Always Reforming: Explorations in Systematic Theology

The Reformed churches of the sixteenth century affirmed the need to be semper reformanda—always reforming.

But in the ensuing centuries, some have taken this conviction as a mandate to abandon the departure from received orthodoxy, while others have progressed toward a rigid confessionalism that cements the Reformation itself as a final codification of truth.

Between these extremes is the ongoing need of the church to be always reforming—subjecting its beliefs and practices to the renewed scrutiny of Holy Scripture and restating the truth of Scriptures in ways that faithfully communicate the gospel, advance the mission of the church and empower the people of God.

This collection of essays by senior theologians and edited by A. T. B. McGowan practices what it preaches, mining the whole terrain of systematic theology to refresh, renew and yes, even reform the church for its next season.

The Rev Professor Andrew McGowan is minister of Inverness East Church of Scotland, professor of theology in the University of the Highlands and Islands, and honorary professor in Reformed doctrine at the University of Aberdeen. He was the principal of Highland Theological College from 1994 to 2009. Professor McGowan chairs the Theological Commission of the World Reformed Fellowship, he is president of the Scottish Evangelical Theology Society and he is chairman of Rutherford House. Professor McGowan's most recent books are Always Reforming: Explorations in Systematic Theology, editor, (Leicester: IVP, 2006); The Divine Spiration of Scripture: Challenging Evangelical Perspectives (Nottingham: IVP, 2007); and The Person and Work of Christ: Understanding Jesus (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2012). Andrew is married to June and has three sons.