It seems that much of American Christianity has lost sight of the goal of growing to maturity in Christ. This loss of vision has had serious consequences for the quality of our witness and ministry. In Aiming at Maturity, Steven W. Rankin seeks to bring back into focus key qualities of spiritual maturity and summarizes important biblical passages to show the scriptural foundations that call for spiritual maturity. Rankin also addresses certain tendencies in popular Christian culture to reduce doctrinal truths to sound bites with the laudable but counterproductive goal to make doctrine memorable, therefore applicable. Thinking more expansively about certain key doctrines related to the work of Christ and the impact of grace contributes to growth toward maturity in a way that popular descriptions of these doctrines do not. Finally, Rankin also challenges readers to consider the important role of emotions in developing Christlike dispositions, which contribute toward producing the fruit of a mature Christian life. By looking at relevant modern research, Aiming at Maturity shows the inherent connection between thoughts and feelings that draw us closer to the actual biblical description of the heart.""Stephen Rankin has given Christians a strong call to grow up, a challenge overdue in a culture that idolizes youth and stereotypes people over the age of thirty. Drawing from popular culture, his work as chaplain and college professor, and from theology, Rankin offers a robust definition of Christian maturity and invites readers to step up.""--Elaine Heath, Perkins School of Theology""Individual believers and local church leaders will find this book unique in laying the groundwork for discipleship growth plans. As a pastor I have been using Rankin''s ''trajectory of Christian maturity'' for years to identify the essence of a mature follower of Christ, and to design ministries that will provide substantive fruit, not simply more activities. Rankin calls the church to be serious in developing mature disciples."" --Pastor Bruce E. BaxterLead Pastor, Wesley United Methodist Church, Springfield, MissouriStephen W. Rankin is Chaplain and Minister to the University at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. A contributor to academic and popular periodicals, Aiming at Maturity is his first book.
""Those who serve as truth-tellers in the church, like those who listen to the truth-telling in the church, are a mix of yearning and fearfulness, of receptiveness and collusion. In the end, the work of truth-telling is not to offer a new package of certitudes that displaces old certitudes. This truth to be uttered and acted, rather, is the enactment and conveyance of this Person who is truth, so that truth comes as bodily fidelity that stays reliably present to the pain of the world.""--from the Preface""Although Truth-Telling as Subversive Obedience addresses preachers, it also calls urgently to anyone who desires to hear and do God''s word. With characteristic eloquence, Brueggemann dares us to believe in new life amidst the sexual, financial, and political lies that surround us. He finds hope in the truth coursing through Scriptures and invites us to become courageous, obedient speakers of truth ''because our lives depend on it.''""-Kathleen M. O''ConnorColumbia Theological Seminary""The provocative essays in this volume are yet another reminder that no one prods the consciences of preachers more effectively, discomfortingly, and profoundly than Walter Brueggemann. With imagination, resolve, and a comprehensive grasp of the issues, Brueggemann summons us once again to have the courage to speak ''truth that subverts our best self-deceiving certitudes.''""-Thomas G. LongCandler School of Theology""Walter Brueggemann has inspired more pastors and congregations than anyone else of our generation. And he continues this good work in a compelling collection of essays and sermons rooted deeply in the text and in prophetic imagination. Truth-Telling as Subversive Obedience trades in a sort of primal candor that dares to confront our most cherished conventions. Perhaps even more strikingly, this little book creates space for the loving embrace of God. Extraordinary stuff that we have come to depend on!""-Louis StulmanUniversity of Findlay""The persuasion of a book that dares to address ''truth-telling'' about God, the world, and humankind, rests largely on its author''s capacity to discern and communicate clearly truths that may be easily overlooked or minimized by others. In this collection of articles . . . Walter Brueggemann demonstrates yet again his prescient theological skills. For those who linger over Pilate''s question to Jesus, What is truth?, Brueggemann''s contention that truth about God is relentlessly connected to the pain of this world is and remains an imperative in search of a faithful response.""-Samuel E. BalentineUnion Presbyterian SeminaryWalter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He is past President of the Society of Biblical Literature and the author of numerous books, including David and His Theologian, Praying the Psalms, A Pathway of Interpretation, and Ichabod toward Home.
In this serial work of religious historical fiction, Magda, a ""fallen woman"" from Berlin turned maidservant in the house of Soren Kierkegaard, seeks the full life that has thus far eluded her. Two journals set in the summer of 1847 record Magda''s responses to the Luther Bible, Goethe''s Faust, and her elusive yet compelling master, who is simultaneously crafting his Works of Love. Three journals set in the fall, winter, and ""people''s spring"" of 1847 and 1848 reflect Magda''s ongoing engagement with secular and sacred writings, her sporadic yet intimate interactions with her master, the precariousness of her position in his household, and the rapidly changing social landscape, at the same time as Kierkegaard begins, revises, or completes several of his most existential and prophetic works. A sixth journal set in the summer of 1848 reveals Magda''s final disposition. Is she judged, or is she saved?""Through the changing of the seasons in a year of revolutions, a maidservant reflects on the Bible . . . and the anguish and hope of her master, the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Ellen Brown has crafted an understated, heartfelt, and moving meditation on the enigmatic man, religion, the position of women in society, and a life of exile and liberation.""--Marshall Brown, Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Washington, editor of Modern Language Quarterly, and author of The Shape of German Romanticism""Readers of Magda''s diary from the summer of 1847 will be delighted with these journals, which continue her life story alongside her continuing reflections on Scripture, literature, and life. Like the first volume, this collection is filled with spiritual insight and wisdom. The life story takes a surprising turn, or was it to be expected? Magda''s characterization of Kierkegaard is poetic and convincing.""--Adela Yarbro Collins, Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale Divinity SchoolEllen Brown lives in Connecticut. Her publications prior to Master Kierkegaard include essays on Percy Shelley''s Prometheus Unbound and Mary Shelley''s Frankenstein.
