The Faith of the Church: A Reformed Perspective on Its Historical Development"Reflection on the faith of the church means an involvement in doctrine, in church teaching which is considered to be correct," writes the author in his prolegomena. And the following 17 chapters of his book provide students and laypersons with precisely the information they need for this kind of reflection and involvement. The Faith of the Church is a basic, comprehensive, and systematic history of the beliefs of the church, starting with the doctrines formulated by ancient Israel and ending with a discussion of the doctrine of eschatology. Each doctrine is treated in that period in history when it received its most significant attention. In addition, the author attempts to give each doctrine what he terms "a normative rounding-off" either in the position of the theologian being discussed, in squaring the doctrine with Scripture, or both. Technical terms and foreign languages have been avoided to render this textbook accessible to an undergraduate and general lay readership. |
Contents
Some Preliminary Considerations | xvii |
4 The norm of theology | 1 |
5 The method of theology | 3 |
6 System in theology | 4 |
7 Theology and experience | 5 |
8 Faith and history | 7 |
9 The witness of the Holy Spirit | 10 |
10 Faith and history | 12 |
6 The appeal to Scripture | 119 |
7 Later developments | 120 |
12 The Sacraments | 123 |
1 The lords Supper | 125 |
3 Zwingli | 127 |
4 Calvin | 130 |
5 Scriptural foundation | 135 |
6 Baptism in the early church | 136 |
11 The Development of Doctrine | 15 |
The Faith of Israel | 20 |
1 The fact of God | 21 |
1 Revelation | 22 |
3 The Covenant Community | 24 |
4 The world created and governed by God | 27 |
5 Salvation by grace | 30 |
6 The hope of Israel | 32 |
The Enlarged Conception | 34 |
2 The names of God | 39 |
3 The attributes of God | 42 |
Jesus Christ God and Man | 44 |
1 Christological debate | 45 |
2 Docetism and Gnosticism | 46 |
3 Subordinationism and Arianisum | 47 |
4 The Nicene Creed | 49 |
5 Appollinarianism Nestorianism Eutychianism | 50 |
Scripture | 54 |
2 The Old and New Testament | 57 |
3 The inspiration of Scripture | 60 |
6 Man Sin and Grace | 64 |
1 The image of God | 65 |
2 Pelagianism | 66 |
3 Augustine on sin and grace | 68 |
4 Sin and grace in the Bible | 70 |
5 Predestination | 75 |
6 Later developments | 77 |
Hope and History | 82 |
Atonement | 86 |
2 Anselm | 89 |
3 Later developments | 91 |
9 The Recovery of the Gospel | 97 |
10 Justification by Faith | 102 |
1 Luthers doctrine | 104 |
2 Scriptural foundation | 108 |
11 The Church | 110 |
2 The communion of saints | 111 |
3 Councils | 114 |
4 The marks of the church and the keys of the kingdom | 115 |
5 Ministers of the Word and the universal priesthood of believers | 117 |
7 The Reformers and baptism | 139 |
8 Infant baptism | 140 |
9 Infant baptism in the early church historical considerations | 145 |
The mode of baptism | 148 |
13 The Freedom of a Christian | 153 |
1 The biblical base | 155 |
1 Calvins agreement | 158 |
Order and the Holy Spirit | 160 |
1 The late medieval obsession with order | 161 |
1 Order in gods creation | 162 |
3 Salvation as the restoration of order | 165 |
4 Order in the government of the church | 171 |
a The head of the church | 173 |
b The four offices | 174 |
c The papacy | 176 |
5 Order in the state | 178 |
a The foundation of civil government | 179 |
b The purpose of civil government | 180 |
c Forms of civil government | 181 |
the right of rebellion | 182 |
6 Order in the life of the Christian | 183 |
b Life in the presence of God | 184 |
c The law of God | 185 |
d The right use of this present world | 187 |
e Sanctification and the glory of God | 189 |
Experiential Christianity | 192 |
1 RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE | 193 |
2 MYSTICISM AND ACTIVISM | 196 |
The Kingdom the Spirit and the End | 201 |
1 The coming of the kingdom | 202 |
1 Anticipation of the end | 203 |
3 The end as the determination of the present | 205 |
17 The Relevance of the Faith | 211 |
1 The need for Christian foundations | 212 |
2 The critical function of theology | 214 |
3 The universal nature of theology | 217 |
4 The true humanism | 219 |
Notes | 222 |
Index | 244 |