Thursday, November 8, 2007
- NTS Connection
Suggested Resources and Must Reads!
From Dr. William M Greathouse,
General Superintendent Emeritus and NTS President 1968-72
Theological
Transition in American Methodism, 1790-1935
by Robert E.
Chiles (Abingdon Press - New York and Nashville, 1965). This book is a
"must" for all claiming to be Wesleyan. It traces the theological
transition in American Methodism (1) From Revelation to Reason, (2) From Sinful
Man to Moral Man, (3) From Free Grace to Free Will. It is particularly relevant
to Nazarene theologians in view of the publication of a recent anthology, Thy Nature & Thy Name is Love: Wesleyan
and Process Theologies in Dialogue, edited by Bryan Stone and Thomas Jay
Oord (Abingdon Press, 2001), which, if it represents a new direction in
Wesleyan-Nazarene theology, raises serious issues that must be addressed
(unless Sam Powell's chapter "A Trinitarian Alternative to Process
Theology" is intended to counter the thrust of the volume). The fatal flaw
of Process Theology is a view of deity inconsistent with the biblical
revelation of a Triune God of Love and the Creeds of the Church from the Bible
to the present.
Contemplating
the Trinity: The Path to the Abundant Christian Life by Reneiro
Cantalamessa (The Word Among Us Press, 2007) and The Triune God: An Essay in
Postliberal Theology by William C. Placher (Westminster John Knox
Press, 2007) have been my intellectual and spiritual food this year.
Cantalamessa also wrote Jesus Christ The Holy One of God (The Liturgical Press:
Collegeville, Minnesota, 1991), a definitive treatment of Christology
that takes into account both Chalcedon and a Christological reading of the New Testament
that underscores the full humanity and sinlessness of Jesus Christ, the
incarnate Son. These three books further support the faith that undergirds
the historic understanding of the Triune God with the support it lends to the
traditional understanding of the Wesleyan gospel.