Reclaiming Mission as Constructive Theology offers a compelling case for the need to integrate God''s mission and missional church conversation with a public and post-colonial study of World Christianity. Driven by a commitment to publicly engaged theology that takes seriously the reality of Global Christianity, Paul Chung presents a vital new model for understanding the mission of God as a dynamic word-event. This is argued in conversation with contemporary missional theology and analysis of the development of Global Christianity, and as such brings important transcultural issues to bear on contemporary American conversations about the missional church. All of this serves to innovatively stimulate this missional church conversation and more directly address the various questions that arise in pursuing mission in a multiculuralized American society.""Paul Chung proposes fresh ways to envision the mission of the church within its global, multi-cultural, and inter-religious contexts, and he does so with a view to the future. Grounding his thinking in the biblical narrative of God''s salvific drama, Chung aligns missiology with other theological disciplines, providing a breadth of inter-disciplinary scholarship. He engages the contributions of contemporary missiologists and listens to the voices of the global church, past and present. All is brought together to advance our thinking within the new contexts of global mission."" -Arland J. HultgrenFirst Theological Degrees Luther Seminary""In these essays, a noted international theologian takes another creative and constructive look at the concept of the missio Dei. He not only reaffirms the importance of God''s mission in the current fragmented world but also revamps the concept in light of the latest developments in post-colonial missiology and mission theology. Part of this intriguing interdisciplinary conversation is the reconsideration of the meaning and significance of the notion of ""missional church,"" a topic widely discussed not only in North America but also elsewhere.""-Veli-Matti KarkkainenFuller Theological Seminary and University of Helsinki, Finland""Reclaiming Mission as Constructive Theology locates the contemporary discussion of missional church in its fullest eschatological horizon. Chung advocates for socially engaged mission that attends to the emergence of world Christianity, the imperative of public theology, and the call to serve God''s diakonia for the life of the world. Informed by mission history and recent hermeneutical theory, this book deepens and broadens the study of missiology to address the urgent issues of our time.""-Craig L. NessanWartburg Theological Seminary""For those seeking a theologically-grounded understanding of mission that is equally as concerned with effective practice, Paul Chung''s presentation of ''Mission as Constructive Theology'' is an impressive, expansive integration of confessional theology and cultural analysis. Dr. Chung argues that because of the embodied narrative of God in Jesus Christ, anthropology is essential to the development of a faithful and effective understanding and practice of mission. In Paul Chung''s innovative missiology, confessional commitments are essential to a faithful understanding of mission; equally essential, if mission is to be effective, is that these confessional commitments be understood and interpreted through the concreteness of each particular context so as to become the living voice of God in each time and place.""-Roland D. MartinsonLuther Seminary""In his new book, Paul Chung performs a great service, bringing together the themes and concerns of two equally urgent but too-often separated conversations: missional church and world Christianity. Even better, he gives both conversations new life by weaving them together with a robust theology of the Word focused on the living voice of the gospel. In both his constructive theology and his stories of pastoral practice, missio Dei show
""In this dark, when we all talk at once, some of us must learn to whistle.""In this comprehensive collection of his work, Craig Keen''s voice emerges as that of a theologian who has indeed learned to whistle. In a day when much of what passes for academic ""theology"" is careful to maintain a safe distance from any determinate act of faith or work of praise, Keen evinces a single-minded determination to think and to speak, to write and to live doxologically. And whether writing or lecturing, teaching or conversing, Keen understands theology to be nothing less than an invitation to work out one''s faith with fear and trembling.Throughout this volume Keen argues that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus disrupt all metaphysical attempts to determine the reality of ""God,"" and suggests instead that theology is to be done liturgically and eucharistically--as the work of a people whose labor is carried out with open hands, free from all attempts to grasp and control. Keen discusses doctrinal issues--the Trinity, incarnation, creation--as well as a number of critical theological concerns--church and culture, justice, holiness, Christian education--in this light. The result is a profound set of reflections on the ways in which the word of the cross simultaneously transgresses our constructions of ""God"" and gives us to live transgressively in love.""We''ve come to expect from Craig Keen that he will make things theological more difficult and complex than we thought they were. Then, after inviting us to accompany him in several unfamiliar paths, he makes us more trusting of the gospel without insisting that we eschew the complexity or arrive at a presumptuous conclusion. Masterful teacher that he is, he proffers only accompaniment, in all the richness of that term, knowing that each one will find the way only by being found by the Way. This is the method of these essays. What they also reveal is a writer whose humility and deference to God''s grace is palpable holiness. Would that this holy way could spread among theologians.""--M. Douglas MeeksCal Turner Chancellor Professor of Theology and Wesleyan StudiesVanderbilt Divinity School""Talk of self-involving knowledge and performative speech has become so widespread in recent years that I almost hesitate to use it. But in relation to Craig Keen''s work, there is really no alternative. Keen''s writing is animated by a deep personal desire for an authentically kenotic existence, and a longing for the coming of a community of women and men who understand that they cannot live until they die. There is pain and anguish in these essays but there is also well-founded hope. I cannot read them without being reminded very forcibly of the crisis theology of the young Karl Barth. This is a book to be read and savored-and read again.""--Bruce McCormackCharles Hodge Professor of Systematic TheologyPrinceton Theological SeminaryCraig Keen is Professor of Systematic Theology at Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California. He is the author of the forthcoming After Crucifixion (Cascade Books).
