Being Conformed to Christ in Community: A Study of Maturity, Maturation and the Local Church in the Undisputed Pauline Epistles
If you would like to explore a deeper theology of church (ecclesiology), consider Being Conformed to Christ in Community, a condensed version of Jim’s doctoral dissertation.
“This work began as a doctoral dissertation, which was accepted by the faculty of theology at the University of Oxford in the Spring of 2004. The study originated as an attempt to answer the question, ‘Why did Paul start churches?’ The answer that this work proposes is that Paul worked diligently to begin and maintain churches because he felt he was responsible for delivering mature believers on the day of Christ and that church was the place where and the means through which believers would come to maturity. As the study progressed, it became necessary not only to focus on Paul’s view of church, but also his understanding of maturity and specifically how the process of maturation occurs.” From the Preface.