During the sixteenth century, three theological principles came to identify the Protestant Reformation: Sola gratia, sola fide, and sola scriptura. Sola gratia (Latin, ‘grace alone’ or ‘by grace alone’) emphasizes that salvation occurs by God’s ‘grace alone’ and not by human merit. Sola fide (Latin, ‘faith alone’ or ‘by faith alone’) is similar in that [...]

Thank you, Jesus, for the food, and for family and friends. Amen.

The “Wesleyan quadrilateral” represents a shorthand reference to John Wesley’s understanding of religious authority, affirming the interdependent relationship between the primacy of scriptural authority along with the secondary—albeit genuine—religious authority of tradition, reason and experience. The Wesleyan quadrilateral is a paradigm, or model, of how Wesley conceived of the task of theology. Wesley neither cointed [...]

Mannoia, Kevin W., and Don Thorsen, eds. The Holiness Manifesto. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008. Does the concept of holiness hold any relevance for Christians in the twenty-first century? Or is it a relic of the past, with little to offer in today’s postmodern world? The contributors to this book firmly insist that holiness is indeed [...]

Thorsen, Don. An Exploration of Christian Theology. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2008. Beginning students of Christian theology often get lost in the labyrinth of doctrinal terms and formulations arising from the twists and turns of church tradition and history. An Exploration of Christian Theology provides a map for navigating Christian theology. Writing from a broad-ranging perspective, [...]

Thorsen, Don. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience as a Model of Evangelical Theology. Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury Press for Zondervan, 1990; Lexington, KY: Emeth Press, 2005. The authority of Scripture has been a subject of continuing, intense debate among Chritians for many years. In the Wesleyan tradition this debate has focused on [...]