C. Norman Kraus

The Authentic Witness (eBook, PDF)

Credibility and Authority

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Traditional Protestant theology has long answered the question, "What is the true church?" by pointing to the visible church--its location, nature, and structure. The recent increase of interest in missions, however, has raised the issues of the church's role and identity--its mission in the world. It is no longer enough to use orthodoxy as the criterion for the genuineness of the church, identifying the body of Christ by organization or clerical structure, perfection in lifestyle, or ecstatic experience of the Holy Spirit. Rather, says Norman Kraus, the mark of the true church is its authenticity--its ability to remain true to its original prototype in character and purpose. Thus, the church's mission is to be the authentic community of witness to the world. The Christian community affirms each individual as a person in Christ, and its objective for the world is the same as for itself: it calls the world to peace in Christ. The church in mission, then, must be a sign to the world of the kingdom of God. As an authentic community, it is a healing community, characterized and organized around its mission of reconciling witness rather than creeds, various practices, or preaching. Following Christ as its model, its message is salvation and reconciliation.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wipf and Stock Publishers
• Seitenzahl: 200
• Erscheinungstermin: 26. März 2010
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781725227330
• Artikelnr.: 60108671

Autorenporträt

With his wife, Ruth, C. Norman Kraus served under Mennonite Board of Missions in short-term assignments and for seven years in Asia and Australia (1980-1987). It was during this time that the present book was written.

He has served on the Mennonite Board of Missions' overseas committee and has gone on teaching missions to churches in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, and various East African countries. He was also a member of the Health and Welfare Committee of the Mennonite Board of Missions for five years.

Kraus has taught at the following seminaries in Asia: Serampore Theological College (1966-67) in India; Union Biblical Seminary (1983) in Pune, India; Eastern Hokkaido Bible School (1981-86) in Japan; and Baptist Theological College of Western Australia (1987).

Prior to his assignment in Japan, Kraus was a professor of religion and director of the Center for Discipleship at Goshen College. He was also book review editor of the 'Mennonite Quarterly Review'. A student of both Anabaptism and Evangelicalism and its origins, he is the author of 'Dispensationalism in America' (John Knox, 1985).

A native of Newport News, Virginia, Kraus earned graduate degrees from Goshen Biblical Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary (Th.M.), and Duke University (Ph.D.). In addition to numerous articles, he is the author of 'The Healing Christ' (Herald Press, 1971), 'The Community of the Spirit' (Eerdmans, 1974), 'The Authentic Witness' (Eerdmans, 1979), and the editor of 'Evangelicalism and Anabaptism' (Herald Press, 1979).

In 1950, Kraus was ordained as a minister in the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. He has moved to Virginia, where he is a member of the Park View Mennonite congregation and interim pastor (1990-91) of Community Mennonite Church, both of Harrisonburg, Virginia. He and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of five grown children.

At present Norman and Ruth are at home in Harrisonburg, where is is continuing his writing.