A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Apostles in the New Testament
The Apostolicity of the Church
Selected Quotes
- “Is there any form of the church that can claim, beyond all others, to be authentically Christian, so that in unions between denominations this form must take precedence, and determine the structure of a united church?” (19)
- “Paul’s conviction that he was an apostle of Christ Jesus was tested by the skepticism of his rivals and the indifference of his converts; this obliged him to work out what his apostleship meant, and on what grounds it rested.” (36)
- “Again, a church is not apostolic if it fails to manifest concern for the needy, and to serve them in love.” (90)
- “In other words, an apostolic church will live by faith – faith that is not qualified by sight, faith that becomes operative in love.” (93)
- “It remains an essentially simple, even though historically very complex, fact that it was in the Reformation of the sixteenth century that the ‘theology of glory’ was replaced by the ‘theology of the Cross’, and the priesthood of the spiritual estate by the priesthood of all God’s people. These terms are central, but not easy to define.” (104)
- “The theme of the New Testament is Christ crucified and risen, and it vindicates itself. The apostolic testimony to Christ crucified and risen is not a halter, but a spur. It is not a life-destroying letter, but a life-giving Spirit.” (113)
- “The New Testament is neither a set of sermon outlines, nor a volume of dogmatics, nor a corpus of canon law; it is the classic witness to Christ…” (113)
Buy the books
THE SIGNS OF AN APOSTLE: THE CATO LECTURE 1969, by C. K. Barrett