Reformed Catholicity: The Promise of Retrieval for Theology and Biblical Interpretation

Can Christians and churches be both catholic and Reformed? Can they commit not only to the ultimate authority of apostolic Scripture but also to receiving this Bible within the context of the apostolic church? This volume argues that to be Reformed means to go deeper into true catholicity rather than away from it. Michael Allen and Scott Swain offer a manifesto for a catholic and Reformed approach to dogmatics that seeks theological renewal through retrieval of the rich resources of the historic Christian tradition. The authors provide a survey of recent approaches toward theological retrieval and offer a renewed exploration of the doctrine of sola Scriptura. The book includes a substantive afterword by J. Todd Billings and will appeal to professors and students of theology or Christian doctrine.

Contents
Introduction: Renewal through Retrieval
1. Learning Theology in the School of Christ: The Principles of Theology and the Promise of Retrieval
2. Retrieving Sola Scriptura, Part One: The Catholic Context of Sola Scriptura
3. Retrieving Sola Scriptura, Part Two: Biblical Traditioning
4. A Ruled Reading Reformed: The Role of the Church’s Confession in Biblical Interpretation
5. In Defense of Proof Texting
Afterword: Rediscovering the Catholic-Reformed Tradition for Today: A Biblical Christ-Centered Vision for Church Renewal by J. Todd Billings
Index

176 pages.

“Intellectually alert and edifying Christian theology will be attentive to divine instruction in Holy Scripture and to its reception, transmission, and explanation in the writings of the apostolic church in time. This fine book explains why, with clarity, grace, and dedication.”

John Webster, professor of divinity, St. Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews

“The notion of Scripture alone has come to be used in recent decades as a means of cutting off Protestantism from its own theological and ecclesiological history. The result is a faith that has too often proved fatally vulnerable to critique from Roman Catholics or degenerated into a theologically thin and ahistorical biblicism. In this densely argued but fascinating book, Scott Swain and Michael Allen demonstrate that classic Reformed Protestantism has an understanding of Scripture, of tradition, and of ecclesiology that anchors the Christian faith in biblical exegesis and at the same time provides the framework and the classical categories for avoiding both the Roman and biblicist options. Drawing on recent historical scholarship and engaging with contemporary Christian thought across the confessional spectrum, this is a bracing manifesto that sets out a clear pathway for the future of Protestantism.”

Carl R. Trueman, Paul Woolley Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania