The Books That Made Us: Baptist Literature and Identity in Interwar Romania (1918–1939)

Abstract

From the earliest stages of the movement, Romanian Baptists, with significant support from the Baptist Theological Seminary in Bucharest, produced theological literature aimed at articulating and strengthening their dual identity as both Baptists and Romanians. These writings sought to develop a distinctly Romanian Baptist theology, grounded in the country’s particular cultural, social, and historical context rather than simply reproducing doctrines and controversies inherited from Western Baptist traditions. At the same time, Baptist identity was closely associated with the ideal of exemplary citizenship, expressed through loyalty to the Romanian state and commitment to the national ideals that emerged in the aftermath of the Great Union of 1918.