Good News for the World: Baptist World Alliance Resolutions and Statements, 1905–2023
Edited by Lee Spitzer (Baylor University Press)
Good News for the World is a must-have for every student and scholar of Baptist history. This encyclopedic work was released ahead of Baptists from around the world gathering in Brisbane, Australia, for the 23rd Baptist World Alliance World Congress this July.
Lee Spitzer is historian for the Baptist World Alliance and retired general secretary of the American Baptist Churches USA. Good News for the World represents a years-long labor of his love for Baptists, compiling for the first time in one volume the 422 resolutions, official statements and messages adopted during BWA’s history from 1905 to 2023.
BWA has spoken to numerous issues throughout those many years. In response to many of the most-pressing issues facing Baptists and their communities at any given time, BWA passed resolutions and other statements addressing all manner of injustice, war, hunger, moral matters, religious liberty and other faith matters, gender equality, racism and much more.
One of their most important resolutions directly confronted Nazi Germany in 1934. A more recent resolution adopted in Birmingham, Ala., in 2022 condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, called for just peace and pledged solidarity with Baptists in Ukraine.
Among the resources in this large reference work are a reader’s guide, a chronological listing of resolutions by BWA World Congresses, by General Councils and by Executive Committees, as well as BWA-affiliated declarations and statements; a thematic table of resolutions; and an extensive set of indices listing BWA officers and other individuals, countries and territories, and topics cited in resolutions; and a thorough source bibliography.
Just before the indices and bibliography, Spitzer includes a set of tables providing a numeric depiction of resolution types and years adopted. Altogether, this back matter accounts for more than 80 pages of this 793-page book—which accounts for the 74 pages of front matter.
The only reason Good News for the World is incomplete is it stops with 2023—by necessity; it had to be published sometime—and doesn’t include the resolutions adopted in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2024. But that’s what second volumes are for.
Eric Black, executive director/publisher/editor
Baptist Standard
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