ST-7003 Contemporary Evangelical Thought

Explore what holds evangelical faith together and where evangelicals disagree, so that you can teach with conviction and lead a church through debate with fairness.

The course follows two books. With Alister McGrath's A Passion for Truth you examine the intellectual coherence of evangelicalism: its centre in Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture, and its answer to liberalism, postliberalism, postmodernism and religious pluralism. With Boyd and Eddy's Across the Spectrum you study seventeen debates within evangelical theology, learning what each view holds and why, and how to weigh the views with reasons.

What you will study

• Why evangelicalism needs serious theology, and what unites the movement
• Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture at the centre of evangelical thought
• Evangelical answers to liberalism, postliberalism, postmodernism and pluralism
• Debates on Scripture, God's providence and foreknowledge, creation and the image of God
• Debates on the person of Christ, the atonement and salvation
• Holiness, assurance, those who have never heard, baptism and the Lord's Supper
• Spiritual gifts, women in ministry, the millennium and hell

Course materials

• A Passion for Truth (Alister E. McGrath), a textbook you obtain
• Across the Spectrum (Gregory A. Boyd and Paul R. Eddy), a textbook you obtain
• The Bible