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Has something indeed happened to evangelical theology and to evangelical churches? According to David Wells, the evidence indicates that evangelical pastors have abandoned their traditional role as ministers of the Word to become therapists and "managers of the small enterprises we call churches." Along with their parishioners, they have abandoned genuine Christianity and biblical truth in favor of the sort of inner-directed experiential religion that now pervades Western society. Specifically, Wells explores the wholesale disappearance of theology in the church, the academy, and modern culture. Western culture as a whole, argues Wells, has been transformed by modernity, and the church has s...
In this prophetic call to the evangelical church, Wells stresses that Christians need to confess Christ as the center in a society lacking a center, as the sovereign in a world seemingly ruled by chance, and as the one who can give meaning in a nihilistic culture.
A penetrating critique, and call for the reformation, of American evangelicalism - a timely message for British evangelicalism as it comes increasingly under American influence.
Continuing his series begun with No Place for Truth and God in the Wasteland, David Wells here offers a bold new critique focused this time on the fractured moral vision of society at large and its reflection in today's evangelical church.
David F. Wells of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Massachusetts, here challenges evangelicalism with a disturbing analysis of its present condition. He believes that we have allowed ourselves to be shaped by the popular culture whose ethos is alien to God-consciousness, to 'other-worldliness', and to passion for biblical truth. In putting 'success' before theology we have produced a plague of nominal evangelicalism which, unless reversed, leaves us 'headed towards the oblivion of irrelevance before God'. This material was first delivered at a Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals who have kindly assisted in the publication. Much fuller treatment of the same themes will be found in the author's influential books, No Place for Truth and God in the Wasteland. While referring especially to the North American scene, the wider relevance of Dr Wells' message is indicated by the fact that these two titles have joint publishers on both sides of the Atlantic, W.B. Eerdmans and IVP.
Building on years of research and teaching, experienced author and theologian David Wells offers a remedy for evangelicalism’s superficial theology and weightless conception of God: a journey to discover the paradoxical nature of his holiness and love. We all struggle, at times, to hold that paradox together, commonly resulting in problems such as liberalism or legalism. Yet understanding how God’s holiness is inextricably bound to his love is what enables us to live between the two extremes and defines our life of service in this world. In the vein of classics such as Packer’s Knowing God, Wells’s biblical theology is written at an accessible level so that all readers can cultivate a balanced vision of the God who belongs in the center of it all.
Does a person have to "convert" to be a Christian? Or can one merely "follow" Jesus by studying Scripture? Does the Bible ever say that conversion is necessary? Or is it a development of the church? Turning to God explores these fundamental questions about regeneration and conversion, distinguishing Christianity from every other faith as one in which conversion is unique, supernatural, and necessary for salvation. In it you will find a clear, thoughtful, balanced discussion of the Christian conversion experience, including its history, controversy, and scriptural basis. Anyone who has marveled at the mystery of how and why we turn to God, along with those skeptical of religious conversion, will find themselves challenged and encouraged by this thorough treatment of one of the fundamentals of the Christian faith.
David Wells discusses the doctrine of salvation from six perspectives: conservative, existential, God-is -dead,"neo-orthodox, liberation/revolutionary and Roman Catholic. Each of these schools of thought is explored in its views toward revelation and the work of Christ, its strengths and weaknesses.
At its heart, the Protestant Reformation was about a deep, doctrinally shaped faith centered on God and his Word. But that historic, substantive faith is not faring so well in our contemporary Western context. In his 2008 book The Courage to Be Protestant, David Wells issued a summons to return to the historic Protestant faith, defined by the Reformation solas (grace, faith, and Scripture alone) and by a high regard for doctrine. In this thoroughly reworked second edition, Wells presents an updated look at the state of evangelicalism and the changes that have taken place since the original publication of his book. There is no better time than now to hear and heed Wells's clarion call to reclaim the historic, doctrinally serious Reformation faith in our fast-paced, technologically dominated, postmodern culture.
This first volume of the autobiography of an inveterate journalist and communicator ends in 1933 when the author was 30.