Who were the Puritans? What did they seek to achieve? What were their successes and failures? Are they of any importance to Christians today? We firmly believe that all Christians need to discover the important story of how these men and women sought to follow Jesus Christ. Their convictions resulted in a brave and joyful faith, and the writing they have left us on the Christian life continues to be a rich resource for our own discipleship. Meeting the Puritans by listening to them has enriched both of us more than we can express. And so, in The Glory of Grace, we want to introduce you to peo... View More...
Beginning with Walter Bauer in 1934, the denial of clear orthodoxy in early Christianity has shaped and largely defined modern New Testament criticism, recently given new life through the work of spokesmen like Bart Ehrman. Spreading from academia into mainstream media, the suggestion that diversity of doctrine in the early church led to many competing orthodoxies is indicative of today's postmodern relativism. Authors K stenberger and Kruger engage Ehrman and others in this polemic against a dogged adherence to popular ideals of diversity.K stenberger and Kruger's accessible and careful schol... View More...
""A welcome addition to the ongoing reflection on the meaning of religion in America. The authors are both responsible as scholars and accessible as writers. Teachers, students, clergy, and laity will find this book worthwhile. It deserves a wide reading."" -- Ronald A. Wells, Professor of History, Calvin College; editor, Fides et Historia ""This is a most welcome update of the first textbook survey of American church history. The American Church Experience retains all the virtues of the original--brevity, clarity, and evenhandedness--while incorporating recent historical developments and cont... View More...
In his Baptist History in England and America, David Beale illuminates numerous topics, including Baptist origins, their search for the ancient manner of immersion, and even the way they acquired the name Baptist. His book annotates key beliefs and practices in Baptist confessions of faith. Multiple chapters describe persecutions Baptists suffered, and contributions they made toward religious freedom and liberty of conscience. Striking a balance between brief and exhaustive, the author aims to inspire and to encourage, as well as to inform, in a precise and accurate manner. He provides in-dept... View More...
Christian theology didn't develop in a vacuum. Understanding the story behind the doctrines that have been debated, defined, and defended throughout history is crucial for truly understanding the doctrines themselves. In this groundbreaking resource, professor Gerald Bray traces the history of Christian theology from the early church to the modern era. Structured to parallel the order in which orthodoxy gradually matured in response to challenges from both inside and outside the church, this volume outlines how Christians have struggled to understand, confess, and worship the triune God throu... View More...
This book consists of two open letters by the young John Calvin to evangelical believers who desired to stay and work within the Roman Catholic Church. The first letter exposes the idolatry involved in the Mass, while the second denounces the papal abuses of the pastoral office of the church. Together, they form a resounding call for the necessity of a thoroughgoing Reformation. This translation from David C. Noe makes the two letters available together for the first time in English. Noe also provides a helpful introduction to Calvin's early life and the problem of evangelical believers rema... View More...
Since its first appearance in 1991, The European Reformation has offered a clear, integrated, and coherent analysis and explanation of how Christianity in Western and Central Europe from Iceland to Hungary, from the Baltic to the Pyrenees splintered into separate Protestant and Catholic identities and movements. Catholic Christianity at the end of the Middle Ages was not at all a uniformly 'decadent' or corrupt institution: it showed clear signs of cultural vigour and inventiveness. However, it was vulnerable to a particular kind of criticism, if ever its claims to mediate the grace of God to ... View More...
33 fascinating objects. 1 amazing story. Join author and pastor Tim Challies as he embarks on a three-year journey spanning multiple continents and some of the most unusual places in the world. Tim introduces you to thirty-three carefully selected objects that help you understand the long and complicated history of Christianity in a unique and creative way.Beginning with Jesus and the early church, Challies looks at: The importance of graffiti on an ancient jail cellThe creedal significance of a carving on a museum statueThe enduring importance of ancient manuscripts and booksAnd much more Alo... View More...
