Dr Lee Spizer is Affiliate Professor of Church History, Northern Seminary (Chicago, Illinois, USA) and Historian at Baptist World Alliance.
PhD (IBTS, VU Amsterdam)
Dr Lee Spizer is Affiliate Professor of Church History, Northern Seminary (Chicago, Illinois, USA) and Historian at Baptist World Alliance.
"My major field of historical study is how Baptists responded to the rise of Hitler, Nazism, and the Holocaust. My PhD dissertation for VU/IBTS focused on how Baptists in the United States and the Baptist World Alliance acted and led to the publication of Baptists, Jews, and the Holocaust (Judson Press 2017). Volume 2 in this series, Sympathy, Solidarity, and Silence: Three European Baptist Responses to the Holocaust, is scheduled for publication in September 2022.
More generally, I continue to study how Baptists have responded to the challenge of antisemitism and am working on two book projects concerning the significance, historically and theologically, of the more than 400 resolutions and statements adopted by the Baptist World Alliance.
Most recently, I have been working on the historical and ecclesiological issues raised by the intertwined journeys of Jewish Christians who live amongst the gentile-majority Church and Messianic Jews, who do not self-identify as Christians."
Upcoming Publications
A two-volume project edited for the BWA: Good News for the World: Baptist World Alliance Resolutions and Statements, 1905-2023, is a reference work presenting the resolutions introduced by an historical overview and contextual summaries. A separate companion volume, Speaking to the World: Reflections on Baptist World Alliance Resolutions and Statements, is a critical scholarly analysis of the statements, organized by major themes. (Baylor University Press, 2024).
Publications
“Sacredness of Life and the Ethics of Justice: An Appreciative Evangelical Response to David Gushee’s Post-Evangelical Approach,” Journal of European Baptist Studies (Fall/Winter 2022).
Sympathy, Solidarity, and Silence: Three European Baptist Responses to the Holocaust the Holocaust (Judson Press, October 2022).
“Covenant Partners: Messianic Jews, Jewish Christians, and Bilateral Ecclesiology,” a chapter in Covenant and the People of God: Essays Presented to Mark S. Kinzer on His Seventieth Birthday, edited by Jonathan Kaplan, Jennifer M. Rosner, and David J. Rudolph (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, November 2022).
“The Baptist World Alliance and Antisemitism: An Historical Overview,” Journal of European Baptist Studies Vol. 21 No. 1 (Spring 2021), 177-200.
“The British Baptist Union and the Nazi Persecution of the Jews, 1933-38,” chapter 6 in Peoples of God: Baptists and Jews Over Four Centuries, edited by John H. Y. Briggs and Paul S. Fiddes (Oxford: Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford 2019), 141-192.
“Response to Yaakov Ariel” (Ariel’s review of Baptists, Jews, and the Holocaust [451-456]),” American Baptist Quarterly Vol. XXXVII No. 4 (Winter 2018; published November 2019), 456- 461.
“The Nazi Persecution of the Jews and Scottish Baptist Indignation,” Baptistic Theologies 9:2 (November 2017), 68-74.
Baptists, Jews, and the Holocaust: The Hand of Sincere Friendship (Judson Press 2017).
“Baptists, Barth, and the Crisis of Conscience Initiated by the Emergence of Nazi Anti- Semitism,” American Baptist Quarterly Vol. XXXIV Nos. 3-4 (Fall and Winter 2015; published April 2017), 343-362.
Making Friends, Making Disciples: Growing Your Church through Authentic Relationships (Judson Press, 2010).
Presentations
International Baptist Theological Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Ethics Conference. Presented a paper (via Zoom) on “Sacredness of Life and the Ethics of Justice (May 2022).
Scottish Baptist History Project, Scottish Baptist Historical Society, Edinburgh, Scotland. Presented a paper on “The Nazi Persecution of the Jews and Scottish Baptist Indignation” (April 2017).
International Baptist Theological Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Conflicting Convictions Conference. Presented a paper on “Core Baptist Convictions and the Challenge of the Holocaust” (November 2015).
Princeton Seminary, Princeton, NJ, The 2014 Annual Karl Barth Conference. Presented a paper on “Baptists, Barth and the Jews in Germany” (June 2014).
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2021 – present). Member of the Committee on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust (2-year term beginning October 2021).
Baptist World Alliance (2020 – present). Historian. Member, Resolutions Committee and Commission on Baptist Heritage and Identity Committee.
Scottish Baptist History Project, Scottish Baptist Historical Society, Edinburgh, Scotland. Presented a paper on “The Nazi Persecution of the Jews and Scottish Baptist Indignation” (April 2017).
International Baptist Theological Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Conflicting Convictions Conference. Presented a paper on “Core Baptist Convictions and the Challenge of the Holocaust” (November 2015).
Princeton Seminary, Princeton, NJ, The 2014 Annual Karl Barth Conference. Presented a paper on “Baptists, Barth and the Jews in Germany” (June 2014).