Baptist Reconsideration Of Baptism And Ecclesiology Av Lennart Johnsson

The twentieth century may be said to have been the century of ecumenism, a striving worldwide to realize church unity at different levels. It has frequently been asserted that one condition for reaching visible Church unity is that there should be basic agreement on baptism, eucharist and ministry. These three topics are dealt with in the Lima-document or <I>BEM </I>(1982). In the present study the sections of the latter that concern baptism are analyzed and also contextualized through a closer study of one of the responses to <I>BEM</I>, the official response of the Baptist Union of Sweden. This response gives a more traditional, closed Baptist opinion: baptism cannot be the basis of the church unity sought by <I>BEM</I>. The author shows here, however, that fundamental Baptist principles are being reconsidered, indicating considerable diversity within the Baptist Union concerning these questions. On the local level there are many ecumenical strivings, concretized in ecumenical congre