Confessional Renewal for Baptists

Abstract

Baptists in America have, in large part, been seen as an anti-confessional people. However, historically, Baptists of different stripes have held to confessions to ground their faith and practice. Arguing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this article will examine how his observation of American Christianity as “Protestantism without Reformation” is a distinctly Baptist phenomenon. As such, Baptists have replaced their struggle for confessional unity with autonomy, which has produced nationalism on the one hand and liberalism on the other. This article will examine E.Y. Mullins’ particular vision of Baptist autonomy and its implications for Baptist confessionalism through the lens of Bonhoeffer’s assessment of Baptists in America as "Protestantism without Reformation.” For a constructive response, this article will assess early Baptist confessions as a way of understanding the role confessionalism has played in the formation of Baptist identity. Particularly, Baptist identity is rooted in the church’s obedience towards Christ, as Baptist freedom is a freedom to obey. Exploring the work of James McClendon and Curtis Freeman, this article will explore the primitive understanding of the Baptist church as well as the implications of Freeman’s understanding of “contesting catholicity" as a way for Baptists to reclaim their catholic and reformational self-understanding