Reckoning with Race and Performing the Good News

The “good news” is central to evangelical theology and the movement known as evangelicalism, but the news has not always been good for minorities who inhabit evangelical communities and institutions in the United States. Vincent Bacote argues a reckoning with questions of race is necessary for evangelical theology to help cultivate an evangelical movement more hospitable to minorities, particularly African-Americans. Evangelicalism is here regarded not only as a set of beliefs about the Bible, Christ’s work on the cross, conversion and witness but also as a set of dispositions and postures that create openness to the concerns of minorities. With a perpetually uneasy conscience, Christians within the evangelical movement can cultivate a disposition ready to learn from the questions and contributions of minorities in evangelical spaces, such as William Bentley and Carl Ellis. A better evangelical theology is proposed as doctrines that yield actions that are truly good news for all.

Reformed Theology

This research guide introduces scholars to the field of Reformed theology, focusing on works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the English language. After a brief introductory section on the debates about what counts as “Reformed theology,” the guide explores twenty-one major theological themes, with attention to classical as well as current works. It is demonstrated that this stream of Protestantism is both internally diverse and ecumenically interwoven with other Christian families, not just a single clearly defined group set apart from others. In addition, this guide shows that contemporary Reformed theology has been rethinking the doctrines of God, humanity, and their relationship in significant ways that challenge old stereotypes and offer fresh wisdom for our world today.

Streams of Latin American Protestant Theology

Although church historians often call the 19th century the Great Century of Protestant mission, for Latin America it was the 20th century that was the great century of Protestant growth and expansion. The 20th century witnessed vast societal changes and the realization of systemic poverty and injustice as well as the exponential growth, pentecostalization, and diversification of Latin American Protestantism. Latin American Protestant Theology emerged during this century of change. This text provides an introduction to Latin American Protestant Theology by engaging its dominant theological streams (Liberal, Evangelical, and Pentecostal) and how they understand themselves through the lens of mission. The text offers both a critique of the Christendom cartography that is dominant in Latin American Protestant Theology as well as suggestions for how to move towards a transformative theology of mission. The primary intention of this text is to offer an informed outline and analysis of the theological landscape of Latin American Protestantism. The secondary intention of this book is to note the contributions as well as deficiencies of the streams of LAPT in the hope to signal a possible path towards the development of an integral, transformative, contextual, and decolonial theological voice.

Old Catholic Theology: An Introduction

Old Catholic theology is the theology that is characteristic of the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht. Old Catholic Theology: An Introduction, authored by Peter-Ben Smit, an acknowledged expert in the field, outlines the main characteristics of and influences on Old Catholic theology, as well as the extant ecumenical relationships of the Old Catholic Churches. In doing so, it covers what may be called ‘mainstream’ Old Catholic theology, while paying attention to extant diversity within the Old Catholic tradition. Particular attention is given to the hermeneutical approach to theology, ecclesiology, sacramental theology and ecumenical theology. Old Catholic theology has come to be characterized by a sacramental understanding of the church. This is the result of ecumenical dialogue and the basis upon which the Old Catholic Churches engage in ecumenical rapprochement. Hermeneutics of Scripture and tradition plays an important role as well, given that Old Catholic Churches have developed their own form of a hermeneutics of communion.