More Than Just a Name: Preserving Our Baptist Identity

By Stan Norman

This book critically analyzes writings on Baptist distinctives. It argues that these writings constitute a specific theological genre: a confessional theology. Stan Norman shows that there is a continuous body of theological components common to all Baptists.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805420207
• ISBN13: 9780805420203
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.2" x 0.4" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Great Book

Do you want to know some of the reasons why we as Baptist believe what we believe? This is the book to read. Great insight and knowledge about Baptist identity and Reformation/Enlightenment Tradition and influence.

Answering the question, "What makes a Baptist a Baptist?"

Synopsis Norman asked the question, "What makes a Baptist a Baptist?" (2). That is the question perplexing many Southern Baptists today as the convention marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of the conservative resurgence. Norman pursued the task of answering the question by surveying prominent writings from the past two hundred years that speak to the distinctiveness of Baptist beliefs. He wrote from the perspective of an historical theologian presenting the results of his findings without direct criticism or reflective analysis. He allowed the Baptist writers of the past to stand on their own merit. He saved his own opinions for the last chapter. Norman insisted that Baptist core distinctives have taken two roads through history reflecting two confessional traditions: the Reformation and the Enlightenment. Each theological camp has its own body of literature from which Norman was able to draw in making his comparisons between the two traditions. He concluded that all writings within the Baptist distinctive genre exhibited the same theological components: the epistemological, the polemical, the ecclesiological, and the volitional. These theological traits served as the organizing principle throughout the book. The Reformation and Enlightenment confessional traditions differ in some areas, but together they help form the framework for the core theological identity of Baptists. Baptists may differ on other peripheral issues, but they maintain fraternal allegiance and unfaltering integrity on the core distinctives. To depart from any one of the core distinctives is to cease being "baptistic". While other denominations may share some of the core distinctives, no other Christian faith tradition shares all of the distinctions. If one did, Norman asserted that they would be Baptist. Analysis Norman assigned Baptist writings to the Reformation or Enlightenment traditions based upon the writer's epistemological framework. The Reformation tradition saw truth residing nearly exclusively in the Scriptures, while the Enlightenment tradition understood truth as that which comes through individual experience. For the Reformation tradition, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments provide the nexus for all religious truth. The authority of the Bible informs such Baptist distinctives as the nature of the church, its ordinances, its governance, and the religious competency of its individual members. The Enlightenment tradition draws personal spiritual experience along side of scripture. Personal experience provides subjective affirmation of objective truth. Objective truth is not appreciated as such until experienced by the human soul through an encounter with God. For the Reformation tradition, the authority and sufficiency of the Bible is the supreme Baptist distinctive. In the Enlightenment tradition, all Baptist core distinctives, including the supremacy of Scripture, are subordinate to personal experience. The unst

Fascinating and erudite

In this fascinating book, Baptist theologian, Dr. R. Stanton Norman answers the simple question, "What is a Baptist?" This is no academic exercise; the various Baptist churches have been rocked by recent events, as groups within them have tried to make changes to the churches, of which the recent Southern Baptist conflict is just the most well known. Unlike many churches, the Baptists do not have a formal creed that defines and orders their beliefs. So, Dr. Norman turned to the various Baptist theological writings that have, over the centuries, been used to define what a Baptist is. Within this "genre," the author discovered that there are Baptist distinctives in epistemological (source of doctrine), ecclesiological (practice of doctrine) and volitional (freedom of the soul) components. And even within that, there are two distinct traditions: the older "Reformation" tradition which places biblical authority as the core distinctive, and the newer "Enlightenment" tradition which places Christian experience on a par with, or above, biblical authority. This book is different than many that I have read, in that it does not begin with a thesis, and then explain the author's views. Instead, the author lets the information spread out, or open like a flower, moving the reader from the source material through to its implications. Along the way, the reader is given an excellent understanding of what Baptists are and believe, and how that is defined by the two traditions. I must say, that this is a very deep book that is not for the casual reader. But, that said, you do not need to be a theologian to understand what the author is saying. Instead, what this book is is an erudite examination of what Baptists believe, and what makes them different from every other denomination. I found this to be a fascinating and highly informative book, and I am very glad that I read it. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Baptist church, and what makes it tick.