The Gospel In Christian Traditions

E-Book Overview

Throughout the history of Christianity, there have been theological disputes that caused fissures among the faithful. There were the major ruptures of the Great Schism of 1054 and the Protestant Reformation. Since the Reformation, though, there has been an eruption of new denominations. The World Christian Database now list over 9000 worldwide. And new denominations are created every day, often when a group splits off from an established church because of a dispute over doctrine or leadership. With such a proliferation of denominations, could there possibly be one core Christian message that all churches share? That's the question that Ted Campbell sets out to answer in this book. He begins his examination of Christian doctrine where it started: in the gospels. He then shows how the gospel has been received and professed by Christian communities through the centuries, from the first ''proto-Orthodox'' Christian communities right through the modern evangelical, Pentecostal, and ecumenical movements. Campbell shows that, despite all the divisions, there is indeed a single unifying core of the faith that all Christians share. In the process, he offers a brief, well-written, and acceptable history of Christian doctrine that will be ideal for courses in the history of Christian thought.

E-Book Content

The Gospel in Christian Traditions This page intentionally left blank The Gospel in Christian Traditions ted a. campbell 2009 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. All scripture quotations (unless otherwise noted) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Campbell, Ted. The Gospel in Christian traditions / Ted A. Campbell. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-19-537063-8 ISBN 978-0-19-537062-1 (pbk.) 1. Jesus Christ—History of doctrines. 2. Theology, Doctrinal. I. Title. BT198.C26 2008 230.09—dc22 2008009345 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper to Dale Marie This page intentionally left blank Foreword Ted Campbell offers those of us involved in the life of Christian communities a rich gift in The Gospel in Christian Traditions. The gift is not like a fruit cake or a bottle of wine, something which we may or may not like the taste of. It is more like a set of tools or a box of mountain-climbing equipment: if we’re carpenters or mountain climbers, his book equips us to pursue our vocations. That vocation, generally speaking, is the work of Christian ministry and mission, and in particular, the part of that work that takes place beyond the boundaries of the local congregation. If we were exclusively focused on ministry and mission within one local congregation and the denomination to which it belongs, we might be able to get along reasonably well with
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