Curtis Freeman
Research Professor of Theology; Director, Baptist House of Studies
(919) 660-3401
cfreeman@div.duke.edu
215 Gray
Duke Divinity School
Box 90968
Durham, NC 27708-0968
Biography
Curtis Freeman teaches historical theology. His dissertation and earlier research was on Augustine of Hippo, but more recently his work has explored areas of Free Church theology. His books include Ties That Bind (Smyth and Helwys), Baptist Roots (Judson Press), A Company of Women Preachers: Baptist Prophetesses in Seventeenth-Century England (Baylor University Press), and he has written numerous articles seek to describe the development of a distinctly Baptist theological tradition. His current book project is entitled Theology for Other Baptists: Radical Catholicity and the Coveted Future (Baylor University Press) and he is editing the history of colonial Baptists by Morgan Edwards. He is active in the Baptist World Alliance, serving on the Commission on Doctrine and Christian Unity.
A Third Way: Curtis Freeman's Journey as An 'Other Baptist'
Biographical Sketch (pdf)
Degrees
B.A., Ph.D., Baylor University
M.Div., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Publications
- Visionary Women Among Early Baptists (pdf)
- Baptists and Baptism at Year 400 (pdf) Baptists Today (December 2009)
For further conversations on baptism and membership from Associated Baptist Press, please see:
- Opinion: Should Baptist churches adopt open membership? Yes. By Curtis Freeman
- Opinion: Should Baptist churches adopt open membership? No. By James Leo Garrett Jr.
- Churches try varied ways to approach question of membership and baptism By Robert Dilday
- All the Sons of Earth: Carlyle Marney and the Fight against Prejudice Baptist History and Heritage Spring 2009 (pdf)
- Alterity and Its Cure, CrossCurrents 59/4 (December 2009), 404-41.
- Baptism at Year Four Hundred (pdf)
- A Theology for Brethren, Radical Believers, and Other Baptists, Brethren Life and Thought 50 (Winter and Spring 2006) 106-115. (pdf)
- Never Had I Been So Blind’: W. A. Criswell’s ‘Change’ on Racial Segregation, The Journal of Southern Religion 10 (2007).
- Roaming Baptists, First Things (February 2008): 43-45.
- Baptists & Catholics Together? Making Up Is Hard to Do Commonweal (16 January 2009):18-21. (pdf)
- Jesus Christ, the Fullness of God, Baptists Today (August 2008): 17. (pdf)
- A Baptist Looks at ‘Ex Corde’: A Lesson for Catholics? Commonweal (5 April 2002): 20-23. (pdf)
- Carlyle Marney On Pilgrim Priesthood, in Baptists Today (June 2002): 28-29. (pdf)
- The ‘Coming of Age’ of Baptist Theology in Generation Twenty-Something, Perspectives in Religious Studies 27 (Spring 2000): 21-37. (pdf)
- Can Baptist Theology Be Revisioned? Perspectives in Religious Studies 24 (Fall 1997): 273-310. (pdf)
- Re-Envisioning Baptist Identity: A Manifesto for Baptist Communities in North America, with Mikael Broadway, Barry Harvey, James Wm. McClendon, Jr., Elizabeth Newman, Philip Thompson, and others. Baptists Today (26 June 1997), 8-10. (pdf)
- To Feed Upon By Faith: Nourishment from the Lords Table, in Baptist Sacramentalism ed. Anthony Cross and Philip Thompson (Spring 2003 Paternoster Press). (pdf)
Courses
- The Free Church
- Free Church Theology
- Roger Williams
- Faith and Freedom
Additional Information
Links
Recommendations
- John Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress: The first serious theological book I read. I recently traveled to Bedford and Elstow to retrace the steps of Bunyan's journey.
- Christopher J. Ellis and Myra Blyth, Gathering For Worship (Canterbury Press 2005): Without question the finest worship resource for Baptists. Produced for the Baptist Union of Great Britain. An updated and much expanded version of the Patterns and Prayers.
- Paul S. Fiddes, Tracks and Traces: Baptist Identity in Church and Theology (Paternoster 2003): A series of interlinked essays that relate Baptist identity to a theology of covenant and to participation in the triune communion of God. Studies in Baptist History and Thought, series Paternoster/Wipf&Stock
- Steven R. Harmon, Towards Baptist Catholicity (Paternoster 2006): Readers will be as illumined by the contents as they are intrigued by the title. Studies in Baptist History and Thought, series Paternoster/Wipf&Stock
- Franklin Littell, The Free Church: (Starr King Press 1957): Still a classic statement of the free church vision. Out of print and hard to find.
- James William McClendon, Jr., Systematic Theology, 3 volumes (Doctrine, Ethics, and Witness) (Abingdon 1986-2000): The best systematic theology from a baptist standpoint.
- Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness (Eerdmans 1998): An excellent ecumenical and evangelical communion ecclesiology written from the perspective of the free church.
- D. H. Williams, Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism (Eerdmans 1999): If the conviction of "Scripture only" is accepted as normative, how do evangelicals account for historical continuity with apostolic Christianity? Find out. Read his followup book Evangelicals and the Tradition (Baker 2005).
- Nigel Wright, Free Church Free State (Paternoster 2005) This is the best contemporary statement of a Baptist ecclesiology that I know of.