The problem of authority in religion is one of the perennial problems of human thought and experience. This book is an attempt to show how it presented itself to Christians in a particular historical setting, and to discuss the value of the solutions which some of them accepted. -- From the Preface

With courtesy and restraint Professor Woodbridge administers a series of knock-out blows to the confidently voiced claim that factual inerrancy is no authentic element in the historic Christian view of Scripture.

Beyond the Reformation? sheds fresh light on divisive issues of authority in the Christian Church and puts them in a new historical and ecumenical perspective. Against the background of the perennial tension between the mystical and the institutional dynamics in the life of the Church, it goes beyond the tragic divisions of the Reformation era in two major ways. First, it examines the power struggles of the medieval period, the largely abortive attempts at reform, and the theological solutions to apparently intractable divisions that were proposed by the Conciliar Movement and enacted by the reforming councils of the fifteenth century. It shows how the legacy of conciliar theology was both continued and modified by the Continental and Anglican Reformers and how this has shaped the churches in the modern world. It examines the question of continuity and discontinuity in the Reformation, seeing that event as an unresolved argument within the family of the Western Church. But this book also seeks to move beyond the Reformation in a second way. Drawing on Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican theology, the book explores the theme of conciliar and primatial authority in relation to the ecumenical quest for reconciliation and unity in the fragmented Church of today. In this major, ground-breaking work, Anglican theologian and ecumenist Paul Avis adds to his repertoire of studies of authority in the Christian Church, brings together historical, confessional and ecumenical aspects of ecclesiology, and charts a course for convergence between the major traditions on the thorny questions of authority, primacy and unity.

Jesus Christ is King of God's Church. However who governs the Church under him? How is the Church to be ruled? How do these questions relate to the Word of God? This book, written by a Lecturer at Zomba Theological College and a Minister in the Presbyterian Church of Central Africa, investigates the origins and characteristics of Presbyterian church-rule after service in both The Netherlands and Malawi.

This penultimate volume in Pelikan's acclaimed history of Christian doctrine—winner with Volume 3 of the Medieval Academy's prestigious Haskins Medal—encompasses the Reformation and the developments that led to it. "Only in America, and in this case from a Lutheran scholar, could we expect an examination so lacking in parti pris, a survey so perceptive, so free—and, one must say, the result of so much immense labor, so rewardingly presented."—John M. Todd, New York Times Book Review "Never wasting a word or losing a plot line, Pelikan builds on an array of sources that few in our era have the linguistic skill, genius or ambition to master."—Martin E. Marty, America "The use of both primary materials and secondary sources is impressive, and yet it is not too formidable for the intelligent layman."—William S. Barker, Eternity

The Witness of the Spirit is a clear and comprehensive treatment of the teaching of the Word of God concerning the inner witness of the Spirit of God. The book opens with an account of Calvin's and Luther's contribution to this important theme, followed by a survey of the theological reflection upon this subject from the days of the early Church Fathers to the present time. Dr. Ramm shows that the work of the Holy Spirit is not a single subject to be discussed in isolation from the total area of Christian theology; therefore, he helpfully relates it to the doctrine of the Trinity, of revelation, redemption, and the Scripture; and to Christian fellowship and the spiritual life. Dr. Ramm's book is an invaluable and much needed contribution to a phase of the Spirit's ministry, an aspect long neglected in evangelical thought.