What Christians Believe offers a general theology that will serve every group of evangelical Christians. This theology affirms the unity of the various confessions as well as the validity of diversity in matters of secondary importance. The traditional way of doing theology among evangelicals has been to set forth a rigid theological system and vigorously defend that system as the revealed truth. That appoach tends to emphasize the points of disagreement among Christians instead of the beliefs held in common. What Christians Believe takes the approach of contextualized theology that is, with the recognition that all systems of theological thought reflect the particular cultural grid in which they were originally written. Thus theology is a discipline that reflects on the truth. And therefore this book offers dual perspectives on each theological concept, with Alan F. Johnson unfolding its biblical foundation and Robert E. Webber tracing its historical development in the church.
Author Biography: Alan F. Johnson (Th.D., Dallas Theological Seminary) is professor of New Testament and Christian ethics at Wheaton College, IL.;Robert E. Webber is Myers Professor of Ministry and director of M.A. in Worship and Spirituality at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Author Biography: Alan F. Johnson (Th.D., Dallas Theological Seminary) is professor of New Testament and Christian ethics at Wheaton College, IL.;Robert E. Webber is Myers Professor of Ministry and director of M.A. in Worship and Spirituality at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Robert E. Webber (1933 - 2007)
was an American theologian known for his work on worship and the early church. He played a key role in the Convergence Movement, a move among evangelical and charismatic churches in the United States to blend charismatic worship with liturgies from the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical sources. Webber began teaching theology at Wheaton College in 1968. Existentialism was the primary focus of Webber's research and lectures during his first years at Wheaton. However, he soon shifted his focus to the early church. In 1978 he wrote Common Roots, a book that examined the impact of 2nd-century Christianity on the modern church.In 1985 Webber wrote Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals Are Attracted to the Liturgical Church, in which he described the reasons behind his own gradual shift away from his fundamentalist/evangelical background toward the Anglican tradition. Webber faced an enormous amount of criticism from evangelicals in response to this book. Nevertheless, his work was highly influential, and his ideas grew in popularity in evangelical circles. During the latter half of his life, Webber took a special interest in Christian worship practices. He wrote more than 40 books on the topic of worship, focusing on how the worship practices of the ancient church have value for the church in the 21st century postmodern era. Among his books are Ancient-Future Worship, Ancient-Future Faith, Ancient-Future Time, Ancient-Future Evangelism, The Younger Evangelicals, and The Divine Embrace.
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