The Courage to be Protestant

'It takes no courage to sign up as a Protestant.' These words open this bold new work - the culmination of David Wells's long-standing critique of the evangelical landscape. But to live as a true Protestant - well, that's another matter.

This book is a broadside against 'new' versions of evangelicalism as well as a call to return to the historic faith, one defined by Reformation solas (grace, faith, and scripture alone), and to a reverence for doctrine.

Wells argues that the historic, classical evangelicalism is one marked by doctrinal seriousness, as opposed to the new movements of the marketing church and the emergent church. He energetically confronts the marketing communities and their tendency to try to win congregants as consumers rather than worshipers, advertising the most palatable environments rather than trusting the truth to be attractive.

He also takes issue with the most popular evangelical movement in recent years - the emergent church. Emergents are postmodern and post-conservative and post-foundational, embracing a less absolute, understanding of the authority of Scripture than Wells maintains is required.

The Courage to be Protestant is a dynamic argument for the courage to be faithful to what biblical Christianity has always stood for, thereby securing hope for the church's future.

David F. Wells is the Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. An ordained Congregational minister, he is the author of many other books, including: No Place for Truth, God in the Wasteland, Losing Our Virtue, and Above All Earthly Pow'rs.