Justification: What's at Stake in the Current Debates

Justification is not just one word among many, but 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 then have not all been resolved throughout the whole church.

In fact, current debates, even controversy, about justification among Protestants and between Protestants and Roman Catholics have been chronicled for general readers in periodicals such as Christianity Today and Books and Culture.

Can evangelicals and Catholics come together? Are legal and penal aspects foundational for all other understandings of our justification? Is Christ's righteousness infused in believers or only imputed? These and other questions about this vital fact of Christian salvation remain of central importance for the preaching, teaching, believing and unity of the church.

In this book notable evangelical scholars and teachers address from biblical, historical and theological perspectives key questions that now 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.

Mark Husbands (PhD, University of St. Michael's College) is Leonard and Marjorie Maas Associate Professor of Reformed Theology at Hope College. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, USA, and at Tyndale College and Seminary and Sheridan College in Toronto. While a master's 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 Jüngel 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 published by IVP. He is also editor of Theology and the End of Modernity: Essays in Conversation with 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 (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is Gunther H. Knoedler Chair of Theology at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He previously served as Blanchard Professor of Theology at Wheaton, and he is the coeditor or author of several books, including Theology and the Mirror of Scripture , Introducing Theological Interpretation of Scripture , and Virtue and the Voice of God.