Christianity is simple. Love God. Love your neighbor. The rest is commentary. Simple in theory becomes much more difficult when your neighbor is a man in a dress who stinks like urine and a decaying, unwashed body. And yet, that''s exactly who you find on a downtown bus: the homeless, the unsavory, the just plain weird. Drawing on the wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, this book explores one woman''s complex and ambivalent interactions with the homeless. Stories about a persistent failure to acknowledge and honor the humanity of the homeless are evidence of the pervasive reality of human sin. But at the same time, there are moments of genuine kindness and humanity that stand as reminders that God brings new life from the brokenness of sin. These stories of days spent on a downtown bus move from unflinching self-reflection to a new awareness of God''s presence. This is where the abstract becomes local, and where theology finally gets real.""Annie Vocature Bullock''s honest, gritty storytelling is a gift to be savored! In this beautiful tapestry of narrative, theology and culture, Bullock''s insights are woven into a volume that inspires, challenges and transforms.""--Margot Starbuck, www.MargotStarbuck.comAuthor of Small Things with Great Love: Adventures in Loving Your Neighbor (2011)""Through her engaging style and vivid stories of the homeless men and women encountered on the city bus, Annie Bullock invites the reader into a deeper understanding of sin--not the sin of the homeless, not the sin of the system, but her own sin. With tremendous candor and humility, Annie names her sin and our sin--the sin of not seeing the divine or even seeing the human in another person.""--Wendy McCaig, founder and executive director of Embrace RichmondAuthor of From the Sanctuary to the Streets: How the Dreams of One City''s Homeless Sparked a Faith Revolution that Transformed a Community (2010)Annie Vocature Bullock is an adjunct faculty member at St. Edward''s University and teaches at Regents School of Austin, a Classical Christian high school in Austin, Texas.
The disunity of the church is a social and theological scandal for it betrays the prayer of Jesus that we ""will be one . . . so that the world will believe"" (John 17:21). As a Baptist whose academic background focused on the Orthodox Church and whose teaching has included Catholic and Protestant contexts, this division is for Elizabeth Newman personal and professional. Attending to the Wounds on Christ''s Body rests on the conviction that the broad tradition of Christianity already contains resources to heal the church, namely the saints of the church. Newman examines especially how Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) speaks to the whole church today in the midst of political, economic, and ecclesial brokenness. Teresa''s reliance upon three scriptural figures--dwellings, marriage, and pilgrimage--helps make sense of an ecclesial way of life that is inherently unitive, a unity that stands in contrast to that of the nation-state or the global market. Teresa''s scriptural journey offers an alternative at once liturgical, political, and economic. This Doctor of the Church provides ""medicine"" that can repair wounds of division that separate brothers and sisters in Christ.""Elizabeth Newman is one of our best spiritual writers and she works at the intersection of theology, spirituality, and Christian behavior. She attends all of these matters in this new book on St. Teresa of Avila, helping us move past the false images of Teresa to reclaim a vision for ecclesial renewal at the heart of her concern.""--Timothy George, Founding Dean, Beeson Divinity School of Samford University""This is a wonderfully informative book about Teresa of Avila, but it is also much more. Newman reflects on Teresa''s central images, dwellings, marriage, and pilgrimage to challenge modern Christians to reconsider their understandings of such things as time, abundance, place, politics, and economics. Such work helps us better inhabit a divided church, to repent of wounding her, and to imagine and pray for her healing. It is hard to conceive of more important theological work.""--Stephen Fowl, Chair of the Department of Theology, Loyola CollegeElizabeth Newman is Professor of Theology and Ethics at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. She is the author of Untamed Hospitality: Welcoming God and Other Strangers (2007).
Against the Tide, Towards the Kingdom is the story of the Urban Vision community in New Zealand. This book recounts the story of a group of young Christian adults who over the last fifteen years have relocated to the colorful ends of their city to share life with those who are struggling, homeless, sick, poor, neglected, or otherwise marginalized. The community has grown over time to seven neighborhoods where on any given day you may find ""Urban Visionites"" growing vegetables amidst the concrete, teaching English to refugees, offering alternative education programs to out of school teenagers, fostering children, doing church with the homeless, offering friendship to the mentally ill, roasting fair trade coffee, running kids clubs, moms groups, tenant meetings or just sharing yet another cup of tea with their neighbors. In fact sharing is a good summary of the whole shape of this exciting movement. They share homes, food, money, vehicles, jobs, prayers, dreams, conversations, fun, tears, pain, hope, healing, transformation . . . they share the whole of life with each other and with their neighbors. They live the gospel, this good news of Jesus.""As you flip through these pages, you feel your soul start to breathe better. It is a call to break free from all that suffocates us and to live with the recklessness and innocence of the lilies and sparrows. Justin and Jenny not only invite you to reject the counterfeit splendor and empty promises but they point you towards new rhythms and holy habits that move the world a little closer to God''s dream for it.""-Shane Claiborneauthor, activist, recovering sinner""Honest and deeply reflective, Jenny and Justin Duckworth have granted us a window on the beauty, the mess, the joy, and the pain of missional community. What they have discovered is that we can live fuller, more gracious lives in community, mission, and contemplation than we can by living in our nuclear family fortresses. This journey against the tide of a consumption-oriented culture will require us to put to death our tiresome and lonely lives of delicious self-absorption, but the promise of discovery and adventure in our voyage to a more sustainable and simplified life of shalom is painted for us with such striking honesty and beauty that we are compelled to set out on the waka. This is not a book, it is an invitation. I urge you not just to read it, but to accept it.""-Scott BesseneckerAssociate Director of MissionsInterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USAJenny and Justin Duckworth were founders of Urban Vision movement.
