People of the Promise, in which I have an essay, has just been released by Davenant Retrievals. You really ought to buy a copy for everyone you know, because, whoever they are, they could probably benefit from thinking more about ecclesiology!
A number of smart people have already said nice things about it. Here’s Kevin Vanhoozer:
“I believe in the church.” You might think this is the easiest article in the Creed to affirm because we see and experience it, but you would be mistaken. It is precisely because we are familiar with the phenomenon that its reality eludes us. The fact that there are so many theories as to what church is and what church is for only complicates the matter. I therefore welcome this first installment of the Davenant Retrievals for its fresh and often illuminating presentation of the magisterial Protestant position to these questions, particularly their insistence that the church is a people assembled by God’s Word and Spirit. The authors use exegesis, church history, and systematic theology to make a compelling case that the church is the people who trust the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the fellowship of all who, through the Spirit, live out their “in Christ” reality together.
The essays contained in the book are as follows:
- “The Church Question in a Disoriented Age,” Joseph Minich
- “The Protestant Doctrine of the Church and its Rivals,” Bradley Belschner
- “Finding Zion: The Church in the Old Testament,” Steven Wedgeworth
- “Excursus: What is the Church? Etymology and Concept in Classical Antiquity, the LXX, and the New Testament,” E.J. Hutchinson
- “Pentecost as Ecclesiology,” Alastair Roberts
- “Simul Justus et Peccator: The Genius and Tensions of Reformation Ecclesiology,” Bradford Littlejohn
- “‘A Heavenly Office, A Holy Ministry’: Ordination in the English Reformation,” Andre A. Gazal
- “Excursus: Church Discipline as Public Good,” Jordan J. Ballor
- “Protestant Ecclesiology as Good Theory,” Andrew Fulford
- “Protestant Ecclesiology Among Contemporary Political Theologies,” Jake Meador
Buy your copy here!
Alastair's Adversaria 
What a great title.
Is not Pentecost God’s reversal of Babel, as well as much else – a common universal language of salvation in Christ understandable to every tongue, tribe, and nation, through God coming down in, by and through, God the Spirit, as promised?
Thanks, Geoff! I have a number of Pentecost-related posts linked here, a number of which get into the Babel-Pentecost link you mention.
Many thanks, Alastair. I didn’t know that. My profound ignorance is again revealed. I look forward to reading the links.
On the theme of People of the Promise, do you see from Hebrews 11, Abel as being a first -fruit of a family of God’s seed promised in Genesis 3?
And Enoch, the 7th generation, the first one made in the image of Adam, not to taste the curse of death (Genesis 3) , but to ascend to God, taken by Him, as pointing forward to the ascension of the promised seed, Jesus Christ, who walked perfectly with God, but tasted death, to break the curse of death for a new humanity created in the image of the last Adam, Christ Jesus, who are raised and ascend in union with Him, even now, with bodily resurrection and ascent to come?
There are definitely parallels worth looking at there.