Book Review of Payton's Getting the Reformation Wrong

[Guido's Brother]

I just posted my review of James R. Payton's new book Getting the Reformation Wrong. You can find it through my blog, www.bredenhof.ca. If you're looking to buy, I'd say "pass."

 

[Marrow Man]

Excellent review, Wes. You just saved me the cost of the book. I especially liked your section on the Anabaptists and pointing out where the Reformers rejected their Christological errors, and how this gets passed over too often.

 

[Guido's Brother]

Glad you found it helpful!

 

[timmopussycat]

Excellent review, Wes. You just saved me the cost of the book. I especially liked your section on the Anabaptists and pointing out where the Reformers rejected their Christological errors, and how this gets passed over too often.

Indeed. Those on this this board who persist in misidentifying modern confessional Baptists as "Anabaptists" need to read Wes' review.

 

[baron]

Enjoyed you book review.

 

[Marrow Man]

Excellent review, Wes. You just saved me the cost of the book. I especially liked your section on the Anabaptists and pointing out where the Reformers rejected their Christological errors, and how this gets passed over too often.

Indeed. Those on this this board who persist in misidentifying modern confessional Baptists as "Anabaptists" need to read Wes' review.

No problem there. What bugs me, though, is a romanticized view of groups like the Anabaptists. Granted, some were far worse than others (Menno Simons was not Thomas Muntzer, but Simons still had major theological problems that should not be overlooked). I had a Baptist church history prof who did this. He did the same thing with the Quakers. That bothered me to no end.

However, there is a trace of an historical connection between Baptists and Anabaptists. If I recall correctly, John Smyth was somewhat influenced by Anabaptists in the Netherlands.

 

[Guido's Brother]

Related to the above, can someone shed some light on this statement from A.A. Hodge's The Confession of Faith:

"The Baptist denomination, which opposes the whole Christian world in this matter, is a very modern party, dating from the Anabaptists of Germany, A.D. 1637." (348)

What happened in 1637?

 

[timmopussycat]

I suspect that may have been a typo for 1527 in which the Roman Catholic authorities executed Michael Sattler and King Ferdinand declared drowning (called the third baptism) "the best antidote to Anabaptism".