The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity & Diversity

by Roger E. Olson

For most Protestants it will also include the rediscovery of the doctrines of grace by the major Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century (Luther, Zwingli, Bucer, Cranmer, Menno Simons). The latter may or may not be found in the early church fathers. Many of the Reformers believed “justification by grace through faith alone” (sola gratia et fides) could be found implicit in Augustine’s later writings. In any case, the Reformers and their faithful heirs among the post-Reformation Protestant theologians and Reformers respected the early church consensus of teaching while wishing to add the dimension of salvation as a sheer gift of grace received by faith alone which may have been muted somewhat in the writings of the church fathers.