“It takes no courage to sign up as a Protestant.” These words open this bold new text - the summa of David Wells's critique of the evangelical landscape -- leaving no doubt that Wells is issuing a challenge to the modern church. This book is a broadside against “new” versions of evangelicalism as well as a call to return to the historic faith, one defined by Reformation solas (grace, faith, and scripture alone), and to a reverence for doctrine. Wells argues that the historic, classical evangelicalism is one marked by doctrinal seriousness, as opposed to the new movements of the marketing church and the emergent church. He energetically confronts the marketing communities and what he terms their “sermons-from-a-barstool and parking lots and après-worship Starbucks stands.” He also takes issue with the most popular evangelical movement in recent years -- the emergent church. Emergents are postmodern and postconservative and postfoundational, embracing a less absolute, understanding of the authority of Scripture than Wells maintains is required. The Courage to be Protestant is a dynamic argument for the courage to be faithful to what biblical Christianity has always stood for, thereby securing hope for the church's future.

Includes section "Book reviews."