Towards Baptist Catholicity

Stephen R. Harmon.  Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision, UK: Paternoster, 2006. 275pp. $30.00.

One sees among some Evangelicals and even in the emergent movement a clarion call to what some identify as an "ancient-future church" where the "Great Tradition" is a resource for renewing the Christian Faith.  We are starting to see series like the Ancient Christian Commentary series and Evangelical Resourcement series from publishers like InterVarsity, Eerdmans, Baker, and especially Baker's subsidiary, Brazos Press.  Steven Harmon among others has joined a chorus of voices in trying to reclaim the ancient tradition of the early church for Baptists.  Catholicity for Harmon should lean towards a fuller realization of a visible-unified church demonstrated in Eucharist fellowship. 

Patristic scholars like Harmon among others are realizing a growing importance of tradition as a source of authority along with the ancient liturgies, creeds, and catechistic material.  Historically, a larger gathering of churches contributed to a greater authority and consensus than we see in todays divided Christendom.  What Harmon does is examine his own Baptist tradition and history in how it relates to biblical authority.  He lists a web of authorities like the formative authority of the Triune God, the transformative authority of Christ and conversion, the conformative authority of the church in the image of Christ, the illuminating authority of the Holy Spirit, the performative authority of Christian conduct and the imitation of Christ, and the multiformative authority of the priesthood of all believers, the congregation, and the global church.

Harmon examines the living tradition of the undivided church to which all Protestant denominations and nondenominational churches are rightful heirs.  He asks readers to go deeper into the communion of the saints.  He calls for a cross-fertilization of Christian and Jewish scholarship to gain a larger perspective of church history and its development of dogma and doctrine.  He examines the strengths and weaknesses of Thomas Oden Paleo-orthodoxy, Karl Barth's community faith perspective, and the French Catholics 'La Nouvelle Theologie' resourcement renewal.  He also tackles newer theologies like Radical Orthodoxy, liberation theology, and George Lindbeck's post-liberal theology.  He is conscious of the troubled waters of postmodernism and uses Barth as an example to navigate through them.

This volume ends with a provocative chapter on what keeps him from becoming Catholic.  His identity and history is within the Baptist tradition, and he believes he can best serve his church from challenging others from within that tradition.  He also does not see the point of moving from one imperfect communion to another promoting ecumenism.  He is sympathetic and understanding to those who have done so but he opts for "staying put" in the tradition that baptized and forged his Christian faith.

Some unaddressed issues and questions in this work can be raised.  How does tradition develop and what distinguishes faithful development from mutation of it?  One also wishes Harmon would have explored the issue of Episcopal leadership in the early church.  How does this effect his views and practices and the Free Church tradition?  Lastly, many Baptist beliefs and attitudes follow the radical Anabaptist independent movement rather than the more catholic British Baptists.  This important issue of catholicity is hardly on the radar for most Baptists or Protestants today despite some Christian historians and church leaders who are taking a second look at the earliest Christian tradition and its implications this has on ecclesiology, ecumenism, and discipleship practices.

Chris Criminger
Minister of Vallonia Christian Church
Vallonia, Indiana