The Gospel in Christian Traditions
Language: English
Pages: 216
ISBN: B001NPE8NG
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Throughout the history of Christianity, there have been theological disputes that caused fissures among the faithful. There were the major ruptures of the Great Schism of 1054 and the Protestant Reformation. Since the Reformation, though, there has been an eruption of new denominations. The World Christian Database now list over 9000 worldwide. And new denominations are created every day, often when a group splits off from an established church because of a dispute over doctrine or leadership. With such a proliferation of denominations, could there possibly be one core Christian message that all churches share? That's the question that Ted Campbell sets out to answer in this book. He begins his examination of Christian doctrine where it started: in the gospels. He then shows how the gospel has been received and professed by Christian communities through the centuries, from the first "proto-Orthodox" Christian communities right through the modern evangelical, Pentecostal, and ecumenical movements. Campbell shows that, despite all the divisions, there is indeed a single unifying core of the faith that all Christians share. In the process, he offers a brief, well-written, and acceptable history of Christian doctrine that will be ideal for courses in the history of Christian thought.
tendencies of Evangelical communities, but after considering these more formal statements of doctrine on the part of Evangelical communities, this chapter will then turn to expressions of the gospel in Evangelical worship (including music) and training materials, and these modes of reception of doctrine will complement the more general and formal expressions of doctrine on the part of Evangelical communities. Evangelical doctrinal statements do give consistent expression to the gospel message.
Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, s.v. “d…dwmi,” 2:171–172 (sections on “paradoànai” and “par£dosij”). 7. Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (London: SCM Press, 1998; translation by John Bowden from Der historische Jesus: Ein Lehrbuch; Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1996), p. 488; cf. the broader discussion of this passage, pp. 486–490. I note that when Theissen and Merz use the term “formula,” they refer to the substance of what has
attainment” of spiritual worship; in the Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2004–2008 (Nashville, TN: African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2005), p. 22. 37. The Nicene Creed was first formally included in the Methodist Hymnal of 1964 (subsequently renamed The Book of Hymns; Nashville, TN: Methodist Publishing House, 1964 and 1966), number 739. In the United Methodist Hymnal of 1989, the Nicene Creed is placed in first position among the creedal statement, no. 880. 38.
Moreover, the 1872 statement itself was not formally approved by Adventist church bodies, although a revision of it in 1875 was included in the Manual of the Seventh-day Adventist Church; cf. Fortin, pp. 63–66. 33. Seventh-day Adventist Church, statement of 28 “Fundamental Beliefs” (revision of 2005), item 4; in a PDF document available on the denomination’s Web site: http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/fundamental/index.html; the document was accessed December 2006). 34. Ibid., item 9. 35. New
in The Rites of the Catholic Church: As Revised by Decree of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and Published by the Authority of Pope Paul VI (English translation prepared by The International Commission on English in the Liturgy; New York: Pueblo, 1983), pp. 99–100. 26. Josef Jungmann, SJ, The Mass: An Historical, Theological and Pastoral Survey (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1976; English translation by Julian Fernandes, SJ, ed. Mary Ellen Evans), p. 195 and n. 180. Jungmann’s source