Ever Reforming

People tend to place the Reformers on a pedestal and act like they completed the revolution, but they did not. Why was the Protestant Reformation only a partial restoration? It was because they used the literal method of interpreting the Bible selectively. Ever Reforming will guide the reader to understand all that needed to be reformed, how the Reformers started the process, and the way in which that led to Dispensational Theology and the full recovery of the literal method of interpreting God's Word.

A collection of essays mines the whole terrain of systematic theology to refresh, renew, and reform the church for its next season, featuring contributions from senior theologians like Gerald Bray, Henri Blocher, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, and Stephen Williams among others. Original.

"Always Reforming highlights the fact that in the modern era the notion of heresy has fallen apart. Every church has been declared heretical at some time or other by another church, and it is not the role of the historian to decide who is right or wrong on doctrinal issues. Christians have adapted to sweeping social changes, including scientific discoveries and changing world-views." "This volume attempts to uncover some of the hidden dynamics of faith within the many ways in which other Christians have tried to live out the gospel in an uncertain world. It also demonstrates that all human institutions, including churches, change over time."--Jacket.

Well-known theologian Roger Olson defines and traces the history of postconservative evangelical theology.

A sermonic trestise regarding confession of faith within the German Evangelical Church. The text is both critical and affirming of the Ausburg Confession (handed to Emperor Charles V in 1530), and is a companion volume to an ethical sermonic treatise on The Christian Household.

The community of evangelicals sometimes seems so broad as to defy definition, but theological conservatism has been one consistent marker. Now, says theologian Roger Olson, postconservatism is moving beyond conventional battles against liberalism and heresy to posit a dynamic and realistic approach. While conservatives strive to preserve tradition and protect orthodoxy, postconservatives urge openness to doctrinal reform without abandoning orthodoxy. Where differences exist between doctrine and Scripture, doctrine must be brought into conformity with the Word. Postconservatives want to free evangelical theology from its paradoxical captivity to rationalism and its obsession with "facts" so that it may recognize truth in experience and personal knowledge. Theologians, pastors, seminarians, and serious thinkers will find many depths to plumb in this exhaustive survey of critics, advocates, and fellow travelers on the evangelical journey.

One of the most persistent slogans of Reformed theology is that it is "reformed and always being reformed." But what does this slogan mean? This volume gathers thirteen essays written by a younger generation of Reformed theologians who teach and write on five different continents, who together offer this work in Christian systematic theology. Unlike many other works of Reformed theology, however, this book is framed by pressing contextual issues and questions (instead of traditional loci). Each chapter engages classical doctrine, but does so through the lens of contemporary, lived experience in particular contexts. The result is not a theology where doctrines are "applied" to contexts, but an approach where doctrine and context mutually shape one another. The contributors take seriously the notion that theology is "always being reformed" and is always partial, ever on the way--hence it requires conversation partners beyond the Reformed family of faith. The result is a study in Reformed theology that is thoroughly ecumenical.

Deviant Calvinism seeks to show that the Reformed tradition is much broader and more variegated than is often thought. Crisps work focuses on a cluster of theological issues concerning the scope of salvation and shows that there are important ways in which current theological discussion of these topics can be usefully resourced by attention to theologians of the past. This book contributes to theological retrieval within the Reformed theology, and establishes a wider path to thinking Calvinism differently.