Book Description

When Scottish lay theologian Thomas Erskine’s book The Unconditional Freeness of the Gospel was published in 1828, it provoked a storm of controversy throughout his Calvinist homeland. The ideas expressed in the book were violently attacked as being radical, unwarranted, and heretical, and yet, by the turn of the twentieth century, those same ideas that had been so heatedly condemned when first presented had become common stock in the Christian world—ideas such as the universal Fatherhood of God, the universal atonement of Christ, and a gospel that was meant to be proclaimed freely to all people. This new and unabridged edition of Thomas Erskine’s classic work has been fully and helpfully annotated. It includes an introduction to Thomas Erskine and his theology by the editor, Richard Leimbach, and a final chapter consisting of further readings from Erskine’s letters and books. The book will surely be a welcomed addition for anyone interested in the development of Christian theology in the early nineteenth century.