Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church
Williams, Daniel H.
Baker Academic, 2005
ISBN: 978-0-8010-2713-0
Subject: Tradition, Patristics, Church Fathers, Evangelicalism

Series: Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Church's Future

D. H. Williams is editor of the series Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Church's Future. This is the first book in the series. Williams writes primarily for an Evangelical audience, however this book would be appropriate for undergraduates of any tradition. His main thesis is that Evangelicals must begin to take seriously the contributions and perspectives of the early church. Beyond the first century, Williams argues that the first 6 centuries have a normative character for Christianity that Evangelicals must begin to take more seriously.

The past few years have seen a growing interest among evangelical leaders in the thought and life of the early Christian church. There is a desire to rediscover historical roots in the face of today's postmodern and increasingly post-denominational world. Evangelicals and Tradition is the first in a valuable new series of books edited by D. H. Williams. The series seeks to help today's church leaders recover the early church fathers' ancient understandings of Christian belief and practice for application to ministry in the twenty-first century. This first book traces the development and role of tradition in the early church, what kind of authority should be ascribed to tradition, and tradition's interaction with the Protestant hallmarks of ''Scripture alone'' and ''by faith alone.''