Confederate authority in the church: An ecumenical analysis and theological interpretation of the Philadelphia Baptist tradition of church and church authority, 1707-1814.
Creators: name: Sacks, Francis W.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1978
Subjects: subject: History, Church.

description: The purpose of this study is threefold. First of all, the author uncovers new insights into the tradition of church and church authority in the Philadelphia Baptist Association of the eighteenth century (hereafter: P.B.A.). Secondly, he indicates the strengths and weaknesses in that tradition. Thirdly, he uncovers the principles, both explicit and implicit, which support the Philadelphia Baptist tradition. The work includes two introductory historical chapters which describe the British and American roots of the Philadelphia Baptists. These chapters also provide the genealogy for the official Philadelphia Baptist Confession of 1742 (Second London Confession of 1677 and 1689), and the second chapter introduces other official P.B.A. sources used in this study: the Church Disciplines of 1743 and 1798, an essay of 1749 on the power and duty of an association, and various associational sermons and letters. The analysis of official sources of the P.B.A. includes a comparison of the Confession with its background sources: the Westminster Confession of 1646, the Declaration of Savoy of 1658, the Particular Baptist First London Confession of 1644, and other British Baptist and Separatist sources. By searching through the evidence from the primary sources, the author gathers insights into the Philadelphia Baptist tradition of universal Church (chapter 3), gathered church (chapter 4), and the council and association (chapter 5). He proposes composite definitions for church and association based upon evidence in the sources, and, in chapter 6, draws together previous findings about the nature of church authority in the Philadelphia Baptist tradition of the eighteenth century. The author provides historical explanations for an apparent discrepancy between the explicit P.B.A. theology of universal Church and the practice of the Association. According to the author, the basic models of church operative in the Philadelphia Baptist tradition of the eighteenth century were those of covenant and communion. The covenant model appears as primary because the formal cause of church was the covenant. The communion model, however, is shown to be more pervasive, with elements of other models (especially institutional and herald models) also in evidence. The study reveals that the P.B.A., in its explicit associational theory, differentiated the council from the association. The former was compulsory; the latter, totally voluntary as a style of interchurch fellowship. The analysis also shows that Philadelphia Baptists viewed the church covenant, church-power, and excommunication in limited terms, and that they overlooked the missionary dimension of both the church and the association. The study highlights major underlying principles operative in the P.B.A. tradition of church and church authority, and the author specifies which of these are more basic than others. He also provides a scenario of the process of discerning the authentic meaning of Scripture among Philadelphia Baptists who accepted the theory expressed in the sources. The analysis of official P.B.A. sources shows that the P.B.A. accepted church authority at several levels of the local congregation, the church officers, the church council, and the association. The author develops categories from the evidence in the sources in order to characterize these powers: association-power ad intra is distinguished from ad extra (those concerning the inner life of the association and those concerning the life of the churches); ecclesiastical powers of divine origin are differentiated from those of ecclesiastical origin. The author describes each power in detail and clarifies their interrelationship. He shows, moreover, that Philadelphia Baptists practiced a true delegation of authority and power, and that the Association had ecclesiological significance even though it was merely of ecclesiastical origin and historically conditioned. According to the author, the P.B.A. view of church and its associational theory manifested certain limitations, but these are outweighed by their advantages. By way of extrapolation, the author suggests the relevance of the eighteenth century Philadelphia Baptist tradition for the Churches today, and he asks specific questions of both Catholic and Baptist theology. Part of the value of this work is its appendices and bibliography. The appendices collect eighteenth century statements about church from official P.B.A. and other sources. Appendix C offers an extended note on Calvinism and Arminianism that situates Philadelphia Baptists within the Reformed theological tradition. Extended annotations on primary Baptist sources offer a useful tool for further research into the Philadelphia Baptist tradition.