In the words of the creeds, the church is the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic body of Christ.

Of those features, perhaps none is as misunderstood as the church's catholicity (that is, its universality)—because while the church is universal, it is also radically local, connected to a particular community or even found on a specific street corner. How might we reclaim the universality of the church without losing its local situatedness?

In this Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture volume, pastor and theologian C. Ryan Fields offers a surprising solution: he turns to the Free Church tradition, those churches that are historically separate or "free" from state oversight. Juxtaposing the Free Church withits Episcopal counterpart, he argues that far from neglecting the catholicity of the church, the Free Church tradition can helpfully inform our understanding of the one body of Christ while remaining true to its local roots.

Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture, edited by Daniel J. Treier and Kevin J. Vanhoozer, promotes evangelical contributions to systematic theology, seeking fresh understanding of Christian doctrine through creatively faithful engagement with Scripture in dialogue with church tradition.



C. Ryan Fields (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is senior pastor of Faith Evangelical Free Church in Acton, Massachusetts.



Kevin J. Vanhoozer (PhD, Cambridge University) is Research Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is the author of many works, including First Theology, The Drama of Doctrine and is coauthor with Daniel Treier of Theology and the Mirror of Scripture.



Daniel J. Treier (1972-2025) (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) was Blanchard Professor of Theology at Wheaton College. He was a founding editor of the Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture series. He coedited and wrote numerous books, including Virtue and the Voice of God and Introducing Theological Interpretation of Scripture.



Foreword by Kevin Vanhoozer



Acknowledgments



Series Introduction



Introduction: Free Church Catholicity?



1. Biblical Warrant for the Doctrine of Catholicity



2. Catholicity: The Development of a Doctrine



3. Engaging Anglican Accounts of Catholicity



4. Free Church Catholicity Explored: Examining Reformational Manifestations



5. Free Church Catholicity Expounded: Assessing Contemporary Proposals



6. Free Church Catholicity Embodied: Locating Catholicity



Conclusion: Locating Catholicity and Catholic Locality



Bibliography



General Index



Scripture Index



"Dry water? Cold fire? Short eternity? All contradictions in terms. But what about Free Church catholicity? Equally oxymoronic? Not so, says C. Ryan Fields in his engaging and substantive new study, Local and Universal: A Free Church Account ofEcclesial Catholicity. Who would have thought the Free Church tradition would have something to say—much less contribute—to the doctrine of the church's catholicity? Fields shows us the way, engaging both Scripture and the Free Church traditionwith scholarly acumen and pastoral verve. He offers fresh theological resources for thinking about the church's claim to universality to those not only within the Free Church tradition but of any ecclesial tradition. Highly recommended!"



"An astute, irenic, and worthy contribution to a two-thousand-year-old conversation about the church's catholicity. Not many books accomplish that. My own thoughts on the topic were educated, pushed, and edified, and any future conversations on the doctrine of catholicity will need to interact with Fields's careful and compelling work. I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to recommend it."



"The importance of the Free Church tradition, broadly construed, on the world stage can hardly be overestimated. Indeed, at a time where other Christian traditions often seem to be losing their way or giving in to religious liberalism (or both), Free Church communities are regularly found to be growing. While as a (Roman) Catholic I cannot agree with everything Fields says, I am deeply struck by the constructive rigor, ecumenical erudition, and biblical and theological depth found in this book on the very sensitive theme of catholicity."



"C. Ryan Fields delivers a biblically grounded, historically informed manifesto for the catholicity of the local assembly within the Free Church traditions. Through extensive research and engagement with Scripture he examines bottom-up (Free Church) and top-down (Episcopal) patterns of ecclesial authority, finding their expressions of unified diversity as complementary. Local and Universal provides an important contribution to the doctrine of catholicity."