About this book . . .
This is a book of letters. In them two Christian men struggle to understand God’s will as revealed once for all in the Bible — on salvation by grace through faith — the relation between fellowship and truth — the whole idea of a “Restoration Movement” — denominationalism — and other timely topics of live concern.
These letters were real … 16 in all. They flowed from bared souls and open hearts, over a period of 17 months. Both men now look back on the study as an important part of their journey toward Jesus . . . a lifelong pilgrimage yet far from finished in its glory.
Because of general interest in the subjects discuss, and the serious importance of the questions raised and grappled with here, this originally private correspondence, edited for publication, is now presented with the prayer that it may help others who are along the same road in their own journey toward Jesus.
During part of this correspondence, Bruce Edwards was on the staff of Truth Magazine and Edward Fudge was on the staff of the Gospel Guardian.
2013 UPDATE TO INTRODUCTION
During the forty-plus years since these letters were written, both authors have continued to study the Scriptures and to grow in Christ. The Lord has led both men out of the “non-institutional” Churches of Christ in which they served when this book was first written.
BRUCE EDWARDS is former Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies at Bowling Green State University (Ohio). Since finishing his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin (1981), he has pursued both popular and scholarly study of C. S. Lewis and the Inklings, and has published books and articles and lectured widely on these Christian writers across the U.S. and in Australia.
He has served as an elder at Bowling Green Covenant Church, a reformed and charismatic, nondenominational fellowship that tries earnestly to fulfill the goals of nonsectarian, apostolic Christianity as envisioned in the Stone-Campbell movement, all under the authority of Scripture and the direction of the Holy Spirit.
His electronic mail address is edwards@bgnet.bgsu.edu
EDWARD FUDGE has served many years as an elder in the Bering Drive Church of Christ in Houston, Texas, where he moved in 1982 as founding editor of “The Good Newspaper,” a national, biweekly, interdenominational Christian newspaper. In 1988, he received a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Houston and has since practiced law for a living, for most of those years with the Lanier Law Firm of Houston. He is now Of Counsel with the firm.
Edward continues to teach and preach in Churches of Christ and to evangelical audiences of many kinds, in the promotion of a more Christ-centered understanding of the gospel and of a spiritual renewal fully open to God’s fresh leading.
His electronic mail address is Edward@EdwardFudge.com
SPECIAL THANKS to Billy King for producing this on-line book.