Die Afrikaanse Protestantse Akademie Biblioteek

Includes index.

The lay of the evangelical land: The map -- Classic Evangelicals -- Doctrine shrinks -- The church vanishes -- Marketers -- Emergents -- The fall of the Empire -- Christianity for sale: Thank you, Corporate America! -- Sale: Prices slashed -- A word of praise -- Excuse me! -- The bottom line -- Truth: The self is disconnected -- Our Modernized world -- The changing world inside -- Christian truth -- Truth engagement -- A better way forward -- God: The lost center -- The culture's answer -- God and modernity -- The Inside God -- The Outside God -- Self: In pursuit of the Self -- The Nation signs on -- Virtues to values -- Character tot personality -- NAture to self -- Guilt to shame -- Christ: Christian and Pagan paths from below: Nature; Sin; Speaking -- From above: Christ's Descent; An age dawns; In Christ alone; Does this preach?; Christ's rule now -- Church: Trouble in the house -- The church's two sides -- Marks of Authority : Sufficient; Doctrine; Preaching -- Into the depths: God is Sovereign; We are captive; Means of growth

"It takes no courage to sign up as a Protestant." These words begin this bold new work, the culmination of David Wells's long-standing critique of the evangelical landscape. But to live as a true Protestant, well, that's another matter. This book is a jeremiad against "new" versions of evangelicalism -- marketers and emergents -- and a summons to return to the historic faith, defined by the Reformation solas (grace, faith, and Scripture alone) and by a high regard for doctrine. Wells argues that historic, classical evangelicalism is marked by doctrinal seriousness, as opposed to the new movements of the marketing church and the emergent church. He energetically confronts the marketing communities and their tendency to try to win parishioners as consumers rather than worshipers, advertising the most palatable environment rather than trusting the truth to be attractive. He takes particular issue with the most popular evangelical movement in recent years, the emergent church. Emergents, he says, are postmodern and postconservative and postfoundational, embracing a less absolute understanding of the authority of Scripture than traditionally held. The Courage to Be Protestant is a forceful argument for the courage to be faithful to what Christianity in its biblical forms has always stood for, thereby securing hope for the church's future. - Publisher.