Dance or Die: The Shaping of Estonian Baptist Identity Under Communism: 37 (Studies in Baptist History and Thought)

Toivo Pilli has played a major part in developing a school of East European Baptist historical studies In this volume [younger scholars] have an excellent model to follow.' --John H.Y. Briggs, University of Oxford

This is an important piece of work.' --Derek Tidball, former Principal of London School of Theology

The genius of [this book's story], worth reading as a deeply insightful and sensitive story in itself, is how it causes the reader to re-frame thinking about Evangelical history as a whole.' --Walter Sawatsky, Menonite Biblical Seminary, Indiana

This volume focuses on the changes in the identity of Estonian Evangelical Christian Baptists (ECB) during the Soviet years, 1945-1991. The author analyzes the influences that affected the life and self-understanding of the ECB churches in this northernmost of the three Baltic countries. External pressures from the Soviet atheistic state and the internal dynamics of Estonian ECB churches are both considered and analyzed. Comparisons are drawn, that show both the similarities with the wider evangelical world and the uniqueness of a local Baptist identity. The book, based on extensive use of archive and other primary source materials, makes a unique contribution to the important emerging field of the study of evangelicals in Eastern Europe.