How may the church claim that Christ is the only Savior in a world in which tolerance
and relativism are prized and societies are increasingly religiously plural? How does
the Spirit empower believers and communities in their daily life and work as they face
formidable cultural and ideological challenges?
Such questions these essays answer. Half originated at "Proclaiming Christ in the Face
of Challenges," the 2018 Scholarsʼ Consultation of Empowered21, a global network of
Spirit-empowered churches and communities. This Consultationʼs location in Johannesburg
accounts for eight essaysʼ focusing on distinctively African concerns; another four center
on Asia and the Global South and three on Europe. Others address Western concerns of
modernism, postmodernism, secularism, and pluralism, while several probe biblical and
historical-theological foundations of Christian faith and its Spirit-empowered proclamation.
Readers will benefit from exploring the universality of the Christian gospel from its fi rst
proclamation and its proven adaptability to the cultural pluralism that is todayʼs global
reality, a flexibility that is faithful to Godʼs revelation and effective in imparting divine life
where proclaimed and believed.
