Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands: Recovering Sacrament in the Baptist Tradition

Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands

Author: Michale A.G. Haykin

"Amidst Us Our Belovèd Stands will help all pastors and theologians, whether Baptist or not, to consider our own understanding of the sacraments afresh in light of the past."

―Themelios

Baptists are sacramental

When it comes to baptism and the Lord's Supper, many Baptists reject the language of sacrament. As a people of the book, the logic goes, Baptists must not let tradition supersede the Bible. So Baptists tend to view baptism and Communion as ordinances and symbols, not sacraments.

But the history of Baptists and sacramentalism is complicated. In Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands, Michael A. G. Haykin argues that many Baptists, such as Charles Spurgeon and other Particular Baptists, stood closer to Reformed sacramental thought than most Baptists today. More than mere memorials, baptism and Communion have spiritual implications that were celebrated by Baptists of the past in sermons and hymnody. Haykin calls for a renewal of sacramental life in churches today―Baptists can and should be sacramental.

–––––––––– Table of Contents ––––––––––

1. Blessed Food

• Baptism as a means of grace in the Particular Baptist movement

2. This Sweet Repast

• The Lord’s Supper in Baptist life and thought during the long eighteenth century

3. The Right Way of Worship

• Baptist controversy over open and closed Communion

4. The Nearest Approach to His Glorious Self

• The eucharist piety of Joseph Stenndett, Anne Dutton, and Thomas Steevens

5. Six Theses

• On Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in the Baptist Tradition

Prayers