In Search of Ancient Roots

Kenneth J. Stewart (PhD, Univeristy of Edinburgh) is professor of theological studies and former chair of the department of biblical and theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. His books include Ten Myths About Calvinism, Restoring the Reformation, and The Emergence of Evangelicalism. Stewart is a specialist in the history of Christianity from the Reformation to the present with special interest in the development of the evangelical Protestant tradition. He has contributed to reference works such as the Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology, The Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, and the Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith.

• IntroductionPart I:Setting the Stage: Our Evangelical Identity Crisis1 Only a Latecomer in Christian History? The Evangelical Identity Crisis2 Evangelical Movements as a Perennial and Recurring Feature of Christian History3 Needed for Appraising the Christian Past: A Principle of Authority4 Needed for Appraising the Christian Past: A Concept of Development in DoctrinePart II:Evangelical Engagements with Ancient Christianity: Examples to Encourage Us5 Five Hundred Years of Protestant Views of Pre-Reformation Christianity6 The Apostolic Fathers in the Hands of Protestants: 1600–20007 Eighteenth Evangelicals and the Frequency of the Lord’s Supper8 Early Church Baptism in the Hands of Evangelical Protestants9 Theological Exegesis, Biblical Theology, and the History of InterpretationPart III:Some Contemporary Examples That Should Give Us Pause10 Short-changed for Lack of the Apocrypha?11 Bringing Back Monasticism?12 A Tale of Two NewmansPart IV:Three Challenges Which Remain13 Is Christian Unity Dependent on a Central Bishop of Rome?14 Is Justification as Protestants teach it the Historic Faith of the Church?15 Why Are Younger Evangelicals Turning to Catholicism and Orthodoxy?Appendix: The Colloquy of Regensburg on Justification

This book shakes us free from naive and romantic notions that Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy are the best expressions of early Christianity. For evangelicals attracted by that fantasy, it is an urgent wake-up call to examine the full facts and rediscover the deep historic roots and spiritual riches of their own tradition.