Rethinking Holiness
- Theology
- Publisher: Baker Academic (Baker Publishing Group)
- Published: 2017
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Publisher's Description
Holiness is experiencing a renaissance both within and beyond the church today. Based on years of conversations with students, this approachable theological introduction to the Christian doctrine of holiness challenges the commonly held idea that holiness is primarily a moral category. The author explains that holiness is grounded not in ethics but in the basic nature of God; it is essentially and exclusively a divine property. The book highlights the Bible's necessary and corrective role in defining holiness and shows how individual holiness is grounded in the community that is the church catholic.
Endorsements (4)
“Bernie Van De Walle presents a readable, engaging, and theologically sound conversation that is absolutely necessary. Approaching a subject that has fallen out of popularity within the contemporary Christian church, Van De Walle offers a much-needed corrective to the misrepresentations of holiness that have arisen over the past several decades. By connecting the lines between God’s nature and God’s intention for creation, Van De Walle invites us to embrace the genuine liberty to participate in the divine nature and to be conformed to the image of Christ. He reminds us that holiness is neither something we achieve nor a matter of behavior—of being sinless—but is rather something God creates within individuals and the church. For pastors and theological educators who have lamented the current state of holiness among our parishioners and students, Rethinking Holiness provides an excellent resource for reigniting conversations about genuine holiness with those to whom we are called to minister.”
“Van De Walle has pulled off a small miracle: he has written a book of theology that’s also a page-turner. He has a gift for rendering complex ideas in lively prose with lucid arguments—and presenting it all as nourishment for the soul. In Rethinking Holiness he employs this gift on a topic the church urgently needs to rediscover: holiness. I am going to recommend this book widely in the hope that it reintroduces to the church (and to the world) the staggering beauty of God’s holiness and invites us again to delight in the good news that God shares God’s own holiness with us in order to makes us holy as God is holy.”
“The message of holiness has been proclaimed throughout the centuries, though at times it has been distorted by legalism and misunderstanding. Bernie Van De Walle brings this important understanding of God’s character back into the center of conversation in the life of the church. Rethinking Holiness provides a necessary, contemporary expression of a vital doctrine.”
“Van De Walle strikes at the heart of what God desires for the church and what Christians have always yearned for—holiness. He eloquently unravels the complex meaning of holiness and persuasively argues that Christians and non-Christians alike have a deep desire and need to be holy. Rethinking Holiness challenges those who have dismissed holiness as an antiquated and uninteresting topic to rethink their dismissal. This book offers deeply theological yet practical insights from a scholar who is passionate about helping ordinary Christians rediscover the essence of holiness.”
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