Substance of Our Faith

Douglas A. Sweeney (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is dean and professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, in Birmingham, Alabama. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books on the history of Christian doctrine, early modern Protestant history, American church history, Christology, and global evangelicalism and is a highly respected Jonathan Edwards scholar.

• 1. Jesus' Promise of the SpiritKerygma, Rules of Faith, Canons of Scripture, and the SpiritInterpreting the Word by the Spirit with the ChurchListening to the Spirit in an Era of ImprovementThe Spirit-BoundBody of Christ as "Pillar" and "Bulwark" of Christian Teaching2. From Every Tribe and LanguageModern Missions, Western Power, and the Rise of "the Global South"But the Church Has Always Been GlobalThe Promise and the Peril of Postcolonial Christian TeachingTeaching the Christian Faith across Both Time and Space3. Doctrine as Church Teaching for the Shaping of Faith and PracticeWhat Is Christian Doctrine?How Is Doctrine Devised?Should Doctrine Ever Be Revised? How So? And by Whom?Why Does Any of This Matter?4. Teaching in, with, and under the Christian Church"Constructive Theology" and Its Liberating Pedagogy"Retrieval Theology" and Its Classical InstructionRessourcement Revisited"Free Church Theologies" in Search of Deeper RootsLate-Modern Work on the Concept of TraditionThinking in, with, and under the Christian ChurchConclusionIndex