Baptistic Theologies, 2009

dronoviene, IBTS, Prague Anthony R. Cross and Philip E. Thompson (eds.) Baptist Sacramentaiism (2) Volume 25, Studies in Baptist History and Thought Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2008, 269pp. This is a collection of fifteen essays by eleven British evangelicals (principally, but not exclusively, Baptist) and four from the USA. They claim to stand broadly within the open evangelical tradition and write out of an Anglo-American context. Here, the authors take the notion of sacrament beyond the confines of the two Gospel sacraments of believer’s baptism and the eucharist and explore notions of sacramentaiism in penance, sacred space and the Word. One common feature is the search for dialogue and seeking points of agreement with other Christian world communions, for which the authors are to be applauded. This dialogue extends to ‘cousins’ such as the Churches of Christ, and more distant family relatives such as the Anglicans and the Roman Catholics. Being Anglo-American in shape and authorship there is a noticeable absence of engaging with the Orthodox churches, which is very important to many, if not a majority, of European Baptists. The essays, inevitably in such a volume, are of mixed interest and quality. As might be expected, there are good offerings from Christopher J. Ellis on the notion of embodied grace, and from Paul S. Fiddes examining afresh the doctrine of ex opera operato and suggesting that this understanding affirms for Baptists ‘that there needs to be no bridge between the actions of the world and the saving acts of God... the gracious presence of God is there through the act performed’. Peter J. Morden explores the eucharistic theology of C.H. Spurgeon and the interaction with his spirituality, building on the chapter by Tim Grass and Ian M. Randall in Volume 5 of the series, Studies in Baptist History and Thought. He provides further illumination of the depth and breadth of the faith of Spurgeon, who most Baptists think of only as a popular preacher. Communion with God, which Spurgeon generally spoke of as communion with Christ, was at the heart of his faith and life. Though theologically conservative and an exponent of orthodox faith, Morden helps 126 Baptistic Theologies us to see the importance to Spurgeon of a deep spiritual relationship with God in the Lord’s Supper, in prayer, in meditation, and in reading spiritual classics. Spurgeon can thus be placed in juxtaposition to the ‘mere memorialism’ of a John Clifford. Strange it seems that British Baptists took more from Clifford than Spurgeon in the last century regarding the Lord’s Supper, though we might rejoice, as this volume testifies, that a better appreciation of the sacramental realities of faith belong to this present time. The general editors of this series are to be commended for publishing a second volume on Baptist Sacramentalism. We might hope in the future for a further volume which deals with these themes