Law & Gospel in Action: Foundations, Ethics, Church - Paperback

by Mark C. Mattes (Author), John T. Pless (Foreword by)

Mark Mattes' hope is not only to secure believers' consciences in Christ but also to reclaim theological and social turf which mainline Protestants have too quickly ceded to various secular agendas. The collected essays engage the reality of believers' death and resurrection in Christ, and how that bears upon the life of faith while also attending to a wide range of relevant theological topics such as scriptural authority, apologetics, a critique of contemporary mainline Protestant and Evangelical Catholic ethics, a critique of Lutheran-Reformed ecumenism, and the church's mission and outreach. The collection concludes with several sermons based on Old Testament lessons seeking to show how the theology embedded in the essays can be used for proclamation.

Author Biography

Mark Mattes serves as Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, and previously served parishes in Gardner, Illinois, and Antigo, Wisconsin. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and an M.Div from Luther Seminary. Mattes has authored Martin Luther's Theology of Beauty: A Reappraisal and The Role of Justification in Contemporary Theology, and has co-authored Imaging the Journey, co-translated Theology the Lutheran Way by Oswald Bayer, co-edited the collected papers of Gerhard Forde, A More Radical Gospel and The Preached God, and is an Associate Editor for Lutheran Quarterly.