عنوان

P.T. Forsyth, the Positive Gospel, and the Church

Number

LA109575

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

P.T. Forsyth, the Positive Gospel, and the Church

General Material Designation

[Article]

First Statement of Responsibility

Angus Paddison

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

The Congregationalist theologian P.T. Forsyth urgently implored the Church to attend to what he termed 'the Positive Gospel'. The positive gospel was a gospel of finality, looked to the cross as God's holy judgement on the wreck of sin, and viewed the work of Jesus as an incursion into human life rather than a placid evolution from within. A robust understanding of the Church and its ministry flourished or withered in proportion to its concentration on this gospel. A church which skipped past the positive gospel would find that it was exercising a ministry of impression rather than regeneration. On the other hand, a church sustained by the positive gospel would carry out its vocation with a healthy combination of decisiveness and litheness. There is much of value in Forsyth's porous understanding of the relationship between the positive gospel and the Church, but lurking in Forsyth's language is the lure to neglect the embodied reality of the Church and its ministry. The Congregationalist theologian P.T. Forsyth urgently implored the Church to attend to what he termed 'the Positive Gospel'. The positive gospel was a gospel of finality, looked to the cross as God's holy judgement on the wreck of sin, and viewed the work of Jesus as an incursion into human life rather than a placid evolution from within. A robust understanding of the Church and its ministry flourished or withered in proportion to its concentration on this gospel. A church which skipped past the positive gospel would find that it was exercising a ministry of impression rather than regeneration. On the other hand, a church sustained by the positive gospel would carry out its vocation with a healthy combination of decisiveness and litheness. There is much of value in Forsyth's porous understanding of the relationship between the positive gospel and the Church, but lurking in Forsyth's language is the lure to neglect the embodied reality of the Church and its ministry.

Date of Publication

2009

Physical description

28-47

Title

Ecclesiology

Volume Number

5/1

International Standard Serial Number

1745-5316

Subject Term

CHURCH UNITY

Subject Term

CROSS

Subject Term

P.T. FORSYTH

Subject Term

PREACHING

Subject Term

SALVATION

Angus Paddison

Call Number

10.1163/174553108X341279

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y