Baptists

Baptists are members of Protestant Christian churches that baptize professing believers, typically by immersion, and emphasize the autonomy of each local congregation.

Believer's baptism: The practice of baptizing people who personally profess faith, rather than infants. It distinguishes Baptist baptism from traditions that baptize infants.
English Separatists: English Protestants who separated from the established Church of England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Separatist communities supplied part of the setting for early Baptist formation.
Infant baptism: The practice of baptizing infants, commonly understood as incorporating them into the Christian community. Most Baptist churches reject infant baptism in favor of a personal profession of faith.
Southern Baptist Convention: A large United States Protestant denomination formed in 1845. It is one prominent example of a Baptist denomination organized through voluntary cooperation.
Roger Williams: A seventeenth-century religious dissenter who founded Rhode Island and advocated separation of church and state. His Baptist convictions informed influential arguments for religious liberty in colonial America.
Credobaptism: The Christian position that baptism should follow a person's profession of faith. Baptists share this position with other churches that reject infant baptism.
John Smyth: An English religious leader associated with the formation of an early Baptist congregation in Amsterdam around 1609. His congregation is often identified as the first English Baptist church.
Presbyterian polity: A church governance system in which elected elders oversee congregations through regional bodies. It contrasts with Baptist congregational independence.
American Baptist Churches USA: A diverse Protestant denomination with congregations across the United States and related ministries worldwide. It represents a major Baptist network with a different history and structure from the Southern Baptist Convention.
John Leland: An American Baptist minister and advocate of religious liberty in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He campaigned against religious establishments and supported constitutional protections for conscience.

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