Left Behind and Loving It is a cheeky critique of popular writings about the end times. Rather than presenting a steroid-buffed Jesus wrapped in an American flag and ""coming again in clouds of gunfire,"" Left Behind and Loving It invites readers to approach some of the most controversial and scary portions of the Scriptures with the utter confidence that ""God''s steadfast love endures forever."" Rather than asserting a hope premised on a few chosen ones escaping the world, Left Behind and Loving It argues that if it is Jesus who is to return (and not his evil twin), then the second coming has redemption written all over it. Many today cannot accept the escapist, violent, end-of-the-world scenario envisioned by ""Left Behind"" theology. Left Behind and Loving It invites readers not to fear but to trust in God''s steadfast love and look at the finitude of the world with hope in an infinitely loving God.""Rapture theology has become a great chuffing beast, feeding on fear, imperial aspirations, and our growing sense of alienation from God''s good creation. Mark Davis aims a few well-chosen arrows at the beast, and lo, the rapture business turns out to be nothing more than a lot of hot air. This book points us toward our home on this earth, where God, whose steadfast love endures forever, dwells with us.""-Stanley P SaundersColumbia Theological Seminary""In this book filled with wit and great wisdom, Mark Davis takes on the Left Behind series and exposes it for what it is: fearmongering nonsense that makes a travesty of the gospel. Davis provides a way of reading the Bible that is historically sensitive and theologically acute. And as he ably demonstrates, a faithful reading of Scripture has its own share of surprises! I highly recommend this book to anyone who is concerned, or confused, about the apocalypse.""-William P. BrownColumbia Theological Seminary""Does the subtitle of D. Mark Davis'' book imply that his analysis is imprudent? Absolutely not. Judiciously, he delineates in lucid prose diverse strategies fostering a faithful, non-literal reading of ''scary'' apocalyptic biblical texts. Ably demonstrating that such multilayered texts are flattened when practitioners of ''Left Behind Theology'' view them through the lens of ''homotextuality,'' Davis engages in a ''heterotextual'' reading susceptible to the extraordinary power of poetic speech. Rather than yielding ominous predictive truth, such image-filled disclosures in Davis'' investigation attest God''s enduring love.""-J. Kenneth KuntzThe University of IowaD. Mark Davis is the pastor of Heartland Presbyterian Church in Clive, Iowa. He is the author of Talking about Evangelism (2007).
At a recent conference entitled Ancient Wisdom--Anglican Futures, theologians from across the denominational spectrum considered the question, ""What does it mean to inhabit the ''Great Tradition'' authentically?"" As an expression of what C. S. Lewis called ""Deep Church,"" Anglicanism offers a test case of Tradition with a capital ""T"" in late modernity. Of particular interest is the highly dynamic transmission that has preserved a recognizable ""Anglican Way"" over the centuries. The process has been enlivened through constant negotiation and exchange with surprising convergences that have brought new life and direction. The contributors to this volume show how ""profitable and commodious"" (as Richard Hooker has said) the Great Tradition can be in nurturing the worship, communal life, and mission of the Church. But it often demonstrates how hard it is to uphold the varied integrities of historic faith in the contemporary marketplace of religion and, especially, among evangelicals who continue to follow the Canterbury Trail.Contributors: Simon Chan, Tony Clark, Dominic Erdozain, Edith Humphrey, D. Stephen Long, George Sumner, and D. H. Williams.""Evangelicals have too long suffered from a willful amnesia. In their passion for the immediacy of God''s voice in the pages of Scripture, they have implicitly stopped their ears to the many and various ways God spoke to our fathers (and mothers). The essays in this volume will help us tune our ears to God''s voice in the church''s history, even as we listen carefully for his voice in our future.""--David Neff ,Editor in Chief & Vice PresidentChristianity Today Media Group ""Recently there has been an exciting ''ancient-future'' resourcement of the larger church. This work explores the contours and nature of that movement, through a veritable cornucopia of essays, from evangelical, to pentecostal and emerging. This intricate mapping announces that the archives of the church are now open to all, whilst at the same time providing a much needed guide to the use of those resources for Christian formation.""--Jason ClarkEmergent U.K. CoordinatorPastor, Putney Vineyard Church, London, UK""Much more than just presenting a call for allegiance to the Great Tradition, this collection of essays actually engages the tough question what such allegiance might look like on the ground. We find here a common recognition that this effort inevitably involves what T. S. Eliot called a ''great labour.'' Happily, this book itself forms an important contribution of this great labour.""--Hans BoersmaJ. I. Packer Professor of TheologyRegent CollegeD. H. Williams is Professor of Religion in Patristics and Historical Theology at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. William''s recent books include Tradition, Scripture and Interpretation (Baker, 2006).Philip Harrold is Associate Professor of Church History, Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Harrold''s most recent book is ''A Place Somewhat Apart: The Private Worlds of a Late Nineteenth-Century Public University (Wipf & Stock, 2006).
This book discusses the relationship between theology and the humanities and their shared significance within contemporary universities. Taking up this complex question, twelve scholarly authors analyze the connections between theology and philosophy, history, scholarly literature, sociology, and law. Cumulatively, these essays make a case for the importance of reflecting on what binds the humanities and theology together. By meditating on ultimate, theological questions, this book brings the issue of the meaning and purpose of university education into a new light, exploring its deep significance for academic pursuits today.""As debate about the social role and economic value of universities intensifies in the developed world, this collection is timely. The papers within it are a refreshingly lively reminder that these concerns have a history and that to address them requires serious and intellectually generous engagement with underlying philosophical and theological questions. This is altogether a most appropriate provocation.""-Susan Frank ParsonsEditor, Studies in Christian Ethics""In this collection of high-octane essays, many of the papers seek to dig deeper into the causes and cures of our cultural malaise, of which the crisis in identity afflicting university education is a symptom. The authors also move beyond doing ''theology and culture'' to attempting a ''theology of culture''. There is a concern for dialogue and the observation of otherness. A common thread is that the humanities need theology for a proper account of the creature, and that theology is both wonderfully useful and properly useless (high minded) at the same time.""-Mark W. ElliottUniversity of St Andrews""In universities these days, there is a great deal of talk-much of it dull and overly abstract-about the loss of purpose in the university and especially about the malaise afflicting the humanities. Who would have thought that the introduction of theology into the discussion would be precisely what is needed to move from remote, arid speculation to concrete, inspiring proposals and examples? The learned and lively essays in Theology, University, Humanities: Initium Sapientiae Timor Domini advance the conversation about university education in surprising and welcome ways.""-Thomas HibbsBaylor UniversityChristopher Craig Brittain is Lecturer in Practical Theology at the University of Aberdeen. He is the author of Adorno and Theology (2010) and is writing a book entitled Religion at Ground Zero.Francesca Aran Murphy is Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Notre Dame. Her books include God is Not a Story (2007) and a commentary on I Samuel (2010).
