John H.Y. Briggs (gen. ed.), A Dictionary of European Baptist Life and Thought.
Clements, Keith
John H.Y. Briggs (gen. ed.), A Dictionary of European Baptist Life
and Thought (Studies in Baptist History and Thought Vol. 13), Milton
Keynes and Colorado Springs: Paternoster, 2009, xxiii, 541pp.
Baptists, with some 110 million adherents worldwide, can justly
claim to be the largest aggregate of evangelical Protestants. Their
greatest numerical strength being in North America, and their almost
universal global reach being the fruit of missionary enterprise dating
from the late 18th century, it can easily be forgotten that their
historical origin in fact lies in Europe. The first Baptist congregation
(as distinct from the Anabaptist movement which sprang up in the radical
Reformation nearly a century earlier) was formed by English refugees in
Amsterdam in 1609, and while Baptists are not a majority denomination in
any European country today, they are nevertheless deeply rooted in the
Christian scene over most of the continent, with varying degrees of
active ecumenical commitment.
This book was been eight years in the making. General editor John
Briggs and his team are to be congratulated on a volume which merits
becoming a standard and essential reference work. The 700 articles,
coveting all aspects of Baptist life, thought and history, in every
country in Europe (and some contingent areas of Asia and the Middle
East), are authoritative, and crisply written by qualified writers from
every region of the continent. Elements of belief and practice, worship
and theology, spirituality, liturgy, personal and social ethics,
mission, organizations Baptist and non-Baptist, bodies ecumenical and
political, other denominations and communions and Baptist relationships
with them are all covered. The diversity of European Baptist viewpoints
on some matters is reflected notwithstanding a watchful editorial eye
being maintained to ensure consistent quality and style. One charge
inevitably laid against this kind of compendium is that many of the
articles are too brief to go into any depth or to do justice to the
range of opinion among Baptists. Accepting, however, that it is a
dictionary rather than "encyclopaedia," and that it is
intended to start the student off in the right direction (often aided by
suggestions for further reading), it fulfils its purpose well. Articles
on "Baptism" (two and half pages) and "Baptism and
Christian initiation liturgy" (one page) naturally rate for longer
treatment than many other topics. Moreover, regardless of length of
articles, there can be no complaints about their clarity. For example
Keith Jones's treatment of "Anabaptism" is outstandingly
lucid on the perennially debated questions of the differences and
historical continuities between the Anabaptist and Baptist movements,
and the relationships between contemporary Baptists and Mennonites.
An entertaining, if incidental, result of an alphabetical ordering
of articles is that topics not normally thought of in the same breath
are hereby juxtaposed without embarrassment. Thus for example
"Creeds" is followed by "Cremation," "Eternal
Life" by "Ethical Investments," "Missions" by
"Mixed marriages," while "Smyth, John" (the founder
of that first Baptist congregation in Amsterdam) is preceded immediately
by "Smoking and Tobacco." A holistic approach indeed.
One area where the editors have unfortunately had to retreat is
biography. The original intention of including a wide selection of key
European Baptist figures had to be shelved because of the unevenness of
coverage that was resulting from one country to another. What has been
retained is a minimal selection of figures who have played a founding or
crucial Europe-wide role in Baptist life. It is surprising, nonetheless,
to see that William Carey, widely regarded as the founder of modern
Western missions and thereby the most eminent Baptist historical figure
on the oikoumene, is treated with such relative brevity. Admittedly, the
pioneer of Serampore operated for most of his life outside Europe. But
his role in opening up Asia and the Christian West to each other in a
new way surely enhances rather than diminishes his "European"
significance. Equally puzzling is the selection of non-Baptist figures
who have affected the movement as a whole. For example, while it is good
to see the eminent South African missiologist David Bosch included,
there is no niche for Karl Barth, the European Protestant giant of the
20th century who delivered his own mighty critique of infant baptism.
There is, however, a promised Biographical Dictionary in the planning,
and we may hope that these inconsistencies will be redressed.
A curiously (and one trusts unintended) air is imparted by David
Coffey, President of the Baptist World Alliance, who in his Foreword
hails the Dictionary as "a book written by Baptists for
Baptists," as if Baptists had a low expectation of (or wish for)
interest to be taken in them by other Christian communions. That is an
unfortunate impression, for the editors have in fact taken pains to
include ecumenical issues and organizations, and Baptist involvement in
them. John Briggs himself, for instance, gives a very through overview
of the highly significant 1982 Faith and Order document Baptism,
Eucharist and Ministry and the Baptist responses to it. Baptists
themselves, in Europe and elsewhere, will certainly profit greatly from
this work. But so too will readers of any tradition and in any part of
the world who will want to know and understand more about this vital
segment of world Christianity, and it should therefore be welcomed as a
real contribution to advancing ecumenical understanding and education.
DOI: 10.1111/erev.12044
Keith Clements's latest work is Ecumenical Dynamic: Living in
More than One Place at Once (WCC Publications).
