Carl E. Braaten is professor emeritus of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, where he taught for thirty years. He lives with his wife, Beryl, in Sun City West, Arizona, where he continues to enjoy life to the hilt, spending many sweaty hours every week on the tennis courts, indulging the passion of his life next only to theology in the service of the gospel of Christ and his church.
"""In this volume, renowned Lutheran theologian Carl Braaten sifts through two millennia of Christian wisdom, all the while in conversation with contemporary challenges to faith, in order to offer a compelling restatement of fundamental Christian truths. Passionate for both the gospel and the church, he offers a compelling ecumenical engagement readable for clergy and laity alike. If you are not already an 'Evangelical Catholic, ' Braaten will persuade you to become one."" --Mark C. Mattes, Professor of Theology and Philosophy, Grand View University ""Carl Braaten offers in this book a clear, succinct, scholarly, and widely ecumenical study of the Christian faith. As a dogmatic study, it faithfully draws from the fountain of the Holy Scriptures and the church creeds in an objective and open ecumenical dialogue. He engages constructively the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant, Evangelical, and Pentecostal churches, as well as the main world religions in an effort to strengthen and rejuvenate the trinitarian mission of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. I recommend this book highly as a resource for the formation of lay church leaders, seminarians, continuing education of pastors, and textbook in introduction to theology courses."" --Alberto L. Garc�a, co-author of Wittenberg Meets The World: Reimagining the Reformation at the Margins ""Carl Braaten once again leads Evangelical Catholics--those who love both Christ's gospel and his body, the church--into new territory that is also very ancient: the common ground of an ecumenical theology for the whole church. Pastors, teachers, and learners from a variety of church traditions will find the essentials of Christian faith set forth here in brief and useful form, in Braaten's characteristically clear and vigorous prose."" --Philip Cary, editor of Pro Ecclesia: A Journal of Catholic and Evangelical Theology ""Professor Braaten's lucid and refreshing summary of the Christian faith reflects more than six decades of teaching theology. With impressive command of the relevant literature, especially the Holy Scriptures and the classic creeds and confessions, and with deep understanding of the dogmatic consensus in the current ecumene, Braaten here offers a stimulating defense of the faith that is properly orthodox, catholic, and evangelical. This master teacher goes to the heart of what is essential."" --Matthew L. Becker, Professor of Theology, Valparaiso University ""For pastors who need a word to renew their preaching and teaching as well as for seminarians whose vocational callings are just being shaped, The Christian Faith will serve as an orientation to theological thinking moving us beyond the veneers of partisan and sectarian boundaries towards the common future into which God is drawing us. Dr. Braaten's clear and crisp writing is a classic example of the way in which the discipline of dogmatics draws us into the truth as it gives the reader both explanation and faithful testimony rooted in the apostolic witness and the trinitarian structure of the creeds."" --Amy C. Schifrin, President, North American Lutheran Seminary"