--Has modern science made philosophy obsolete? --Is the soul real? --Do we have a free will? --Why should we be moral? --Does God exist, and if so, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? --What is the relation between faith and reason? Ric Machuga takes a holistic approach to these questions. No philosophical idea, no matter how small, can live alone. Ideas always gain their force, power, and life from their surroundings--their ""ecosystem."" The ecosystem of ideas defended in this book comes from the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle and his medieval interpreter, Thomas Aquinas. The ongoing relevance of their philosophical thought to twenty-first century issues is opened up in fascinating ways. Life, the Universe, and Everything is the product of thirty years of teaching introductory courses in philosophy. Assuming no prior background, it only requires of readers an enquiring mind and a willingness to think carefully. An ideal guide to the big questions we face.""''Ideas always exist in an ecosystem.'' Patiently unpacking this simple but powerful truth with the skill of a master teacher, Ric Machuga has written a book as wise as it is winsomely modest.""--John WilsonEditor, Books & Culture""This is a clearly written, wonderfully engaging account of Aristotelianism for our contemporary world. It is, in short, a defense of `first philosophy,'' the idea that philosophy and philosophical reflection is the starting point of, and that which illuminates and clarifies, all that we believe that we know in the other disciplines in the university, especially the hard sciences. I applaud Professor Machuga for this outstanding book.""--Francis J. BeckwithProfessor of Philosophy and Church-State StudiesBaylor University""Modestly but engagingly written, and yet ambitious in scope, this ''Aristotelian'' tour of the great loci of philosophy is a tour de force. It is the fruit, not of quickly-written ''research'', but of many years'' teaching of primary, classic texts, and it shows. A careful reading will provide a philosophical education, in the old-fashioned sense of that word. The reader will put the book down both better informed, and wiser.""--Paul HelmRegent College, Vancouver, BCRic Machuga has taught philosophy and in the Honor Program at Butte College for thirty years. He is the author of In Defense of the Soul (2002) and numerous pieces for Books and Culture.
This thesis by Gonzalo Haya-Prats, written in the Catholic interpretive tradition under the supervision of Johannine scholar Ignace de la Potterie at the Gregorian University in Rome, reflects a faith tradition that historically remained open to the miraculous and resisted regulations on activities of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts. Accordingly, Haya-Prats interprets the workings of the Spirit from a perspective of narrative sensitivity. He is deliberately diligent to exercise due care so as not to obscure narrative flow and connectivity, despite any ecclesial or interpretive precedents that might be of influence to the contrary. His exegetical method is to let the original meaning be discerned and discovered according to the author''s intention as closely as possible. With this sound interpretive approach Haya-Prats achieves a remarkable degree of freshness and insightful vision that all readers of Luke-Acts will welcome. Students and scholars alike should find this timely and thoughtful thesis to be a valuable and long-lasting contribution to New Testament studies.This English edition is made more accessible by including translations of all contemporary foreign languages, and editor Paul Elbert offers occasional explanatory notes that engage current scholarship relevant to Haya-Prats''s presentation.""Haya-Prats''s influential work bursts with thought-provoking insights for Lukan exegesis and theology, some now familiar and others unexpected, always with a sensitivity to the larger context of early Christianity. The cooperation of Catholic and Pentecostal scholarship in its current production offers a welcome model of ecumenicity.""--Craig Keener, Palmer Theological Seminary ""I welcome with great joy the English translation of Haya-Prats''s Empowered Believers, a thorough study of Luke''s understanding of the Holy Spirit. The author mines Luke''s rich vocabulary extracting deep meaning. He lets Luke speak for himself and refuses to force Luke-Acts into an artificial academic mold resulting in a profound insight: according to Luke the Church receives an eschatological Holy Spirit.""--James B. Shelton, Oral Roberts University""Written at approximately the same time as James Dunn''s Baptism in the Holy Spirit and independent of it, Haya-Prats''s stimulating book offered dramatically different conclusions concerning Luke''s understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit. Although various aspects of Haya-Prats''s proposal may be questioned, his contention that for Luke the Spirit is directly related to neither conversion nor salvation anticipated important themes discussed by contemporary Lukan scholars. I am delighted that this fine work has now been made available to an English-speaking audience.""--Robert P. Menzies, Director of Synergy, a rural service organization located in Kunming, China. ""English language readers everywhere will welcome this translation into English of Haya-Prats''s study of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. His aim is to look at the subject from the inside, with Lukan eyes. Other interpreters who share the same aim will not be surprised that Haya-Prats concludes that Luke does not identify the Holy Spirit with the gifts of salvation or sanctification. Rather, he identifies the Holy Spirit with the gift of prophecy. The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship, Paul Elbert (editor), and Scott Ellington (translator) are to be commended for making Empowered Believers readily accessible to a new, English language readership.""--Roger Stronstad, Summit Pacific College""Careful students of the New Testament have long recognized the distinction between the empowering and the sanctifying endowments stressed respectively in the Lukan and Pauline pneumatologies. Haya-Prats is to be commended for his defense of the inextricable nexus between the two, and the Holy Spirit''s sine qua non role in producing and maintaining it. Empowered Believers breathes fresh air into the scholarly debate surrounding Luke''
