Baptistic Theologies, 2009

ritain and, if the eyes of the authors are lifted from that narrow perspective, it is only Book Reviews 123 to compare and contrast with Baptist life in the USA. As such, it is an Anglo-American product. So, we can certainly see a different ‘take’ on Baptist ecclesial life, mission and ministry to that pertaining in many parts of the USA, but the present reviewer kept longing for some acknowledgement of the European context. Readers of this Journal will find much to please, but will have to wait longer for a truly European- focused offering. Taking a traditional stand within English Baptist life and thought, the book sets out a classic ecclesiology of the local church, extensively reviews issues of believer’s baptism, explores our theology and practice of the Lord’s Supper (no language of Communion or Eucharist here), presses the case for the primacy of worship before mission in the believing community and argues for a classic ‘structured ministry’ of presbyters focusing on the ministry of Word and Sacraments. The book, as such, offers a helpful counterpoint to the stream of books on the emergent, missional, new monastic and home community assemblies of believers. The model of ‘church’ is the classic one of the gathered community with appropriate anxieties expressed about Baptists who invest too much in the church as ‘buildings’. It does not engage with the current active model of the gathering church as favoured by McClendon, Wright and myself. It argues trenchantly against the pervading spirit of individualism in the case of baptism and in favour of the person being incorporated by baptism into the body of believers. The book claims to have been co-written, which means it has taken a long time to move from inception to publication, but occasionally lapses into the singular T in the text and it is clear that primary authorship has been assigned by chapters, if only in the way that some chapters are very heavily footnoted and others lightly. Those who know the authors might engage in a textual criticism of the ‘H’, ‘G’ and ‘C’ variety. The accent on the primacy of worship and the relationship between Bible, baptistery and table is excellent. There are modest textual errors which would have repaid further sub¬ editing. For instance, page 43 footnote 91 offers us Earnest (sic) Payne, which may have been true of him, but Ernest was his given name. Every British Baptist ought to go and buy this immediately. For Europeans, the book is valuable, but not decisive. We must wait longer for a reflective look at our gathering, convictional, intentional and missional ecclesiology, identity, worship, ministry and mission. Keith G. Jones, Rector, IBTS 124 Baptistic Theologies Toivo Pilli Dance or Die: The Shaping of Estonian Baptist Identity under Communism Volume 37, Studies in Baptist History and Thought Milton Keynes: Paternoster (in cooperation with the International Baptist Theolog