In Search of Ancient Roots

Protestant evangelicalism is in crisis. Today it is increasingly difficult for Protestants to identify what counts as distinctively Protestant, much less what counts as evangelical. As evangelicals increasingly lose contact with the churches and traditions descending from the Reformation, and as relations with Roman Catholicism continue to thaw, it becomes harder to explain why one should remain committed to the Reformation in the face of perceived deficits and theological challenges with the Protestant tradition. A common complaint about Protestant evangelicalism is its apparent disconnect from ancient Christianity. The antiquity and catholicity of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy seem to outshine the relative novelty of the Reformation. Some evangelical churches appear to be uninterested in the ancient historical roots of their faith as well as being liturgically and doctrinally unstable. Many within evangelicalism seem to have accepted at face value the suggestion that the evangelical faith is no more than a threadbare descendant of ancient Christianity. The result is that a number of younger Protestants in recent years have abandoned evangelicalism, turning instead to practices and traditions that appear more rooted in the early church. In Search of Ancient Roots examines this phenomenon and places it within a wider historical context. Ken Stewart argues that the evangelical tradition in fact has a much healthier track record of interacting with Christian antiquity than it is usually given credit for. He surveys five centuries of Protestant engagement with the ancient church.

Monday, November 18, 2019
7:00pm – 8:30pm MT
Colorado Christian University
Anschutz Student Center Great Room
8787 W. Alameda Ave. Lakewood, CO 80226

About Dr. Ken Stewart

Dr. Ken Stewart is a specialist in the history of Christianity from the Reformation to the present with special interest in the development of the evangelical Protestant tradition. He has a growing interest in early Christianity and the transmission of doctrine from the early church forward to our time. He also teaches early modern European history and the two-semester Christian Doctrine sequence required for sophomores. Dr. Stewart has been a Professor of Theological Studies at Covenant College, and on their faculty since 1997.