For those who are called to it, pastoral ministry can be a source of deep joy. But there are also challenges. An increasing number of pastors seem to be burning out under the load. Congregations may not be aware of the many and conflicting demands placed on a pastor''s time and energies, nor the pastor''s need for rest and personal support. That Their Work Will Be a Joy was written to encourage mutual understanding between pastors and congregations about the stresses of ministry. The authors present five principles that will help ministry remain more of a joy than a burden. Every chapter contains practical recommendations targeted specifically for pastors, congregational leaders, and even seminarians preparing for ministry. A dozen personal responses to the book, written as letters from people in ministry, have been collected together at the end.The book is helpful as a ministry preparation text, a guide for those serving as pastors, or as a discussion starter for pastors support groups. It will help church committees smooth a pastoral transition, or calm seminary graduates anticipating their first placement. The hope is that stressed-out pastors will recover their sense of vocation, and congregations will begin to fulfill their calling as the body of Christ.""With biblical wisdom, Spirit-filled sensitivity, and cultural awareness, seasoned pastor-teachers Lee and Fredrickson offer a timely book. Personally acquainted with the joys and dangers of ministry, their practical insights will lead seminarians, pastors, and congregations to discover themselves and each other anew as the called people of God."" --Jaco J. Hamman, Western Theological Seminary""This book masterfully unveils to congregants the joy and challenges for pastors as they work within the church as the body of Christ. If congregants enact even a few of the book''s practical suggestions to support their pastor and church, everyone will be healthier and stronger for it."" --Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell, Duke Clergy Health Initiative and Duke Global Health Institute""The work of a pastor is both a joy and a burden, a calling and plain hard work. No one understands this better than the authors of That Their Work Will Be a Joy. They have taught and encouraged many pastors who have succumbed to burnout or stress, and also guided many through the maze of challenges that face all people-healers . . . I strongly recommend it as a must-read for all seminary students as well.""--Archibald D. Hart, Fuller Theological Seminary""A practical guide for living an authentic life in the ministry. Lee and Fredrickson generously share from their own experiences and introduce the major areas of life in ordained ministry. That Their Work Will Be a Joy is a wise companion for ministers and the congregations who love them.""--Jeanie M. Thorndike, Presbytery of Los Ranchos""Anyone who has served as a pastor knows there is joy in serving the Lord in the local church. The authors underscore the joys, but also paint a realistic picture of the challenges: relational demands, conflict, expectations, overwork, burnout, and other critical issues . . . Not only is the book realistic; it is also practical. It provides insights and sound advice about how pastors can exercise self-care, and how congregations can effectively undergird their pastors.""--Reggie Thomas, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary""Out of the tension between the ideal and the actual, the authors have forged five principle-based habits or patterns that, if shared by pastors and their congregations, would create new life and effectiveness in any church. Each chapter''s postscripts--written for pastors, congregants, and seminarians--are alone worth the cost of the book."" --Michael B. Ross, The Pastors Institute""Written in accessible language for congregational leaders, pastors, and seminarians alike, this book is full of tangible content, concepts, and insights that will spark the kind of deeper understanding
In Augustine and the Fundamentalist''s Daughter, Margaret Miles weaves her memoirs together with reflections on Augustine''s Confessions. Having read and reread Augustine''s Confessions, in admiration as well as frustration, over the past thirty-five years, Miles brings her memories of childhood and youth in a fundamentalist home into conversation with Augustine''s effort to understand his life. The result is a fascinating work of autobiographical and theological reflection. Moreover, this project brings together a rare combination of insights on fundamentalists'' convictions and habits of mind, as well as on differences among fundamentalists. Such reflections are especially urgent in this time in which fundamentalism is prominent in political and social discourse.""For over thirty years we have read and heard Margaret Miles on Augustine, and her insights on this spectacular ancient have been compelling. Now we read Miles in Augustine''s Confessions, and her self-disclosure is as compelling as Augustine''s. This is a soul-rending book that opens the world of Augustine to the world of a fundamentalist''s daughter. We have known for a long time that scholarly study reflects the life experience of the scholar, but Miles has taken this both to new heights and new depths. This book reveals both Augustine and the world of a fundamentalist, and it is simply stunning in its depth of disclosure and revelation--all what we have come to expect from Augustine and now from Miles.""-Richard ValantasisCo-director, Institute for Contemplative Living, Santa FeCanon Theologian for Formation and Education, Diocese of the Rio Grande""Augustine and the Fundamentalist''s Daughter is a revealing, lively, and deeply engrossing conversation among many speakers, from Saint Augustine to modern poets to the multiple voices age and insight have given Professor Miles on her own journey from fundamentalism to wisdom. In this book, we meet the rich tapestry of life''s defeats, fears, delights, and changes in the vignettes of memories narrated from either Augustine''s new state of restful faith or Margaret Miles''s hard-won place of gracefully honest reflection. Find a quiet room, pull up a chair, and listen to this superb scholar and teacher talk with her longtime mentor, Augustine, about life, love, sex, faith, and family. It is a conversation not to be missed.""-Mary Ann Tolbert George H. Atkinson Professor of Biblical StudiesVice President of Academic Affairs and DeanPacific School of Religion, BerkeleyMargaret R. Miles is Emerita Professor of Historical Theology at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. She is the author of A Complex Delight: The Secularization of the Breast, 1350-1750 (2008).
