Alan P.F. Sell
Список книг автора Alan P.F. Sell
Convinced, Concise, and Christian
This is the first comprehensive study of the thought of the Welsh theologian-philosopher Huw Parri Owen (1926-1996). Indebted to the heritage of Christian thought, and not bewitched by Barth, bothered by Flew, or bewildered by Bultmann, Owen brought considerable biblical, philosophical, and theological acumen to the articulation of a reasonable, experientially grounded faith. A sharp-minded Christian thinker–a number of whose discussions of philosophico-theological themes remain pertinent to current scholarly debate–is here rescued from unjustified neglect.
One Ministry, Many Ministers
The heart of this book is the claim that the one church catholic comprises all who, on the ground of Christ's saving work, are called and gathered by God the Holy Spirit into a fellowship whose only Head is Christ himself; and that all thus called are granted the high privilege of sharing in a variety of ways in the one ministry of Christ. This is the vision of the Reformed churches past and present. Alan Sell argues that far from being a parochial enquiry, the nature of the ministry and the work and education of all the ministers are issues as relevant to the life and practice of particular local churches as they are to ecumenical discussions between the several Christian world communions.
Philosophy, History, and Theology
Alan Sell here presents a selection of his wide-ranging, informative, and entertaining reviews. Among philosophical themes discussed are Locke and the Enlightenment, Richard Price, John Stuart Mill, philosophical idealism, and analytical philosophy of education and of religion. Historical studies run from the Middle Ages onwards, and encompass English, Welsh, and Scottish Nonconformity, the Evangelical Revival, the Oxford Movement, theological education, American Reformed thinkers, the crisis of belief and the Social Gospel in Canada, and evangelical and liberal theology. Theological topics include Origen, Calvin, and Dutch Reformed thinkers, American Baptists, Mercersburg Theology, Scottish theology, liberation theology, assurance, the atonement, ecclesiology, ecumenism, art and theology, Christian ethics, worship and spirituality.
Christ and Controversy
What may happen when Christians take doctrine seriously? One possible answer is that the shape of churchly life «on the ground» can be significantly altered. This pioneering study is both an account of the doctrine of the person of Christ as it has been expounded by the theologians of historic English and Welsh Nonconformity, and an attempt to show that while many Nonconformists held classical orthodox views of the doctrine between 1600 and 2000, others advocated alternative understandings of Christ's person; hence the evolution of the ecclesial landscape as we have come to know it. The traditions here under review are those of Old Dissent: the Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians and their Unitarian heirs; and the Calvinistic and Arminian Methodist bodies that owe their origin to the Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century.
Confessing the Faith Yesterday and Today
What is it to confess the Christian faith, and what is the status of formal confessions of faith? How far does the context inform the content of the confession? These questions are addressed in Part One, with reference to the Reformed tradition in general, and to its English and Welsh Dissenting strand in particular. In an adverse political context the Dissenters' plea for toleration under the law was eventually granted. The question of tolerance remains alive in our very different context, and in addition we face the challenge of confessing and commending the faith in an intellectual environment in which many question Christianity's relevance and rebut traditional defenses of it.
In Part Two it is recognized that Christian confessing is an ecclesial, not simply an individual, calling, and that the one confessing church catholic is visibly divided over doctrine and practice. Suggestions for ameliorating this situation are offered, though the final resolution may be a matter for the eschaton. Until then Christians are called to witness faithfully and to live hopefully as citizens of heaven. In an epilogue the challenges and pitfalls of systematic theology as a discipline involving both confession and commendation are explored.
The Theological Education of the Ministry
Unwilling on conscientious grounds to submit to the religious tests imposed by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the English and Welsh Dissenters of the second half of the seventeenth century established academies in which their young men, many of them destined for the ministry, might receive a higher education. From the eighteenth century onwards, theological colleges devoted exclusively to ministerial education were founded, while in Scotland historically, and in England and Wales over the past 120 years, freestanding university faculties of divinity/theology have provided theological education to ordinands and others.
These diverse educational contexts are all represented in this collection of papers, but the focus is upon those who taught in them: Caleb Ashworth (Daventry Academy); John Oman (Westminster [Presbyterian] College Cambridge); N. H. G. Robinson (University of St. Andrews); Geoffrey F. Nuttall (New [Congregational] College, London); T. W. Manson (University of Manchester); Owen Evans (University of Manchester and Hartley Victoria Methodist College)–the lone Methodist scholar discussed here; and W. Gordon Robinson and J. H. Eric Hull (University of Manchester and Lancashire Independent College). Between them these scholars covered the core disciplines of theological education: biblical studies, ecclesiastical history, philosophy, doctrine, and systematic theology.