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'More than a Symbol' seeks to demonstrate that the interpretation of baptism as a mere symbol bearing witness to a previously completed conversion experience is inadequate both as a summary of biblical teaching and as a summary of Baptist thought. Starting with H. Wheeler Robinson and culminating in the work of G. R. Beasley-Murray, British Baptists in the twentieth century argued effectively that baptism must be interpreted as an effective sign, a meeting place of grace and faith, a sacrament rather than a mere symbol. This book argues that the New Testament exegesis that is at the heart of this reformulation is fundamentally accurate, and that the resulting system is theologically coherent. The book also argues that this view is not a Baptist novelty, but is rather a recovery of the foundational Baptist thought of the seventeenth century.""Like an archaeologist uncovering the remains of a lost city, Stan Fowler brings to light a long neglected trajectory of Baptist theology and practice on Christian baptism. Based on careful research, this book offers a much needed and long overdue challenge to the 'low' view of Baptist liturgical life. --Timothy George, Dean, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, and Executive Editor of 'Christianity Today' ""In this book, Stanley Fowler breathes new life into the doctrine and practice of believer's baptism. He argues that, if there is a form of sacramentalism which we ought to reject, there is also a form of it which we ought to embrace.--Clark H. Pinnock, McMaster Divinity College ""This is a fine study--historically judicious, theologically astute, spiritually alert, it is an exemplary piece of Christian scholarship in the service of the Church. --John Webster, Oxford UniversityStanley K. Fowler serves as Professor of Theology at Heritage Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. He is an ordained minister in the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada.

Anne Steele (1717-1778) was one of the most well-known and best-loved hymn-writers of the eighteenth century, and her hymns remained exceedingly popular until late in the nineteenth century, being reprinted regularly in hymnbooks throughout Britain and North America. She was the first major woman hymn-writer as well as the most popular Baptist hymn-writer in the history of the church. Despite this, she has been largely neglected as a subject of academic enquiry until now. This book aims to elucidate Steele's spirituality and to clarify her unique contribution to eighteenth-century hymnody. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, setting Steele's devotional expression in its theological, literary, and historical contexts, and providing comparison to other eighteenth-century figures. It uses archival sources to reconstruct her life and work, offers a close reading of her verse, and concludes that Steele made a significant and as yet underrated contribution to eighteenth-century devotional expression.

Marianne Farningham has been called one of the most influential female members of the nineteenth-century Baptist community, yet her name, a familiar one in evangelical households during the later nineteenth century, is virtually unknown to us today. Marianne, who wrote for the Christian press over a period of fifty years, both reflected and shaped aspects of popular Nonconformity, through her poetry, prose and biographies. She covered topics as varied as the theology of hell and votes for women.This investigation explores major aspects of Marianne's many-faceted life and thought, and discusses her views of women's roles, her educational work, her public life, for example as a popular lecturer, and her spirituality. Informed by Marianne's life and writings, it challenges a number of stereotypes of Victorian evangelicalism, including assumptions about evangelical women and the relationship between Evangelicalism and feminism. It is a significant contribution to the history of Victorian Nonconformity.'Secular scholars often complain that, traditionally, historians have ignored the lives of women. Nevertheless, when these scholars have gone to rediscover past women, they have often been bewildered by their strong commitment to the Christian faith and their scholarship has suffered from an inability to understand theology and spirituality. Linda Wilson is the perfect historian to retrieve for us the life of a Victorian woman. Wilson is a careful researcher and a clear, engaging writer. She brings both a deep understanding of Christianity and a probing, analytical mind. Moreover, Marianne Farningham is exactly the kind of person we need to rediscover. Although a remarkable and fascinating woman in many ways, Faningham did not live an extreme life - she was not a genius, an aristocrat, or a heroic missionary-martyr. Calling herself ""a plain woman worker"", Farningham's life can inform the on-going struggle of many women (and men) today to live out their faith, make a living, seek to fulfill their potential even in the face of prejudice, and value their home lives and relationships.'Timothy Larsen, McManis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, USA'This stimulating study of an unjustly neglected figure not only brings her life and work vividly before the reader, but also illuminates her time and context in ways that will provoke further study.'Ruth Gouldbourne, Minister of Bloomsbury Baptist Church and formerly Tutor in Church History and Doctrine, Bristol Baptist College, UK'Farningham deserves the admirable quality of treatment found in this volume. She had a significant personal influence and is also someone whose life illuminates nineteenth-century Baptist and wider evangelical Nonconformist culture and the role of women within that culture.'Ian M. Randall, International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague, Czech Republic and Spurgeon's College, London, UKLinda Wilson tutors distance learning courses with London School of Theology and the University of Gloucestershire. She is also part of the leadership team of a 'new church', Bristol Christian Fellowship. Dr Wilson has previously published Constrained by Zeal, a study of nineteenth-century female spirituality.

Baptists are not known for their sacramental theology. 'Baptist Sacramentalism', a collection of essays by Baptist theologians and historians from Great Britain and North America, shows that sacramental theology is not an innovation in Baptist thought and offers a viable way of understanding God's action in the church and the world.Drawing on theology, history, and biblical studies, the contributors explore the physical and spiritual dimensions of Christian theology and experience, the church, baptism, the Lord's supper, religious liberty, the politics of disestablishment, ordination and ministry, and preaching.Contributors include John Colwell, Anthony R. Cross, Stanley Fowler, Curtis Freeman, Timothy George, Tim Grass, Stanley Grenz, Barry Harvey, Michael Haykin, Brian Haymes, Stephen Holmes, Elizabeth Newman, Clark Pinnock, Stanley Porter, lan Randall, and Philip Thompson.