Luther challenges the academy to speak beyond itself. Whatever the theological malady, Martin Luther prescribed the same remedy: the word of God. For Luther, the Word was central to the Christian life. As a lover, translator, and interpreter of Scripture, Luther believed the Bible was too important to be left to academics. God's word has always been and must always be for God's people. What, then, can biblical studies learn from Luther? In Always Reforming, leading Lutheran, Reformed, and Baptist scholars explore Martin Luther as an interpreter of Scripture. The contributors elucidate cent... View More...
The Baptist Story is a narrative history spanning over four centuries of a diverse group of people living among distinct cultures on separate continents while finding their identity in Christ and expressing their faith as Baptists. Baptist historians Anthony Chute, Nathan Finn, and Michael Haykin highlight the Baptist transition from a despised sect to a movement of global influence. Each chapter includes stories of people who made this history so fascinating. Although the emphasis is on the English-speaking world, The Baptist Story integrates stories of non-English-speaking Baptists, ethnic m... View More...
A clearly written introduction to the history and theology of this international people, Baptists through the Centuries provides a chronological survey of the main developments in Baptist life and thought from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. As Baptists spread globally beyond their British and American origins, Bebbington persuasively demonstrates how they constantly adapted to the cultures and societies in which they lived, generating even more diversity within an already multifaceted identity. In the course of telling the story of Baptists, Bebbington also examines the challengin... View More...
Early American advocates of freedom did not believe in religious liberty in spite of their Christianity, but explicitly because of their individual faith in Christ, which had been molded and instructed by the Bible. The greatest evidence of their commitment to liberty can be found in their willingness to support the cause of freedom for those different from themselves.
The assertion that the Enlightenment is responsible for the American Bill of Rights may be common, but it is devoid of any meaningful connection to the actual historical account. History reveals a different story, int... View More...
No one understood the momentous nature of the event that occurred that evening. It was the winter of 1961. The annual missions conference was in progress on the campus of Pillsbury Conservative Baptist Bible College, then in its fourth year of existence. On this particular night, Dr. Viggo Olsen had given a presentation for his field of service which was East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). He told the student body how God had called and burdened him for that country. In the middle of the meeting, and before the speaker of the evening began to preach, it happened. Dr. Monroe Parker was the presiden... View More...
This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. "The best telling of the story of the past," writes George Marsden, "relies on a balance of the general and the particular." In this book, a sequel and companion to his widely acclaimed Fundamentalism and American Culture (Oxford, 1980), Marsden uses the history of Fuller Theological Seminary -- a durable evangelical institution -- as a lens through which to focus an examination of the broader story of evangelicalism and fundamentalism since the 1940s. In fact, at the time of the school's founding in 1947, "evangelicalism" and ... View More...
First released in 1988, this 25th Anniversary Edition of Timothy George's Theology of the Reformers includes a new chapter and bibliography on William Tyndale, the reformer who courageously stood at the headwaters of the English Reformation. Also included are expanded opening and concluding chapters and updated bibliographies on each reformer. Theology of the Reformers articulates the theological self-understanding of five principal figures from the period of the Reformation: Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, Menno Simons, and William Tyndale. George establishes the context for the... View More...
The Reformation was a time of tremendous upheaval, renewal, and vitality in the life of the church. The challenge to maintain and develop faithful Christian belief and practice in the midst of great disruption was reflected in the theology of the sixteenth century. In this volume, which serves as a companion to IVP Academic's Reformation Commentary on Scripture, theologian and church historian Gerald L. Bray immerses readers in the world of Reformation theology. He introduces the range of theological debates as Catholics and Protestants from a diversity of traditions--Lutheran, Reformed, Angli... View More...
In The Story of Christianity: Volume 1, Justo L. Gonz lez, author of the highly praised three-volume History of Christian Thought, presents a narrative history of Christianity, from the Early Church to the Dawn of the Protestant Reformation. From Jesus' faithful apostles to the early reformist John Wycliffe, Gonz lez skillfully traces core theological issues and developments within the various traditions of the church, including major events outside of Europe, such as the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the New World. This updated and expanded edition incorporates recent archaeological disc... View More...
