In Search of Ancient Roots: The Christian Past and the Evangelical Identity Crisis

Stewart (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is professor of theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. He has contributed to reference works such as the Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology, The Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, and t

In Search of Ancient Roots shows that evangelicals need not view their tradition as impoverished or lacking deep roots in the tradition. The antiquity and catholicity of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy seem to outshine the relative novelty of the Reformation. In Search of Ancient Roots examines this phenomenon and places it within a wider historical context. A common complaint about Protestant evangelicalism is its apparent disconnect from ancient Christianity. Many within evangelicalism seem to have accepted at face value the suggestion that the evangelical faith is no more than a threadbare descendant of ancient Christianity. Protestant evangelicalism is in crisis. Ken Stewart argues that the evangelical tradition in fact has a much healthier track record of interacting with Christian antiquity than it is usually given credit for. Today it is increasingly difficult for Protestants to identify what counts as distinctively Protestant, much less what counts as evangelical. As evangelicals increasingly lose contact with the churches and traditions descending from the Reformation, and as relations with Roman Catholicism continue to thaw, it becomes harder to explain why one should remain committed to the Reformation in the face of perceived deficits and theological challenges with the Protestant tradition. Christian antiquity is t

Stewart (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is professor of theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. His books include Ten Myths About Calvinism, Restoring the Reformation, and The Emergence of Evangelicalism. Stewart is a specialist in the history of Christianity from the Reformation to the present with special interest in the development of the evangelical Protestant tradition. He has contributed to reference works such as the Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology, The Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, and the Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith.. About the Author Kenneth J