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In the summer of 2002, there was a conference at Lutheran Seminary, St. Paul, MN, "The Gospel of Justification in Christ. Where Does the Church Stand Today?" Several papers were read on the Joint Declaration (fD) by Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians. In a private conversation, the main organizer of the conference, Dr. Wayne Stumme, urged the author of this paper to "get the Baptists at the table."! Instead of attempting to present Baptist soteriology as such, this paper has a much more modest goal-namely, to describe some parameters of the Baptist understanding(s) of justification and to bring out a number of agreements between Baptists and Roman Catholics in regard to soteriology. The acknowledgement of the sufficient commonalities of faith offers a basis and incentive for further theological conversations between the two churches. Perhaps it will also facilitate the "noncontrastive understanding of justification" between Baptists and Roman Catholics.' I would like to comment on two early Baptist con

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This article sheds further light on the question of the genre of Patrick's creedal statement in conf. 4, which seems to be neither a declaratory creed proper nor a rule of faith. It is a hybrid genre which combines Scripture, creedal clauses, and citations of patristic texts and molds everything into a polished rhythmical declaration. In order to find out the plausible sources of Patrick's particular selection of creedal clauses, conf. 4 is compared to the Old Roman Creed, some Gallic creedal statements, and the Nicene Creed. Such comparison enables one to see both Patrick's originality and his dependence on traditional creeds.