The recent celebration of the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer has helped to stimulate a renewed interest in its teaching and fundamental contribution to Anglican identity. Archbishop Cranmer and others involved in the English Reformation knew well that the content and shape of the services set out in the Prayer Book were vital ways of teaching congregations biblical truth and the principles of the Christian gospel. Thus the aim of this series of booklets which focus on the Formularies of the Church of England and the elements of the different services within the Prayer Book is to highlight what those services teach about the Christian faith and to demonstrate how they are also designed to shape the practice of that faith. As well as providing an account of the origins of the Prayer Book services, these booklets are designed to offer practical guidance on how such services may be used in Christian ministry nowadays. In this overview of the Book of Common Prayer, Peter Adam brings us back again and again to its emphasis on the 'very pure word of God', setting the gold standard and hallmark of all our liturgy. Peter Adam served as Vicar of St Jude's Carlton, and as Principal of Ridley College in Melbourne Australia. He is currently Vicar Emeritus of St Jude's, and Canon of St Paul's Cathedral Melbourne.

The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are one of the three historic 'formularies' (constitutional documents) of the Church of England. Along with the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal they gave the church its distinctive identity at the time of the Reformation, an identity which has had a formative infl uence on worldwide Anglicanism. The English formularies have played an exceptionally important role in shaping the Anglican Communion and they continue to serve as reference points whenever it is necessary to think in terms of a common Anglican tradition. In the confusion caused by recent developments, it is encouraging that in many parts of the Anglican Communion some have returned to these sources to satisfy a genuine hunger for both Anglican tradition and sound Christian doctrine. It is to meet this growing demand that this book has been written. Although the Articles have had a chequered historical career, the intention of this book is to take them as they now stand and interpret what they mean for us today. Historical circumstances cannot be avoided completely and will be mentioned as necessary, but the main emphasis here is theological. What do the Articles say about what we believe and how should they be understood and applied by us today? Read on Gerald Bray is director of research for the Latimer Trust and research professor at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

God Never Changes Or does he? God has been getting a makeover of late, a 'reinvention' that has incited debate and troubled scholars and laypeople alike. Modern theological sectors as diverse as radical feminism and the new open theism movement are attacking the classical Christian view of God and vigorously promoting their own images of Divinity. God Under Fire refutes the claim that major attributes of the God of historic Christianity are false and outdated. This book responds to some increasingly popular alternate theologies and the ways in which they cast classical Christian theism in a negative light. Featuring an impressive cast of world-class biblical scholars, philosophers, and apologists, God Under Fire begins by addressing the question, Should the God of Historic Christianity Be Replaced? From there, it explores issues as old as time and as new as the inquest into the openness of God. How, for instance, does God risk, relate, emote, and change? Does he do these things, and if so, why? These and other questions are investigated with clarity, bringing serious scholarship into popular reach. Above all, this collection of essays focuses on the nature of God as presented in the Scriptures and as Christians have believed for centuries. God Under Fire builds a solid and appealing case for the God of classical Christian theism, who in recent years---as through the centuries---has been the God under fire."

A Christianity Today 1999 Book of the Year St. Paul's Letter to the Romans has long been considered the theological high-water mark of the New Testament. It was no less regarded by the ancient church, and patristic interpreters have left us an abundance of valuable comment on Romans. This Ancient Christian Commentary on Romans collects the best and most representative of patristic commentary and homily on Romans, and it brings to the public some valuable material that has hitherto been unavailable in English translation. Outstanding among these commentators is "Ambrosiaster," the name given to the unknown Latin commentator of the late fourth century, whose enduring worth is evident to all who read him. And the extensive commentary by Origen, largely inaccessible to modern readers, is frequently and extensively presented here in English for the first time. These commentators are joined by great figures such as John Chrysostom of Constantinople, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Augustine of Hippo, Theodoret of Cyrus, and several lesser commentators such as Diodore of Tarsus and Didymus the Blind of Alexandria. This commentary on Romans (now in its second edition) provides a rare opportunity to encounter the familiar Pauline exposition of the righteousness of God as it echoes in the great Christian minds and communities of the early church.

The Reformation was a time of tremendous upheaval, renewal, and vitality in the life of the church. The challenge to maintain and develop faithful Christian belief and practice in the midst of great disruption was reflected in the theology of the sixteenth century. In this volume, which serves as a companion to IVP Academic's Reformation Commentary on Scripture, theologian and church historian Gerald L. Bray immerses readers in the world of Reformation theology. He introduces the range of theological debates as Catholics and Protestants from a diversity of traditions-Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Anabaptist-disputed the essentials of the faith, from the authority of Scripture and the nature of salvation to the definition of the church, the efficacy of the sacraments, and the place of good works in the Christian life. Readers will find that understanding how the Reformers engaged in the theological discipline can aid us in doing theology today.

A 2001 Christianity Today Award of Merit winner Because the Catholic Epistles focus on orthodox faith and morals, the Fathers drew on them as a means of defense against the rising challenge of heretics. This factor gave these letters a freshness and relevance to conditions in the fourth and fifth centuries that might otherwise seem surprising. Many of the Fathers unabashedly saw in them anticipatory attacks on Marcion and strong defenses against the Arians. They did so quite naturally because in their view truth was eternal and deviations from it had existed from the beginning. Above all, the Fathers found in the Catholic Epistles a manual for spiritual warfare, counsel for the faithful in the cosmic struggle between good and evil. In them was sound instruction in the ways of self-sacrifice, generosity and humility, through which the cosmic forces of evil could be defeated. Allusions to these letters go back as far as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Tertullian, but the first commentary derives from Clement of Alexandria. Didymus the Blind was the next significant Greek-speaking commentator, though his commentary is fully extant only in Latin translation. Many of the comments from the early centuries have been passed on to us through Latin catenae, or chain commentaries, in which a later commentator collected comments from a variety of sources and chained them together in a fashion much like that of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Among Latin commentators on these letters, pride of place must be given to Bede the Venerable. This volume opens up a treasure house of ancient wisdom that allows these faithful witnesses, some appearing here in English translation for the first time, to speak with eloquence and intellectual acumen to the church today.

This commentary offers a verse-by-verse theological interpretation of the First and Second epistles to Timothy and Titus. Bray reads the letters as authoritative scripture, moving beyond questions of whether they are pseudonymous, and of whether or not they are post-apostolic, instead looking closely at how they have been understood in the life of the Church. Bray engages with the history of commentary surrounding these letters, ranging from the Fathers to contemporary theology and exegesis. He reads the epistles as the authoritative word from God to his people, and through his engagement with the history of interpretation shows the constant thread of witness and confession that unites believers across the ages. In so doing, Bray shows why the Pastoral Epistles have survived the passage of time and have retained the canonical authority that they have always enjoyed.