Biblical Theology: Past, Present, and Future (I)
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 55, No. 2 – Spring 2013
Managing Editor: Terry L. Wilder
2nd rev ed. By William L. Lumpkin and Bill Leonard. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2011. 548 pages. Hardcover, $36.99.
An unspecified contingent of second editions arrives on bookshelves persona non grata. The book under current consideration is no such book. There is a tremendous need, especially seen surrounding Baptist history and theology, to provide for accessibility into our theological predecessors and of those outside our sphere of familiarity. Professor Bill Leonard’s revision, via addition, to Lumpkin’s classic work of collecting and providing limited commentary on numerous major Baptist confessions of faith seeks to occupy this niche though allowing the 21st-century theologian ease in examining the formal documents of Baptist theology.
In this work, Leonard and Judson Press enlarge upon the 1969 version of Lumpkin’s Baptist Confessions of Faith. Lumpkin acknowledges the pedigree of his volume in the forward to the present work. The two prior collections of Edward Underhill (1854) and Edward McGlothlin (1910) provided much of the material for Lumpkin’s and, subsequently, Leonard’s work. The continuity seen therein displays both positive and negative repercussions. On the positive side, historical continuity serves as an additional leg for Baptist theology upon which to rest. The Baptist movement is one born out of reading and seeking to apply the New Testament to the local church, nevertheless the movement has been given concrete manifestations in its statements of faith. Leonard’s work allows us to see the continuity both of the confessions of faith themselves and of the desire to collate the confessions. Negatively, any weaknesses of prior collections are often passed on to later ones (i.e. Lumpkin’s arrangement according to Associational/General confessions as opposed to the divisions of General/Particular Baptists and the omission of confessional preamble material) and dependence upon the original sources can be minimized.
Bill Leonard and the late William Lumpkin were both former professors at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Leonard currently teaches in both the Department of Religion and the Divinity School at Wake Forest University. In this work, he reformats Lumpkin’s 1969 edition and adds two new sections. In the new introduction, Leonard continues the discussion regarding a (or the) Baptist position on the role of confessions and creeds in the modern Baptist church and the future roles for confessions. Therein, Leonard describes the “continuum of Baptist Identity” as including items such as “biblical authority” and “liberty of conscience” (4-5). These headings are helpful and also alert the careful reader to the tension in Baptist theology. Cases in point are the seemingly paradoxical positions of Biblical authority/liberty of conscience and congregational autonomy/associational cooperation.
Leonard does not present any new information in chapters 1-6. However, the typeset allows the reader a great comfort over the previous edition in reading the material and seeing the distinction between commentary, confession, and footnotes. The last chapter is entitled “Twenty-First-Century Confessions” and represents the only new material in the body of Leonard’s book. The trend of global awareness seen in the 1969 edition of Lumpkin is continued in the present volume. Although the Baptist movement began in English speaking 17th-century Great Britain, the movement has mushroomed. Just as Baptists have spread, the awareness of Baptists in various countries around the world and their confessional formulations has also spread. Thus, the new chapter contains numerous confessions of chronological and geographic importance. The new additions range from the Nigerian Baptist Convention’s statement of faith to documents from the Evangelical Baptist Convention of Peru. This information proves very helpful to students of contemporary Baptist theology as it alerts readers to contentious areas of theology and practice for Baptists worldwide. An example would be the Nigerian statement containing four subsections (the fall of man, sin, Satan, and demons) under the title heading of “Evil” and the omission of an article on the church or ecclesiology.
Regarding the context of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Leonard’s book leaves the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) in the section entitled “American Baptist Confessions.” The table of contents indicates the inclusion of the 1925 and 1963 BF&M’s, but this is misleading as the reader needs to go elsewhere to compare the 1925 and 1963 BF&M’s. The section on “Twenty-First-Century Confessions” includes a two-page introduction to the SBC and the body of the 2000 BF&M. The presentation is theologically even-handed. The reader looking for further information on the SBC and the “moderate” society founded in 1991 (the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship) will find footnotes only pointing to resources on one side of the theological divide (Leonard’s Baptists in America and Walter Shurden’s The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms).
In summation, Leonard’s revised edition of Lumpkin’s now classic text deserves consideration by students of Baptist history and theology. Students without a copy of Lumpkin’s 1969 work should purchase this book. However, for those following the available collections of Baptist confessions of faith, we are still awaiting an entirely new resource book which would contain items such as confessions, confessional commentary, brief annotation regarding groups and movements, a bibliography, the inclusion of preamble material, the publication of signatures (where applicable and practical), clearer chapter designations, and extensive reliance upon the original documents.
