Alan P.F. Sell 
Nonconformist Theology in the Twentieth Century [PDF ebook] 

This book is the first comprehensive study of the systematic, doctrinal, and constructive theology produced within the major Nonconformist traditions during the twentieth century.

By the end of the nineteenth century, modern biblical critical methods were fairly widely adopted, evolutionary thought was in the air, and doctrinal modifications, especially concerning the fatherhood of God, were underway. Sell charts the influence on Nonconformist thinking in the twentieth century of the New Theology associated with R. J. Campbell, the First World War, the reception of Karl Barth, the theological excitement of the 1960s, and growing religious pluralism.

The second lecture concerns the major Christian doctrines of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Trinity. Whereas in the early decades of the century there was considerable emphasis upon the atonement, during the concluding two decades the Trinity received more attention than had formerly been the case.

In Lecture Three attention is directed to ecclesiological and ecumenical themes. The Nonconformists are presented as Protestant, and as displaying some zeal in propagating their particular understanding of the Church. The doctrinal aspects of their national and international moves toward inner-family unity and of their broader ecumenical relationships are considered.

Eschatology is treated in the concluding lecture prior to Sell’s assessment of the significance of twentieth-century Nonconformist theology, and his observations regarding its current state, its future content, and its practitioners.

Über den Autor

Alan P. F. Sell, of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the University of Chester, is a philosopher-theologian and ecumenist with strong interests in the history of Christian thought in general, and of the Reformed and Dissenting traditions in particular. A minister of The United Reformed Church, he has held rural and urban pastorates, has served from Geneva as Theological Secretary of the World Alliance (now Communion) of Reformed Churches, and has held academic posts in England, Canada, and Wales. He has earned the rarely-awarded senior doctorates, DD and DLitt, is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Royal Historical Society, and holds honorary doctorates from the USA, Hungary, Canada, and Romania. He is the author of more than thirty books, and the editor of others. Ever seeking to hold together what belongs together, he explores the relations between philosophy, theology and apologetics, Christian ethics and moral philosophy, and doctrine in relation to spirituality and the ecumenical quest.