The chapters in this volume were originally presented as papers at the 2009 colloquium of the Calvin Studies Society, held to mark the five-hundredth anniversary of John Calvin''s birth. They offer a fresh evaluation of Calvin''s ideas and achievements, and describe how others--from his contemporaries to the present--have responded to or built upon the Calvinist heritage. This book dispels popular misperceptions about Calvin and Calvinism, allowing readers to make a more accurate assessment of Calvin''s importance as a theologian and historical figure. Contributions address areas in which Calvin''s legacy has been most controversial or misunderstood, such as his attitude toward women, his advocacy of church discipline, and his understanding of predestination. These essays also give a nuanced picture of the impact of Calvinism by taking account of both the positive and negative reactions to it from the early modern period to the present.Part 1: Calvin: The Man and His WorkPart 2: Appeal of and Responses to CalvinismPart 3: The Impact of Calvin''s Ideas""The essays in this volume do an admirable job of carefully distinguishing Calvin and his influence from the myths that have grown up around him, beginning with the myth that Calvin is the most important figure of the tradition that has taken his name, and that Calvinists always followed his advice. The temporal and geographical reach of the analyses is impressive, extending from Geneva through France and the Netherlands to Java and Korea, and from Calvin himself to twentieth century political thought and philosophy."" --Randall C. ZachmanProfessor of Reformation StudiesUniversity of Notre Dame""Among the late-blooming fruits of the Calvin Jubilee in 2009 is Amy Nelson Burnett''s John Calvin, Myth and Reality. The articles gathered here inform, engage, correct, and sometimes even delight the reader. The team of scholars demonstrates the wide audience that Calvin still attracts, while the depth of the scholarship promises an ongoing benefit to both the novice and the advanced scholar.""--R. Ward HolderAssociate Professor of TheologySaint Anselm CollegeAmy Nelson Burnett is Professor of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is the author of Teaching the Reformation: Ministers and Their Message in Basel, 1529-1629 (2006), and The Yoke of Christ: Martin Bucer and Christian Discipline (1994).
In The Dead Sea Scrolls for a New Millennium, Phillip R. Callaway presents the most comprehensive survey of the Dead Sea Scrolls since the final publication of the cave 4 fragments. The chapters on editing the Scrolls, on the caves, on the scrolls, and on Khirbet Qumran present the evidence without getting bogged down in older controversies. Callaway discusses the so-called yahad ostracon, as well as a fascinating writing exercise, and the supposed Dead Sea Scroll on stone. Those who desire to know more about the Bible among the Scrolls are offered brief comments on over one hundred readings from Qumran''s biblical manuscripts and other biblical texts. In the chapter on the pseudepigrapha and apocrypha, Callaway emphasizes the rich literary production of the mid- to late Second Temple period, with sections on Enoch, Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, a Genesis commentary, the Reworked Pentateuch, targums on Leviticus and Job, the Temple Scroll, the New Jerusalem, an Apocryphon of Joshua, the psalms, various works of wisdom, Tobit, Ben Sira, the Epistle of Jeremiah, and the Greek fragments from cave 7. The chapter on the Community Scrolls deals with the Damascus Document, the Rule of the Community and its appendages, a Hybrid Rule, the Rule of War, the Thanksgiving Hymns, Florilegium, Testimonia, Melchizedek, the pesher commentaries on Habakkuk, Nahum, and Psalm 37, Ordinances, Calendar texts, Some Works of the Law, the Angelic Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, and the phylacteries. In terms of the Scrolls and Jewish history, Callaway discusses the text called Praise for Jerusalem and King Jonathan, the Copper Scroll, the documentary texts (which may or may not be from Qumran), the history of the Qumran community, and some similarities to early Christian thought and language. In addition to clarifying discussions of all the works mentioned above, the author hopes that The Dead Sea Scrolls for a New Millennium will help readers understand the Scrolls not as the product of a radical, separatist community, but rather as the literary heritage of many of the greatest Jewish minds that lived in the Second Temple period.""Phillip Callaway takes his readers through the stories of discovery, conveying with a cool and authoritative touch the major theories and issues that the Scrolls have engendered, and leading us into the heart of the scrolls themselves. His account is readable, reliable, undogmatic, up-to-date, and strongly recommended for students and non-specialists alike.""--Philip DaviesUniversity of Sheffield""If you are looking for a refreshing guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls that introduces you to most of the major compositions in a clear and sympathetic way, then this is the book for you. Callaway presents a wide range of views about the Scrolls, and yet overall he sees them not as the products of a maverick minority but very much as part of the Judaism of their time. As such he argues that they need to be taken seriously by all who understand themselves as in any way the heirs of that formative period two thousand years ago.""--George J. Brooke,University of ManchesterPhillip R. Callaway studied the Dead Sea Scrolls with Hartmut Stegemann and worked at the Qumran Institute at the University of Marburg and the University of Gottingen, Germany. He received the PhD in Religion from Emory University. He has published widely on the Dead Sea Scrolls and is the author of The History of the Qumran Community: An Investigation (1988) and the coauthor of The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls (2002).
This study is the first comprehensive history of the impact of the modern missionary movement on the understanding of and work toward Christian unity. It tells stories from all branches of the church: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant in its many types (conciliar, evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent).Part 1, ""Historical,"" highlights the contribution of modern missions to Christian unity, from William Carey and his antecedents and peers to present-day missions.Part 2, ""Ten Models of Unity,"" takes an inductive approach to history, asking not ""how should Christians cooperate?"" but ""how has the missionary movement helped Christians to work together at the local, national, regional, and global level?""Part 3, ""Wider Ecumenism,"" broadens the evidence to include how the missions movement has helped not only institutional churches but also broader society to have concern for the unity of the entire human family. Included here is the story of how the Protestant missionary movement influenced the forming of the United Nations as well as the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The study also covers the movement''s impact on Christian attitudes toward, and relations with, persons of other faiths.Mission and Unity is the standard reference work in the field for persons studying modern history, modern church history, missions, and ecumenics. ""Flowing from a lifetime of scholarship and activism, this timely book on a classic theme could only be written by Norman Thomas. His panoramic yet thorough treatment of ''missions and unity'' will help to restore this subject to the central place it deserves in mission praxis. This useful book belongs on the shelf of everyone who cares about the continued relevance of Jesus'' visions for his followers.""--Dana L. RobertTruman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of MissionBoston University School of Theology ""It is often remarked that missionary work and efforts of Christian unity are vitally linked. What Norman Thomas has shown in these pages is how very true this is. I don''t know of any other source that treats the topic of missions and unity with comparable depth, clarity, and careful scholarship. This books is a gift to missiology.""--Stephen Bevans, SVDLouis J. Luzbetak, SVD Professor of Mission and CultureCatholic Theological Union""Common participation in mission has consistently been the most powerful solvent of the historic divisions between churches. Yet Christians have frequently disagreed about the appropriate means of mission, and may struggle to agree even about the goals of mission. The twin themes of mission and unity are thus intertwined in complex and ambiguous ways throughout the history of the Church. Norman Thomas''s book is a timely and helpful reminder of that ambiguous yet inescapable relationship.""--Brian StanleyProfessor of World ChristianityUniversity of Edinburgh""This book is quintessentially Thomas. I know of no one more aptly experienced or academically capable of writing this immensely useful historical assessment of the interstices of world missions and the ecumenical movement. This will become a standard reference on the theme.""--Jonathan J. BonkExecutive DirectorOverseas Ministries Study CenterNorman E. Thomas is Professor Emeritus of World Christianity at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He is the editor of Classsic Texts in Mission and World Christianity (1995) and of the International Mission Bibliography: 1960-2000 (2003).
