Description: ""A church free from state control and a state free from church control""--Such is one of the radical insights of a baptist vision of church and society. -- What exactly is a baptist vision of the church? -- What are the biblical, historical and theological roots of this approach to Christian community? -- What is the place of such a vision in the context of a global church that includes alternative notions of the body of Christ? Free Church, Free State is a textbook on baptist ways of being church and a proposal for the future of baptist churches in an ecumenical context. Nigel Wright argues that both baptist (small 'b') and catholic (small 'c') church traditions should seek to enrich and support each other as valid expressions of the body of Christ without sacrificing what they hold dear. Written for pastors, church planters, evangelists and preachers, Nigel Wright offers frameworks of thought for baptists and non-baptists in their journey together following Christ. Endorsements: ""A disturbing study of our history and theology that demands openness and a willingness to change and enlarge our vision."" Denton Lotz, General Secretary, Baptist World Alliance ""An accessible and non-polemical introduction to Baptist ecclesiology."" Paul Avis, General Secretary, the Council for Christian Unity of The Church of England ""Deploys arguments deriving from history, theology and the sociology of religion to examine the nature of the church, its foundations, worship, life together and commitment to mission in the world."" John H. Y. Briggs, Senior Research Fellow in History, Regent's Park College, Oxford ""Demonstrates that the truly free church is at its best, when it is dissenting from a way that is not the way of God in order to conform to ways that are appropriate to a gospel community."" David Coffey, General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, President Elect of the Baptist World Alliance About the Contributor(s): Nigel G. Wright has been Principal of Spurgeon's College London since 2000. He is a former president of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and a widely published author.