New Article Published in JEBS: “Unorthodox Christology in General Baptist History”

I’m honored to announce the publication of my article, “Unorthodox Christology in General Baptist History: The Legacy of Matthew Caffyn” in the newest edition of the Journal of European Baptist Studies (Vol. 19, No. 2, Autumn 2019, pp. 140-151).

The JEBS is published by the excellent International Baptist Theological Study Centre in Amsterdam, and I’m very grateful to the many scholars there who poured their time into this volume, and for their tremendous work in the area of Anabaptist/Baptist history.  Many thanks especially to Dr. Dorothy J. McMillan for her editorial work and guidance, and also to the journal’s Editor Dr. Toivo Pilli.

Using the legacy of seventeenth-century unitarian preacher Matthew Caffyn as a case study, my article reexamines non-trinitarian theology in the context of the Reformation in Europe and challenges certain historical assumptions about the place of “unorthodox” Christological views in the Baptist tradition.

Here’s the abstract:

In Baptist histories, English preacher Matthew Caffyn (1628-1714), thanks to his unorthodox Christology, is regularly identified as a theological deviant, and one working under the influence of ‘eighteenth-century rationalism’ or other external forces. By reconsidering the progress of unorthodox Christology among the early Baptists and other Reformers, I argue that Caffyn’s Christology represents not a sudden aberration, but an unsurprising expression of the elemental Baptist instinct. This instinct includes a commitment to being scriptural, to primitivism, and to theological tolerance within the community. In this light, I argue that Caffyn’s place in the Baptist tradition must be revisited in future histories.

From Dr. Pilli’s Editorial:

“Chandler’s text reminds the reader that theological discussions also have a historical dimension. And in history the answers have not always been the same as one might assume today, including in matters of Trinity and Christology [ . . . ] Perhaps, in his own time, Caffyn was much less unorthodox than the present-day criteria might presuppose.”

— Dr. Toivo Pilli, IBTS Director of Baptist and Anabaptist Studies, JEBTS, Vol. 19, No. 2, Autumn 2019, p. 6.

Here is a download link for the article:

“Unorthodox Christology in General Baptist History: The Legacy of Matthew Caffyn”

Thank you, again, to IBTSC.  Given my personal history with the Baptist faith, the writing of this article was a special task, and I hope the research encourages all Protestants, and not only those with Baptist heritage or leanings, to think differently about non-trinitarian theology as an expression of Protestant values, and about what it means to be a reformer.

K.C.