Our Baptist Tradition.

Our Baptist Tradition. By William Powell Tuck, Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Inc., 2005. 115 pp.

William Powell Tuck is well-qualified to write on Baptist doctrine and tradition. A lifelong Baptist, he has experience as a pastor and adjunct professor in Baptist higher education, and he also has been involved in denominational work on many levels.

Tuck wrote this book in an engaging, conversational style. His scholarly attributions reveal considerable familiarity with a wide range of Baptist sources, including monographs and scholarly books. He used a variety of illustrations to good effect, many of them historical in nature. These illustrations, probably gleaned over a long and fruitful career as a pastor, are used in a winsome manner. The book is peppered with references and quotations from Baptist scholars and denominational statesmen, each of whom is highly regarded in Baptist life. All these factors make this book a compelling defense for the Baptist way of local church autonomy and "soul liberty."

Overall, each chapter communicates its basic idea well. The book is intended to be a study book for Sunday School classes, discipleship classes, or for those wishing to grasp some of the most basic Baptist beliefs. A caveat should be raised, however. The more conservative Baptists, including those who hold membership in Southern Baptist churches, will not agree with all of Tuck's analysis. For this reason, his book might also make a useful study for anyone seeking to understand some particular ways Baptists who identify with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship differ from those who identify with the Southern Baptist Convention.

Of the book's six chapters, the fourth on "The Autonomy and Vitality of the Local Church" would probably have the broadest appeal among Baptists of a variety of affiliations. Chapter Three, "The Authority of Scripture," deals with inerrancy. Therefore, opinions about it will vary. The book's greatest strength perhaps lies in its illustration of the ways different Baptists approach scripture.

In closing, this engaging study prepared by a passionate and articulate spokesman for the particulars of his faith is at its best when viewed as an illustration of the moderate theological approach within the theologically-varied Baptist denomination.--Reviewed by Christopher Beckham, pastor, Flemingsburg Baptist Church and adjunct professor of history, Morehead State University, Flemingsburg, Kentucky.