Christians need to engage in learning creed practices and understand how it shapes their faithful lives so that they can fully grow as stronger believers and practitioners of Christianity. Professor Beth Felker Jones’ tries to remind Christians that doctrines contain ideas to be practiced rather than being debated. Beth balances the evangelical’s centripetal force on the focus of evangelical gospel and the centrifugal force of the historical reception of the gospel in many places and times. Beth helps readers coherently communicate basic Christian doctrines, ponder theologically, and tie Christian thought to their daily faith life.
Structure and Substance
In the book ‘Practicing Christian Doctrine,’ Beth first introduces to her Protestant evangelical audience, central Christian doctrines. She then rehabilitates a historical perception of doctrine that links practices and beliefs. In the beginning, Beth calls for reforms to King Josiah in 2 Chronicles 34 and manifests how the reforms bind with a rediscovery of repentance and law. Beth offers various key elements in relating a practical center of theology to the Christian life: first, as both general term and specific, theology talks about a systematic set of Christian doctrine teachings in Christian life.
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Second, as a response to God, theology encourages love among Christians that can be achieved through God’s grace. Third, Theology encourages faithful use of words when Christians speak about God to achieve rightly speaking about God. Fourth, theology introduces to Christians with revelatory words in practical and biblical view. Words like prayer, testimony, preaching, praise, and teaching practices are continuity of theology. Furthermore, theology helps the church rightly worship God through doxologies. It again assists the church in assessing words that it uses that reflects God’s truth and the gospel.
Moreover, in evangelical and ecumenical view, Beth argues that gospel people are called to be Jesus’s witness in the world. She states that because God has raised gospel witnesses across generations, there is a need to account for various historical ways through which God used Christians to spread the world’s gospel in practicing faithful discipleship.
Knowing God
In the scripture and doctrines of revelation, Beth lays clarity by defining special and general revelation and provides their relationship. She also offers a high biblical account of scripture words as a gift of God to revelation and explains how God is available, and His goodness in letting Christians know Him. Beth further discusses that inerrancy in the scripture does not account for regarding precision, the genre, and so forth. Beth summarizes by showing how personal faith embraces spiritual authority.
Church in a Diverse World
Through the topic, Jew-Gentile dissension in Acts and its intimation for the church is discussed. But Beth also grounds the churches’ diverse orthodox definition that would be acceptable to Protestant leadership. She majorly emphasizes on churches’ biblical images like body and bride, individualism and culture, as well as unity and independence that are critical to its material, physical and communal witness.
As these qualities are developed, Beth elaborates that the brokenness of the church must be seriously considered since, without it, the witness to the grace of Christians is impossible. The churches’ brokenness is intertwined with her globally diverse church celebration.
Response
Throughout the book, Beth uses helpful apparatus like notable Christian figures, a quotation from hymns and poets, and even biblical passage excerpts to illustrate as well as support theological arguments. The book is reasonable lengthwise, charitable in tone, elaborate in meanings, and accessible to particularly students, believers, and teachers of the faith.
