Towards Understanding of the Practice of Proclamation: The Core Element of Russian Baptist Worship, Timofey Cheprasov, 2015

ggestion that a baptistic vision is a particular way of reading and applying the Bible, a form of a literalism, claiming that this is how the Bible is read in baptistic communities. Now, it would be useful to turn to a theologian who has grounded his systematic theology in such an understanding “© R. Alan Culpepper argues that this view is completely opposite to John Calvin’s perspective on the purpose of the Scripture, as a book that leads people to salvation (salvation here is understood in its narrow meaning, as an event that takes place at a person’s repentance — acceptance of the fact that he/she is a sinner and asking Jesus to forgive their sins) (R. Alan Culpepper, “Scripture,” in R. Wayne Stacy, ed., A Baptist’s Theology (Macon, Georgia, Smyth and Helwys, 1999), p 89). “7 McClendon, Doctrines, p 35. 150 of the baptist vision — James Wm. McClendon Jr. | am far from arguing that his understanding of the way baptistic Christians read the Bible is unique. Other theologians have similar views and | will refer to them later. However, what is unique about McClendon, and is, perhaps, one of the major reasons for referring to his trilogy Systematic Theology, is his conviction that this particular way of reading the Bible is the guiding stimulus that has played and continues to play the main role in shaping baptistic communities. He claims that baptists ‘in all their variety and disunity failed to see in their own heritage, their own way of using Scripture, their own communal practices, their own guiding vision, a resource for theology unlike the prevailing tendencies round about them,’ which often led them to disappointing results — ‘baptists became the victim of ideologies left and right — and thereby became less themselves, spiritually impoverishing both themselves and _ their neighbours in other Christian churches.’”® Such a claim leads him to recognize the need to define a ‘theological centre’ in order to be able to do any theological work, which is the starting point of his systematic theology. What makes it even more important for my project is the understanding that ‘the vision so understood is a necessary and sufficient organising principle for a (baptist) theology.’”” Thus, the next section of my work will offer a short review of McClendon’s theological views. | will try to show his theological method as an example of how his understanding of the baptist vision serves as an organising principle for theology. | will introduce several main concepts, necessary for understanding his theology and show their connection and interdependence, which will highlight the importance of the baptist vision understood as a particular hermeneutical principle. In the next step, | will concentrate on McClendon’s understanding of the role of the baptist vision. Based on his view of theology as a study of convictions (and practices, as embodied convictions), it is possible to slightly extend McClendon’