Thinking With the Church: Toward a Renewal of Baptist Theology: 3 (Free Church Catholic Tradition)

Over the centuries Baptists have labored to follow Christ in faithful devotion and service. More recently they have occasionally partnered with fellow Christians from other traditions in these efforts while learning from each other along the way. In Thinking With the Church Derek Hatch argues that Baptists need to follow the same pattern when it comes to their theological reflection engaging the wisdom of all Christian pilgrims across time. This will require a new theological method--ressourcement--that embraces Baptists place within the Great Tradition of the Christian faith. Such work will not abandon long-held Baptist convictions but offers resources for renewing Baptists theological vision as they participate in the fullness of the mystical body of Christ. Against the backdrop of resurgent Calvinism Derek Hatch urges Baptists to retrieve the sacramental ontology of the great tradition of the church. Those skeptical of a ressourcement of the church catholic may want to consider Hatchs unrelenting focus on Jesus. The Christological approach yields a winsome treatment that deals a blow to our modern theological dilemmas (Bible or tradition individual or community truth or freedom). This thorough and nuanced appeal to the nouvelle theologie of Henri de Lubac and others is well worth pondering--not only for Baptists but also for other Protestants and Catholics. --Hans Boersma J. I. Packer Professor of Theology Regent College Derek Hatch proposes a remedy for the strained relationship between Baptists and theology: connecting the theological concerns that Baptists do have--even when not aware that they are doing theology when they engage them--with the practice of theology by the whole church. Thinking with the Church is must reading for all Baptists who are conscious of the shortcomings of their ecclesial life and yearn for the renewal of theology that will help Baptists envision for their churches a fuller participation in Gods life. --Steven R. Harmon Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity Derek C. Hatch is Associate Professor of Christian Studies at Howard Payne University in Brownwood Texas. He is the coeditor of Gathering Together: Baptists at Work in Worship (2013) and Weaving the American Catholic Tapestry: Essays in Honor of William L. Portier (2017).