The Professor Paul Avis Books

What is church's true foundation? Was the Christian church founded by Jesus, or does 'the Eucharist make the church'? Paul Avis sets out his own answer to these questions. Gathering a wide range of critical scholarship, he argues that there is something solid and dependable at the foundation of the church's life and mission. Avis argues that Jesus wanted a church in a sense, but not as we know it. Christ proclaimed the gospel of the Kingdom and his disciples proclaimed the gospel whose content was Jesus himself, the Kingdom in person. The church is battered and divided, but at its core is a treasure that is indestructible – the gospel of Christ, embodied in word and sacrament. A central theme of the book is the relationship between the church and Christ, the church and the gospel, the church and the Kingdom. Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is the sole foundation of the church, but he cannot be without his people.

"Why do we need a revelation? How far can human reason provide a natural knowledge of God? How is revelation connected with history and with the Bible? This volume explores what we should believe about the Word in its threefold form - Jesus Christ - the incarnate Word (Logos) and Wisdom (Sophia) of God - and provides pastoral and practical guidance"--

Challenging the common assumption that the Enlightenment of the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries was an essentially secular, irreligious and atheistic movement, this book critiques this standard interpretation as based on a narrow view of Enlightenment sources. Building on the work of revisionist historians, this volume takes the argument squarely into the theological domain, whether Anglican, Dissenting, Lutheran or deistic, whilst also noting that the Enlightenment deeply affected Roman Catholic and Jewish theologies. It challenges the stereotype of 'Enlightenment rationalism', and the penultimate chapter brings out the biblical and ecclesial roots of the image of enlightenment and reclaims it for Christian faith.