Justification: What's at Stake in the Current Debates

JustificationIt is not just one word among many, but it is a central reality for which Christians are thankful to God.Consequently, a faithful understanding of justification is not merely a concern of academic theologians but of all Christians. Discussion of this crucial matter reached a watershed during the Reformation, but concerns raised since then have not all been resolved throughout the church.In fact, current debates, even controversy, about justification among Protestants andbetween Protestants and Roman Catholics have been chronicled for general readers in periodicals such as Christianity Today and Books and Culture.In this book Mark Husbands and Daniel J. Treier bring together notable evangelical scholars and teachers to address from biblical, historical, theological and ecumenical perspectives key questions that prevent complete unity between Roman Catholic and Protestant branches of the church and raise tensions even among Protestant denominations. Witnessing to certain signs of hope, these essays also acknowledge points of caution. But for every reader who is looking for guidance and orientation to this doctrine and current discussion, this book provides a wealth of charitable yet incisive insight.Key questions addressed in Justification include:

• Does the doctrine of imputation of Christ's righteousness need to be rethought, or does it faithfully reflect biblical teaching?
• How should the faith and transformation of the believer be understood in connection with our justification?
• What is the connection between our union with Christ and justification?
• What can we learn from Lutheran, Wesleyan and Anglican perspectives on justification?
• What does the Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declaration of 1999 contribute to current ecumenical discussions, and what prospects are there for real theological and ecclesiological reconciliation?

These an other questions about the vitalfact of justification for Christian salvation remain of central importance for the preaching, teaching, believing and unity of the church.

Mark Husbands (Ph.D., University of St. Michael's College) is Leonard and Marjorie Maas Associate Professor of Reformed Theology atHope College. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, USA, and at Tyndale College and Seminary andSheridan College in Toronto. While a Masters student at Wycliffe College at the Toronto School of Theology, he was senior editor of Prolegomena, an academic journal in theology.

Professor Husband's academic work demonstrates a serious engagement with the work of Barth, Calvin, Luther and Jungel and extends to a consideration of reconciliation, theological anthropology and political theology. He is the author of the monograph Barth's Ethics of Prayer and Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals. He and Daniel J. Treier are editors of Justification: What's at Stake in the Recent Debates recently published by IVP. He is also editor of Theology and the End of Modernity: Essays in Conversationwith Reginald Stackhouse and with Philip G. Ziegler co-edited Essays Catholic and Critical.. Husbands is also the editor of The Community of the Word.

Daniel J. Treier (1972-2025) (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) was Blanchard Professor of Theology at Wheaton College. He was a founding editor of the Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture series. He coedited and wrote numerous books, including Virtue and the Voice of God and Introducing Theological Interpretation of Scripture.