A stimulating dialogue among evangelicals that clarifies how major evangelical theologians currently conceive the practice of theology with regard to the Bible.

Contributors:

-Robert K. Johnston, editor
-Donald Bloesch
-Donald Dayton
-William A. Dyrness
-Gabriel Fackre
-James I. Packer
-Clark H. Pinnock
-Russell P. Spittler
-Robert Webber
-David F. Wells
-John Yoder

A summary of the positions:

I. Johnston (Free Church): "Introduction: Unity and Diversity in Evangelical Theology" - introduces the theme, defines evangelicalism and evangelical theology

II. Pinnock (Baptist): "How I Use the Bible in Doing Theology" - hermeneutical theology; only what is revelation (only Scripture) can be made a matter of theological truth

III. Packer (Anglican): "In Quest of Canonical Interpretation" - texts must be understood in their human context

IV. Spittler (Pentecostal): "Scripture and the Theological Enterprise: View from a Big Canoe" - exegetical theology

V. Bloesch (Reformed): "A Christological Hermeneutic: Crisis and Conflict in Hermeneutics" - goes beyond the literal sense of the text to its larger significance

VI. Yoder (Mennonite): "The Use of the Bible in Theology" - theology as an activity meant to correct and renew the church

VII. Dayton (Wesleyan): "The Use of Scripture in the Wesleyan Tradition" - theology rooted in a recovery of Wesleyan truth

VIII. Webber (Anglican): "An Evangelical and Catholic Methodology" - theology is an activity from out of the church's tradition; must study the church father's dogmatic development

IX. Dyrness (Reformed): "How Does the Bible Function in the Christian Life?" - Scripture as a two-directional contextual hermeneutic

X. Wells (Congregational): "The Nature and Function of Theology" - decoding/encoding; the significance of the 'sola scriptura' principle

XI. Fackre (Congregational): "The Use of Scripture in My Work in Systematics" - "full-orbed approach"; world, church, Scripture, and the Gospel core all have their function

Editor - Robert K Johnston

The Christian at Play by Robert K Johnston
The Variety of American Evangelicalism by Donald W. Dayton, Robert K Johnston