I am going to be presenting a paper engaging with the work of some emerging Canadian evangelical theologians at an upcoming interdisciplinary theology conference in Rochester, NY, hosted by Northeastern Seminary and the Canadian-American Theological Association.  The conference, to be held October 20-21, is entitled, “Evangelical Theology: New Challenges, New Opportunities.”

Here’s the description of the paper I’ve submitted for the conference:

Ecclesiological Developments in Canadian Evangelical Theology

Ecclesiology has long been recognized as a thorn in the side of evangelical ecclesiology.  However, recent years have marked the publication of several significant monographs engaging with ecclesiological themes by a new generation of Canadian theologians.  This paper will probe three such recently published monographs in the attempt to discern signs of an emerging ecclesiological consensus within Canadian evangelical theology.  The works to be considered will include: Participating Witness: An Anabaptist Theology of Baptism and the Sacramental Character of the Church (Eugene: Pickwick, 2013) by Anthony G. Siegrist, formerly Assistant Professor of Theology at Prairie Bible College; Division, Diversity, and Unity: A Theology of Ecclesial Charisms (New York: Peter Lang, 2015) by James E. Pedlar, Assistant Professor of Wesley Studies and Theology at Tyndale Seminary; and Being Human, Being Church: The Significance of Theological Anthropology for Ecclesiology (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2016), by Patrick Franklin, Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at Providence Seminary.  Through engagement with these works by authors representing the emerging generation of theological scholarship in Canada, this paper will aspire to provide an orientation to the state of the contemporary ecclesiological conversation in evangelical theology, while also simultaneously honoring the heritage of CATA and its historic orientation towards the renewal of theology and the church in Canada.