realised in the human responsibility for experienced reality. The same is true of other religions. For example some Jewish thinkers combine the concept of God’s processuality with His immanent presence in the constantly created world and with the problem of theodicy. This leads to a reinterpretation of the Old Testament idea of a covenant extended to the whole world according to the promise given to Noah. Miroslaw Patalon, PhD, is a professor of religious education at the University of Gdansk, Poland where he is also a vice-dean of the Social Sciences Faculty. From 1989 to 2003 he was a pastor of Baptist churches in Wroclaw and Gdansk. Fie is the author of several books and articles on the philosophy of religion and the theory of education. How Indigenous was the Baptist Movement in the Russian Empire? 29 How Indigenous was the Baptist Movement in the Russian Empire? In reviewing a religious movement, the question often arises, how indigenous is it? Such a quest