By Peter J. Leithart

The Failure of Denominationalism and the Future of Christian Unity

One of the unforeseen results of the Reformation was the shattering fragmentation of the church. Protestant tribalism was and continues to be a major hindrance to any solution to Christian division and its cultural effects. In this book, influential thinker Peter Leithart critiques American denominationalism in the context of global and historic Christianity, calls for an end to Protestant tribalism, and presents a vision for the future church that transcends post-Reformation divisions.

Leithart offers pastors and churches a practical agenda, backed by theological arguments, for pursuing local unity now. Unity in the church will not be a matter of drawing all churches into a single, existing denomination, says Leithart. Returning to Catholicism or Orthodoxy is not the solution. But it is possible to move toward church unity without giving up our convictions about truth. This critique and defense of Protestantism urges readers to preserve and celebrate the central truths recovered in the Reformation while working to heal the wounds of the body of Christ.

• Hard Cover: 240 pages
• President of the Theopolis Institute for Biblical, Liturgical, & Cultural Studies and FirstThings.com blogger, Peter Leithart sees the long-term result of the Reformation as being a destructive Protestant tribalism. The End of Protestantism calls for a healing of the divisions among denominations and a new vision for the future church.
  
  Leithart’s agenda is practical and realistic. The Protestant unity he proposes is not a consolidation of various denominations into one central church. Rather, he envisions the possibility of Protestantism moving toward church unity while at the same time retaining denominational convictions and the central truths recovered in the Reformation.