General Baptist ‘primitivism,’ the Radical Reformation, and Matthew Caffyn : a response to Kegan A. Chandler
Abstract
Kegan A. Chandler recently argued that the Anabaptist movement was in part defined by an acceptance of anti-Trinitarianism, which heritage became a part of General Baptist life from the beginning; on this basis he locates Matthew Caffyn as an authentic representative of the General Baptist movement. I argue that Chandler’s historical reconstruction of the Radical Reformation is flawed, being based on some errors of fact and some misreadings, and that most Anabaptists, and all early General Baptists, were unreflectively orthodox in their Trinitarianism. I suggest however that the case of Caffyn suggests both a willingness on the part of the denomination to regard orthopraxy as important alongside orthodoxy, and a degree of suspicion of non-biblical standards of orthodoxy.
Citation
Holmes , S R 2021 , ' General Baptist ‘primitivism,’ the Radical Reformation, and Matthew Caffyn : a response to Kegan A. Chandler ' , Journal of European Baptist Studies , vol. 21 , no. 1 , pp. 123-139 . https://doi.org/10.25782/jebs.v21i1.701
Publication
Journal of European Baptist Studies
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1213-1520Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2021 The Author. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at https://jebs.eu/ojs/index.php/jebs/article/view/701
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