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Products>The Substance of Our Faith: Foundations for the History of Christian Doctrine

The Substance of Our Faith: Foundations for the History of Christian Doctrine

Publisher:
, 2023
ISBN: 9780801048463
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$24.99

Overview

A noted historian introduces essential foundations for the history of Christian doctrine, including the role of God's spirit in guiding our instruction, the authority of Scripture in clarifying what the Spirit wants from disciples, and the global composition of the church and the difference this should make in the way Christians are taught the faith.

Doctrine is central to Christian discipleship and maturity. Unfortunately, it is often sidelined in churches' teaching ministry as irrelevant or impractical. Countering this, leading church historian Douglas Sweeney defines doctrine as church teaching intended for the shaping of daily faith and practice.

The Substance of Our Faith addresses introductory issues in the study and application of historical doctrine, incorporating a unique global and catholic perspective. It addresses the Spirit's role in the rise of doctrine in the early church, the authority of Scripture and tradition in the development of doctrine, the challenges of doing global historical theology, the nature and purpose of doctrine, and implications for teaching the faith today. Specifically, Sweeney advocates that those who teach the Christian faith in all churches do so in communion with the saints who have come before.

A future volume by the author will narrate the actual history of doctrinal teaching around the world.

  • Offers an ecumenical and evangelical perspective aimed at a wide church readership
  • Defines Christian doctrine as a form of church teaching intended for shaping daily faith and practice

    1. Jesus' Promise of the Spirit

  • Kerygma, Rules of Faith, Canons of Scripture, and the Spirit
  • Interpreting the Word by the Spirit with the Church
  • Listening to the Spirit in an Era of Improvement
  • The Spirit-Bound
  • Body of Christ as “Pillar” and “Bulwark” of Christian Teaching

    • 2. From Every Tribe and Language

  • Modern Missions, Western Power, and the Rise of “the Global South”
  • But the Church Has Always Been Global
  • The Promise and the Peril of Postcolonial Christian Teaching
  • Teaching the Christian Faith across Both Time and Space

    • 3. Doctrine as Church Teaching for the Shaping of Faith and Practice

  • What Is Christian Doctrine?
  • How Is Doctrine Devised?
  • Should Doctrine Ever Be Revised? How So? And by Whom?
  • Why Does Any of This Matter?

    • 4. Teaching in, with, and under the Christian Church

  • “Constructive Theology” and Its Liberating Pedagogy
  • “Retrieval Theology” and Its Classical Instruction
  • Ressourcement Revisited
  • “Free Church Theologies” in Search of Deeper Roots
  • Late-Modern Work on the Concept of Tradition
  • Thinking in, with, and under the Christian Church
  • Conclusion
Douglas Sweeney loves Christian truth. An expert historian of Protestant Christianity, Sweeney has a keen sense for global currents of faith. He is also a man of Scripture, which he discovers reflected in the creeds of those who have gone before us. In this book, Sweeney takes up the nature of doctrinal ‘development’ as understood by Christians from diverse times and confessional commitments. His winsomely Protestant proposal for an evangelical-catholic approach—normed by Scripture but pliable, interculturally engaged, and open-ended—will foster ecumenical conversation among all those who follow the Lord Jesus.

—Matthew Levering, James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary

This is an important contribution by one of the leading voices in American evangelicalism. Sweeney’s ‘evangelical catholic’ approach is serious, well-informed, and judicious. The book is a tour de force with practical consequences for the way the church’s theology is to be studied and lived. Highly recommended for all who seek to acquire more of the church’s mindset.

—Bradley Nassif, professor of biblical and theological studies, Antiochian House of Studies

This book is vintage Sweeney—brimming with wisdom, refreshing in its passion for biblical orthodoxy, and rooted in a deep love for the church. Sweeney has much to teach us from key thinkers and episodes in the church across time and space. But most of all, he will restore your faith in the glorious future of Christ’s bride. I cannot recommend this insightful book highly enough!

—Hans Madueme, associate professor of theological studies, Covenant College

Douglas A. Sweeney is a professor of church history and the history of Christian thought and director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is coeditor of The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (Yale University Press) and author of Nathaniel Taylor, New Haven Theology, and the Legacy of Jonathan Edwards (Oxford University Press).



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    $24.99