The Justification Reader

Includes bibliographical references.

Justification (Christian theology)
1. The Promise
2. The Heart of the Gospel
A. The Special Comfort of God's Free Grace
1. The Unique Blessing of Justification
2. Basic Definitions
B. The Centrality of Justification in Christian Teaching
1. The Decisive Baseline of Evangelical Teaching
2. Why Is It a Comforting Doctrine?
3. The Limits of Our Powers of Restitution
C. Why a Justification Reader?
1. It Provides a Model for Classic Christian Reasoning
2. Why Is Justification Teaching Especially Pertinent Today?
3. Simplicity
4. On the Genre of the "Reader"
5. Why Have These Texts Remained Shockingly Inaccessible
Elsewhere?
6. A Welcoming Note for Orthodox and Catholic Readers
PART ONE
JUSTIFICATION
The Ancient Fathers on Evangelical Justification
A. Typical Misconceptions of Classic Christian Teaching
on Saving Faith
1. Peacemaking among the Divided Faithful
2. My Simple Thesis
3. Why the Classic Christian Consensus Is Not Properly
Described as Either European or Western
4. Why This Presentation of Evidence Is So Urgently Needed
amid Uncharitable Polemics among Evangelicals,
Liberals, Catholics, and Orthodox Today
5. How Both Evangelical and Liberal Assumptions Have
Salvation Teaching
Tilted the Perception of Ancient Orthodox Christian
6. Liberal Misconceptions
B. The Unexplored Connection: The Fathers Were Not
Ignorant of the Pauline Teaching of Justification
1. What Is Meant by "Patristic"?
2. The Unity of the First Five Centuries Contrasted with
the Conflict of the Last Five Centuries
the Written Word
3. Remembering the Fathers' Continuous Immersion in
4. The Practical Impact
5. Why Dangerous? The Alarming Consequence of the
Rediscovery of the Unity of the Body of Christ
6. Why Does This Recognition Have a Painful
Edge for Protestants?
7. Can Christian Teaching Be Trusted If It Lacks Scriptural
Grounding and an Orthodox Historical Textuary?
8. Ecumenical Dialogue Needs These Arguments
9. Assessing the Joint Declaration
10. The Growing Hunger for Greater Evangelical Unity
in the Gospel
11. The Search for Balance and the Hazard of Presenting
Too Little Evidence or Too Much
12. Fairly Assessing the Evidence
CHAPTER TWO
Justification Defined
A. Rehearsing the Classic Consensus on Justification
1. What Is Justification?
2. The Way to Consensus
3. Representative Reformed Confessions on Justification
4. The Lutheran Formula of Concord
5. Baptist Confessions
6. Anglican Tradition
7. Wesleyan Traditions
8. Pentecostal Traditions
9. Arguing Consensuality
B. Introducing Locus Classicus Patristic Texts on Justification
1. Early Eastern Voices on Justification
2. Early Western Voices on Justification
3. A Case in Point: Consensual Interpretation of Ephesians 2
4. Whether These Voices Harmonize: Modest Objectives on
Doctrinal Concurrence
C. God's Costly Way of Reestablishing a Right Relation
with the Sinner
1. Comparing Old and New Testament Interpretations
of Justification
2. Old Testament Anticipations
3. Why Do We So Fiercely Resist Hearing This Good News?