Substance of Our Faith, The: Foundations for the History of Christian Doctrine

Award of Merit in the Academic Theology category of Christianity Today's 2024 Book Awards

Doctrine is central to Christian discipleship and maturity. Unfortunately, it is often sidelined in churches' teaching ministry as irrelevant or impractical. Countering this, leading church historian Douglas Sweeney defines doctrine as church teaching intended for the shaping of daily faith and practice.

The Substance of Our Faith addresses introductory issues in the study and application of historical doctrine, incorporating a unique global and catholic perspective. It addresses the Spirit's role in the rise of doctrine in the early church, the authority of Scripture and tradition in the development of doctrine, the challenges of doing global historical theology, the nature and purpose of doctrine, and implications for teaching the faith today. Specifically, Sweeney advocates that those who teach the Christian faith in all churches do so in communion with the saints who have come before.

A future volume by the author will narrate the actual history of doctrinal teaching around the world.

1. Jesus' Promise of the Spirit
Kerygma, Rules of Faith, Canons of Scripture, and the Spirit
Interpreting the Word by the Spirit with the Church
Listening to the Spirit in an Era of Improvement
The Spirit-Bound
Body of Christ as "Pillar" and "Bulwark" of Christian Teaching
2. From Every Tribe and Language
Modern Missions, Western Power, and the Rise of "the Global South"
But the Church Has Always Been Global
The Promise and the Peril of Postcolonial Christian Teaching
Teaching the Christian Faith across Both Time and Space
3. Doctrine as Church Teaching for the Shaping of Faith and Practice
What 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 Instruction
Ressourcement Revisited
"Free Church Theologies" in Search of Deeper Roots
Late-Modern Work on the Concept of Tradition
Thinking in, with, and under the Christian Church
Conclusion
Index

208 pages.