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Author’s Corner: Reformed Exegetical Doctrinal Studies

Each week on Credo we welcome you to join us in the Author’s Corner where we will meet a set of authors whose recent books deserve your attention and might even help you grow in your knowledge of theology, history, philosophy, and the scriptures. We hope the Author’s Corner can keep you up-to-date on the most important books published today and where you can find them.

On today’s Author’s Corner we present you with a selection of works from Mentor.


The Primary Mission of the Church: Engaging or Transforming the World? (Mentor, 2022) by Bryan D. Estelle

This book argues for the separation of the church and the state. Additionally, Estelle claims that the historically reformed position is that Christ is ruler of all; however, he manifests his rule in different ways. These basic categories, i.e., that God rules the church as a redeemer (a spiritual kingdom) and rules the state and all other social institutions (the civil kingdom) as creator and sustainer, has been widely held by Reformed thinkers for centuries until the modern period. Estelle claims that without this bedrock truth, any attempt to describe the primary mission of the church will collapse.

This book has four parts. Part one gives the biblical basis for the primary mission of the Church. Part two of this book explores what the primary mission of the church is not. Part three of this book pivots toward a positive definition of what the primary mission of the Church is. Part four is more practical. In the final three chapters (part four) of the book, the discussion turns to several areas where the Scripture’s teaching about ecclesiology, specifically on the primary mission of the Church. The book now assumes a practical import for her practice: the nature and limitations of Church power, the mission of the Church and politics and education. Finally, the book concludes with the famous biblical passage in which Paul addresses Athenian citizens on the Aeropagus. This sublime sermon exemplifies Paul’s exquisite evangelism and ably pictures and embodies the positive principles in this book on the primary mission of the Church. Throughout Estelle argues that the mission of the corporate church is spiritual, which means that he describes those things that are properly of and properly belonging to the church.

For the Mouth of the Lord Has Spoken: The Doctrine of Scripture (Mentor, 2020) by Guy Prentiss Waters

There is no book better than the Bible. It is God’s own word. He breathed it into existence. He does wonderful things in and by it. But there is hardly a book more assailed, mocked, and assaulted than the Bible. New Testament Professor Guy Prentiss Waters delves into the doctrine of Scripture. Addressing the revelation, inspiration, inerrancy, sufficiency and perspicuity of the Bible, he also engages with what some other prominent theologians had to say on the subject.

Reforming Free Will: A Conversation on the History of Reformed Views (Mentor, 2020) by Paul Helm

In the light of what powers and faculties are human beings responsible individuals in the everyday? In his theological, historical and philosophical examination of reformed orthodox views of free will and divine sovereignty Paul Helm considers determinism and compatibilism and their historical development between 1500 and 1800. He graciously tackles the views of Richard A. Muller and Antonie Vos to argue that compatibilism is deeply rooted and represents the mainstream understanding of the reformers’ conviction on the matter.

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