Faculté Jean Calvin Professors – Continuing to Serve in Retirement
Dr. Paul Wells, along with his wife Alison, served at Faculté Jean Calvin for 40 years. The Wells share their story of how God led them to help with the very beginnings of the seminary in the Huguenot Fellowship blog post of April 16, 2021. Paul currently holds the position of Honorary Professor of Systematic Theology, and has a new book coming out in French, “La Grace (étonnante) de Dieu” (Volume 1) – Une Théologie Biblique et Systématique de l’Alliance (The Surprising Grace of God – A Biblical and Systematic Theology of the Covenant). The book will be published in mid-August 2021, and pre-publication orders can be made by visiting the Excelsis-Farel website - https://www.xl6.com/.
As Dr. Wells was considering the possibilities of such a project, he was aware that it was also a daunting task. He writes: “Yet as I prayed about how to go about things, it seemed to me that I should not altogether ditch the knowledge I had acquired over so many years’ teaching & writing, but rather build on it to write something for believers today.
Since retiring from the Faculté Jean Calvin in 2012, I have become increasingly aware that we are deep in the unprecedented turmoil of a social and cultural revolution. The old modernist liberalism with its thought patterns is being beaten down and replaced by a new post-Christian worldview dominated by the dictates of "intersectionality".
Today the Christian faith is despised, believers are a minority, civil laws are rapidly being changed and relativism is taking hold everywhere. The old systematic theologies were written for a society in which Christianity and rationalism were more dominant, and it seemed crucial to write in a way that would take into account the new state of affairs. No doubt my work does not go far enough as attitudes continue to change, but I hope others after me will carry on the task.”
There are 56 chapters in all, each about 7-9 thousand words, with indexes.
Volume 1 (26 chapters) consists of two parts: 1. The Specificity of the Christian Faith and 2. God: the world constructed and deconstructed.
Volume 2 (30 chapters) also includes two parts: 3. The Mediator and the Refounding of the world and 4. The new community in Christ.
The pre-publication offer of 26 euros is available until the end of August. See linked document for the publisher’s announcement in French.