Essential Truths for Christians: The Thirty-Nine Articles as an Introduction to Systematic Theology

The guiding light of Bishop Rodgers' forty years of teaching in a seminary setting was the classic statement of Anglican doctrine, the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, whose primary author was Thomas Cranmer. Essential Truths for Christians is his Magnum Opus, re-issued for the next generation of Anglican theologians with a foreword by J.I. Packer and a new preface by Stephen Noll. "In their own day, the Articles were understood as a Reformational, indeed a Reformed, declaration of faith, and, historically and theologically, there is really no other way to understand them. It has been argued that they were Articles of peace rather than of profession, declaring what must not be denied rather than what must be affirmed, but this is a hollow evasion. As all the Reformers knew, God’s people are called to profess and live by God’s revealed truth, and to fight for it in debate if necessary, and this is an obligation that may not be watered down. Bishop John Rodgers grasps the spirit and substance of the Articles exceedingly well. As American Anglicanism agonizes today, struggling against the liberalism that has lodged in its vitals, this book will come into its own as a resource for the resistance-and-reform contenders. I commend it with gratitude and joy." —J.I. Packer from the Foreword "Many commentaries on the Articles delve into the history of their development from the time of the English Reformation; others see the Articles as the starting point for a “conversation” across the centuries. Essential Truths for Christians is a dogmatic, biblical, apologetic, and practical work, aimed primarily at pastor-teachers like Paul’s disciple Titus: 'But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine' (Titus 2:1)." —Stephen Noll, from the preface to this re-issue