Tooley abstract

With its emphasis on the individual and her personal obligation to serve God, Biblical literacy, and with the call for church-as-community, Baptist tradition offers contemporary Baptists grounding for a response to a world with staggering poverty and injustice. With correctives, Baptist tradition can be understood in ways that turn it into a positive resource for relating to the postmodern world. Without the limitations of modernity, Christians may take a new look at scriptures, theology, and the mission of the church in the world. Constructive postmodernism opens the way for a critique of modernism, with marginal communities given space to describe their situation and participate in working toward new, just structures.