Beginning with the original Gospel message, Ward charts six major changes in the history of Christianity, each of which illustrates that theology is a human, and mutable, endeavor. The Hellenistic re-statement of the Gospel in the early Church Councils altered the character of the original Christian faith, and, many would argue, for the better. From the medieval Latin elaboration of doctrines of sin and atonement, Heaven, Purgatory and Hell, to the Reformation proclamation of salvation by faith alone; from the German liberal attempt to recover the historical Jesus to the challenges of the cosmic evolutionary view of modern science, Ward draws the conclusion that there is no one essence of faith. In fact, the very quest for truth requires change-and openness to it is openness to a fuller revelation of God.

 

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