Reflections on Reformational Theology: Studies in the Theology of the Reformation, Karl Barth, and the Evangelical Tradition

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Martin Luther and the birth of the Protestant evangelical vision -- The sola behind the solas : the unity of the five solas of the Reformation -- The reformers as fathers of the church : Luther and Calvin in the thought of Karl Barth -- The last Protestant : Karl Barth and the culmination of the Protestant ecclesial vision -- Karl Barth, confessionalism, and a free church tradition -- Karl Barth and Pietism : traces of a family resemblance -- Karl Barth and Kirkegaard : unacknowledged debts to a Lutheran existential Pietist -- The Ascencion of Christ and the pilgrim church -- The confessional task of the Christian university -- The American experience of a darkening and receding Providence : the Civil War and the unmaking of an American religious synthesis.

"The essays in this volume examine some of the fundamental doctrinal convictions of Martin Luther and the Reformation legacy, as well as the maturation and development of these convictions in the theology of Karl Barth. The broad evangelical vision that spans its various confessional tributaries is presented in the essays of this volume. Together these studies serve as a cumulative argument for the ongoing coherence, meaning, and consequence of that vision, one that at its heart is constructive and ecumenical rather than narrowly polemical. Kimlyn J. Bender examines a variety of topics such as the relation of Christ and the church as understood in the theology of Luther and Barth, the centrality of Christ to an understanding of all the solas of the Reformation, the place and significance of the Reformers in Barth's own thought, and Barth's theology in conversation with distant descendants of the Reformation often neglected, including Baptists in America, Pietists in Europe, and Barth's own complicated relationship with Kierkegaard. Bender concludes his discussion by presenting constructive proposals for a Church and university "on the way" and thus ever-reforming"-- Provided by publisher.