The Recovery of Doctrine in the Contemporary Church: An Essay in Philosophical Ecclesiology

Doctrine has not fared well in the church of the past century. Pressured by the forces of modernity, doctrine has been misconceived and marginalized in the church. In this book, Richard Heyduck examines the false options on doctrine that modernity has offered the church, especially his own tradition, United Methodism, and suggests ways to get beyond this impasse. Utilizing some resources of postmodern philosophy, Heyduck argues that doctrine is neither a catalog of truths to which assent must be given nor an accidental verbalization of universal religious experience. Instead, Christian doctrine is that which enables the church to live faithfully in the drama of God's ongoing action in history. Throughout the book, Heyduck argues forcefully that doctrine is not optional for any Christian church. Rather, doctrine is essential not only to Christians' ordinary life together, but especially to the work of ministry and evangelism.