The First Credo Colloquy: Carl R. Trueman and Matthew Barrett

Welcome to the first Credo Colloquy, an exclusive dialogue between theologians brought to you by Zondervan Academic. In this new series leading theologians engage one another on some of the most important issues in theology facing the church. In this first colloquy, Timothy Gatewood talked to Credo Fellow, Carl R. Trueman, and editor-in-chief, Matthew Barrett.

The topic on the table for this first colloquy could not be more relevant: Did the Reformers consider their reforms a break with the past or a renewal of catholicity? Both Trueman and Barrett believe the answer to that question should locate Protestantism within rather than outside the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

But how can this be when so many narratives of the Reformation today give the impression that the 16th century was a period of Protestant opposition to a church corrupted by everything medieval? Trueman and Barrett give an answer, convinced that many of the problems that plague evangelicals today can be traced back to a mistaken understanding of our own Protestant roots. Using Barrett’s new book The Reformation as Renewal (Zondervan Academic) as a foil, together these theologians called on the crowd to reconsider what it truly means to be Protestant after a half a century of scholarship in the primary sources.

Carl R. Trueman is a prominent church historian, theologian, and professor at Grove City College, Pennsylvania. He is the author of numerous books on theology, culture, and the Reformation, including The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (Crossway, 2020) and Luther on the Christian Life (Crossway, 2015).

Matthew Barrett is the editor-in-chief of Credo Magazine and host of the Credo podcast. He is professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and director of the Center for Classical Theology. He is the author of several books, including Simply Trinity, which won the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award in Theology. His new book is called The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Currently, he is writing a Systematic Theology with Baker Academic.

We hope that you find this colloquy enlightening, and we encourage you to return in the future for many more conversations like this one. Thank you for joining us at the Credo Colloquy.

If you would like to participate in a Credo event, register for the inaugural lecture for the Center for Classical Theology this November in San Antonio, TX. Space is limited so Register Now to reserve your seat.