This book is a fresh and exciting exercise in historical theology. McGowan examines the gradual development, over centuries, of the church's understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ, assessed in the light of what the Scriptures have to say on the subject. The book highlights the developing understanding, together with the mistakes and heresies that forced the church into defining the truth about Christ more clearly. The great debates are examined with unique insight and sensitivity, and the debate is brought right up to the present day with application for the contemporary church.

The doctrine of Scripture is of vital importance for Christians, and continues to be debated by theologians. Furthermore, differing views can be found among those who describe themselves as evangelical . A. T. B. McGowan engages with the issues, debates and terminology, and reconstructs and re-expresses an evangelical doctrine for the current context. This stimulating and informative volume offers a valuable contribution to our understanding and articulation of the nature of Scripture and its significance for today.

Evangelicals have taken extraordinary care in formulating and articulating a high view of Scripture. And yet the doctrine is not without its inadequacies and its internal critics--both past and present. Reviewing the evangelical discussion and formulations over the past century and more, particularly in the Reformed tradition in North America, Andrew McGowan is not content with the present state of the question. The way forward is to reach back within the European evangelical tradition, particularly to the work of the Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck. The prescription is to anchor the doctrine of Scripture in the work of the Spirit, the divine spiration of Scripture. And the contested idea of inerrancy should be replaced with an informed concept of the infallibility or authenticity of Scripture. The Divine Authenticity of Scripture is not simply a book that argues an academic case for reformulating a thoroughly evangelical doctrine of Scripture. It keeps the pastoral dimensions of the question in view and relates the doctrine of Scripture to the church's confessions and preaching.

The Reformed churches of the sixteenth century affirmed the need to be semper reformanda--always reforming. But in the ensuing centuries, some have taken this conviction as a mandate to abandon the departure from received orthodoxy, while others have progressed toward a rigid confessionalism that cements the Reformation itself as a final codification of truth. Between these extremes is the ongoing need of the church to be always reforming--subjecting its beliefs and practices to the renewed scrutiny of Holy Scripture and restating the truth of Scriptures in ways that faithfully communicate the gospel, advance the mission of the church and empower the people of God. This collection of essays by senior theologians and edited by A. T. B. McGowan practices what it preaches, mining the whole terrain of systematic theology to refresh, renew and yes, even reform the church for its next season. Contributions by Gerald Bray, Henri Blocher, Stephen Williams, Kevin J. Vanhoozer and others.

The need to be 'always reforming' in the light of Scripture is a vital task for the church in every generation. This volume offers cutting-edge assessments of subjects in systematic theology, and identifies problems, dangers and new possibilities.