It's here. Just received in the post my copies of the most recent Regent Study Guide entitled Under the Rule of Christ. Dimensions of Baptist Spirituality, Paul Fiddes (Ed.), Smyth and Helwys, 2008 (ISBN: 978-095397 - 4-1). The book arose out of a request from the Baptist Union Retreat Group to the UK College Principals to write something on spirituality amongst Baptists. The result was a series of papers which we wrote, reviewed together, revised in the light of our discussions, and then offered for publication.
Here's the blurb from the publisher
In this book the Principals of the six Baptist colleges in Great
Britain take up a request to write about Baptist spirituality. They
propose that the spirituality of Baptists, in all its diversity, is
characterized by living ‘under the rule of Christ’. While all Christian
spiritual traditions affirm this truth, they suggest that there is a
particular sense of being under Christ’s rule which has been shaped by
the story of Baptists and by their way of being church through the
centuries. Elaborating the main theme, chapters explore various
dimensions of spirituality: giving attention to God and to others,
developing spirituality through suffering, having spiritual liberty
within a community, living under the rule of the Word in Christ and
scripture, integrating the Lord’s Supper with the whole of life, and
engaging in the mission of God from an experience of grace. Together,
the writers present an understanding of prayer and life in which Christ
is both the final authority and the
measure of all things.
Chris Ellis is Principal Emeritus of Bristol Baptist College; Paul Fiddes is Principal of Regent’s Park College, Oxford; Steven Finamore is Principal of Bristol Baptist College; James Gordon is Principal of the Scottish Baptist College, Glasgow; Richard Kidd is Principal of Northern Baptist College, Manchester; John Weaver is Principal of the South Wales Baptist College, Cardiff; Nigel Wright is Principal of Spurgeon’s Baptist College, London.
Ive a lot more to say about the Bible, Baptist principles and Baptist spirituality on the College blog here. You can find it just after the publisher's blurb. There is a big conversation to be had about what it means to be Baptist in such a distinctive way that it actually makes baptist people distinctive! Such distinctiveness doesn't necessarily make baptists more right, more spiritual, more theologically sound - it does indicate what it is we are called to be, and to be faithful to, within the diversity of the church universal.
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