A translation of Chemnitz' little book for pastors.

In five major parts, this volume surveys the views of ministry regnant i all of the major time periods of Church history. Each part begins again at the beginning in order to look at the literature and traditions of Christianity from a different perspective.

Over 3 million copies sold! Essential reading for Catholics of all walks of life. Here it is - the first new Catechism of the Catholic Church in more than 400 years, a complete summary of what Catholics around the world commonly believe. The Catechism draws on the Bible, the Mass, the Sacraments, Church tradition and teaching, and the lives of saints. It comes with a complete index, footnotes and cross-references for a fuller understanding of every subject. The word catechism means "instruction" - this book will serve as the standard for all future catechisms. Using the tradition of explaining what the Church believes (the Creed), what she celebrates (the Sacraments), what she lives (the Commandments), and what she prays (the Lord's Prayer), the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers challenges for believers and answers for all those interested in learning about the mystery of the Catholic faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a positive, coherent and contemporary map for our spiritual journey toward transformation.

Excerpt from The Ministry of the Word and Sacraments England to the ministry of the Word and Sacra ments respectively. Similarly with the Ordering of Priests. The same proportion is here maintained as in the Ordering of Deacons. Priests are to be replen ished with the truth of Christ's doctrine for the edification of His Church. In the Epistle chosen for the Ordinal the title priest does not occur, as, indeed, it occurs nowhere in the New Testa ment as a distinctive designation of Christ's ministers. But the ordinand priest is reminded in the Epistle of the early titles of the ministers of Christ's Gospel. Some were apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. And the work of the ministry of all, whatever their title, was the building up of the Body of Christ in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. The dignity and excellency of the priest's office is declared especi ally to be to teach and to feed the Lord's family. And forasmuch as the doing of so weighty a work cannot be compassed except with doctrine and exhortation taken out of Holy Scriptures, and with a life agreeable to the same, the ordinand priest is most earnestly admonished how studious he ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures. The means whereby he may wax riper and stronger in his ministry. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Charles Hodge viewed Calvin's doctrine of the union of believers with Christ's humanity in the Lord's Supper as an uncongenial foreign element in Calvin's thought, having no root in the system. Robert L. Dabney found Calvin's doctrine to be a strange opinion, which he had to reject because it is not only incomprehensible, but impossible. Were these eminent theologians correct, or did they miss the genius of Calvin's thinking at this point? Back in print at last, Ronald Wallace's classic study is a careful examination of Calvin's Commentaries, Institutes, Sermons, and Tracts, designed to clarify the teaching of the great Reformer. The following two sentences from the preface aptly sum up the author's intention: ÒWhat is most important in the study of Calvin today is to reveal what the Reformer himself actually said, in order that misconceptions about his teaching may be cleared away. Therefore this work is not a critical study of Calvin, but an attempt to express his teaching as copiously, fairly, and sympathetically as possible. Dr. Wallace's book is also valuable for the insight it gives into Calvin's method of interpreting Scripture, especially the Old Testament.

In The Church, Donald G. Bloesch explores with clarity and balance the contours of ecclesiology. He forthrightly takes up the most controversial of issues ranging from matters of church authority, the sacraments and worship to the church's place in the plan of salvation, the church and the kingdom of heaven, and church reunion.Evangelical in spirit, ecumenical in breadth and biblical in depth, Bloesch's work presents a theology of the church that calls for reformation and renewal according to the Word and Spirit of God.

Christians tend to divide into three camps: evangelical, sacramental, and pentecostal. But must we choose between them? Drawing on the New Testament, Christian history, and years of experience in Christian ministry, Gordon T. Smith argues that the church not only can be all three, but in fact must be all three in order to truly be the church.

This study of bishops, presbyters, and deacons identifies four conceptualizations of the Church influencing the relationship between ordained ministry and the Church: a monarchical and hierarchical conceptualization; a eucharistic, collegial model representing the communion of particular churches; the priest, prophet, and king motif that structures the concept of the Church as the people of God; and a theology of the Church as a sacrament of Christ and ordained ministry as a sacrament of the Church. It examines the 1990 ordination rites and discusses the sacramentality of episcopal ordination, the identity of the presbyterate, and questions concerning the diaconate.