In a culture dominated by the individualistic values of political and social liberalism, Gary Badcock says that we seldom hear of the church as the -creature of the Word of God.- The church has been entrusted to us by God and belongs to the structure of the Christian faith itself. Ecclesiology is first of all theology because it is primarily about the presence of God, Badcock maintains, and is thus biblical and creedal (-one, holy, catholic, and apostolic-) -- something that -we believe- -- which is what undergirds its empirical, sociological, and even pastoral function. Rather than a hollow shell where humans dream moral dreams and do good deeds, the church is the -house where God lives.-

The concept of vocation is often at the heart of religious experience, yet suprisingly few serious theological studies have been written about it. The Way of Life seeks to remedy this oversight and to outline a sane alternative to the more questionable versions of the idea of vocation found at the popular level. Beginning with the Bible, and drawing on theological sources both Protestant and Catholic, Gary Badcock develops a constructive theology of Christian vocation, rescuing it from both secular and sacred distortions. Badcock argues that Christian vocation is essentially the call to love God and neighbor. Through a consideration of several theologians, including in particular Martin Luther and Hans Urs von Balthasar, Badcock links this theme to another ruling idea of Christian spirituality - discipleship in the way of the cross. Viewed theologically, Christian vocation finally comes to be seen as a sharing in the reconciling mission of Jesus. Vocation should be seen as a way of life - indeed, as the way of life, the way which follows Jesus himself. A Christian's vocation is not, therefore, to be confused with with an occupation. Even though work itself is of great significance, vocation is fundamentally less about what one does than about what one is. For those struggling to discover a proper sense of vocation in a society obsessed with prestige and financial gain, this volume provides a solid, readable, and theologically informed account of what it truly means to be "called of God."

Badcock begins by surveying what both the Old and New Testaments have to say about the Spirit. Next he traces the history of the theology of the Spirit, examining a number of crucial episodes and questions in the field of pneumatology in the history of Christian thought, and then proceeds to develop a contemporary theology of the Spirit.