“It takes no courage to sign up as a Protestant.” These words begin this bold new work — the culmination of David Wells’s long-standing critique of the evangelical landscape. But to live as a true Protestant — well, that’s another matter.

Wells argues that historic, classical evangelicalism is 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 their tendency to try to win parishioners as consumers rather than worshipers, advertising the most palatable environment rather than trusting the truth to be attractive. He takes particular issue with the most popular evangelical movement in recent years — the emergent church.

The Courage to Be Protestant is a forceful argument for the courage to be faithful to what Christianity in its biblical forms has always stood for, thereby securing hope for the church’s future.

267 pp. Hardcover.