Journal of European Baptist Studies, Volume 7, No. 3, 2007

f a Christ centred, gathering Church, looking to the sovereign working of the Holy Spirit at work in the midst. The scriptures central. The Church believed in. God trusted to be faithful. It is this convictional basis which provides the framework for this analysis of the varied flavours and styles of theology and churchmanship within the EBF. This reviewer distrusts statistics, and is wary of attempts to form conclusions from them. So too with these authors! They manage the statistics not to prove, but to awaken awareness and alert readers to issues that deserve further attention. Again and again, they stress their desire is not to reach conclusions, but to spot and trace indicators of identity, epistemology, methodology and missionality identifiable within the EBF context. Seven sample regions are looked at, using the results of surveys undertaken in 2002-03. Each chapter begins with an editorial overview of the region, a backdrop of church within culture and context. There follows an evaluation of theological, moral, leadership, church and cultural issues which results to the questionnaire would suggest are indicative of the survey and pertinent to that region. The chapters then conclude with a summary and evaluation of the region, which usefully combines a synthesis of conclusions based on the statistical results with helpful comment and assessment by the theological editors, all of whom have considerable experience of cross-cultural ecclesial and missional activity in the regions analysed. The third section of each chapter, providing an analysis of contextual pressures and convictional suppositions, combined with a closing chapter propounding the genius behind ‘baptistic, contextual theology’, will be of special interest to the analytical and constructive theologian who wants to formulate a working method of testing what lies at the theological heart of a recognisable culture and context. If there is a weakness to be found in this work, it lies in the size of the samples taken from each of the regions, and in the age range of Book Reviews 55 respondents. Again, it is sometimes hard to identify the rational behind some of the questions in the survey. Vocabulary is at times ponderous and this reviewer would have found it more helpful if all questions had been framed, as some specifically were, with reference to a recognisable theological system. This said, these are weaknesses that are identified and recognised by the authors within the work itself. Why? Because this work is not designed as a magnum opus, nor intended to provide a definitive conclusion. It is, rather, the beginning of a journey of exploration. Here is a case study par excellence in baptistic theology. It is indicative of a methodology that those interested in the health of the church can and should be excited about. To read it is to be liberated into a new way of doing theology. And that, quite apart from engaging with m