The Heterodox Yoder provides a critical rereading of Yoder''s corpus through his own conviction that discipleship is, most basically, ethics. Tracing the development of Yoder''s theological foundations through to their final role in redefining Jewish-Christian and ecumenical relations, this volume explains why the appropriation and use of the language of politics eventually constrains Yoder''s ethical vision to the point that it reframes Christianity within the limits of social ethics alone. Because this vision self-consciously excludes or, at best, relativizes many of the claims of orthodox Christianity (including but not limited to the ecumenical creeds), Martens concludes that Yoder''s Christian ethic is best described as heterodox.""[T]here has been an influx of recent books on Yoder that has ensured that the significance of his work will continue to be engaged. Most of those books try to help us better understand Yoder. Martens tries to help us understand what may be some troubling trajectories associated with Yoder''s work. He has, therefore, written a book that all who are concerned with the significance of Yoder''s work must take seriously. I confess I remain unconvinced by some of Martens'' criticisms. Nonetheless, this is a book that should be taken seriously.""--Stanley HauerwasGilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological EthicsDuke Divinity School""[S]ince his death, the swell of interest in John Howard Yoder''s contributions to Christian ethics--as seen in the many constructive appropriations of his work--has shown no signs of dissipating. Dispersion, however, is finally surfacing with Paul Martens'' rather unorthodox reading of Yoder. . . . By carefully identifying and critically examining in Yoder''s corpus a trajectory toward practices and politics and away from beliefs and creeds, Martens offers a provocative-and I think helpful-argument that should stimulate and inform future waves of scholarship about or indebted to Yoder.""--Tobas WinrightAssociate Professor of Theological EthicsSaint Louis University""Among the excellent studies of Yoder published in recent years, this one stands out for its controversial yet well-argued thesis. Like Yoder himself, Martens conceals his considerable knowledge in a lively style and dislodges fixed assumptions with a light touch. This book ensures that in his legacy Yoder will remain as resistant to assimilation as he was in his lifetime, and no one with a stake in that legacy can afford to ignore it.""--Gerald McKennyAssociate Professor of Christian Ethics, TheologyUniversity of Notre Dame""This is a soul-wrenching book . . . for its author above all. John Howard Yoder measured his Church and our world with unyielding measures of reason and of witness. In The Heterodox Yoder, Paul Martens holds the words of his beloved John Yoder up to the same measure. No reading or discussion of Yoder will remain untouched by the results.""--Peter OchsBronfman Professor of Modern Judaic StudiesUniversity of Virginia""Building on a persuasive account of key shifts in John Howard Yoder''s thinking, Paul Martens advances a provocative and refreshing thesis: Yoder''s account of the particularity of Jesus Christ as ethical is, ultimately, heterodox. Yet, rather than reject him, Martens asks how critical engagement with Yoder might nevertheless help Christians resist the many temptations of modernity. The Heterodox Yoder is a lively and important book.""--Jeremy M. BergenAssistant Professor of Religious Studies and TheologyConrad Grebel University College, University of WaterlooPaul Martens held a postdoctoral research fellowship at The University of Notre Dame and currently teaches Christian Ethics at Baylor University. He has co-edited several works by John Howard Yoder, including Nonviolence: A Brief History and Revolutionary Christianity: The 1966 South American Lectures (Cascade Books, 2012).
Who is the God in whom Christians believe? Is he just a figment of the human mind as critics of religion claimed in the nineteenth century and as crusading atheists assert again today? Since the beginnings of rational thought the brightest minds among humanity have attempted to assert that God does indeed exist. But even the so-called proofs for God''s existence always started with the assumption that there is someone to prove. As soon as we move beyond that which is within space and time mere proofs or disproofs no longer suffice. Both believers and unbelievers live to a certain degree by faith. Yet religion is inextricably connected with human history.When we journey through the landscape of religion and witness its gradual unfolding we soon realize that not all religions are equal. Though they may be witnesses of the same God, the way they talk about God is so different that this not only leads to very different concepts of God but also to different approaches to life on this earth. At the end of this long journey we finally arrive at the Judeo-Christian tradition which witnesses to the God in whom Christians believe. This book seeks to show how this belief matured and what difference this belief still makes today. ""Building upon decades of interreligious and ecumenical engagement, Hans Schwarz establishes the parameters for serious deliberation of the God question in our time. Taking seriously diverse views and counterarguments against religion, The God Who Is invites readers to examine biblical claims for the God who is revealed in history and whose ultimate self-disclosure occurs in Jesus Christ. The longings of theomorphous humanity meet the infinite compassion of the one, true God most adequately and completely in the Christ event.""--Craig L. NessanAcademic Dean and Professor of Contextual TheologyWartburg Theological SeminaryHans Schwarz is Professor of Systematic Theology and Contemporary Theological Issues at the University of Regensburg, Germany. His most recent books include theology in a Global Context (2005), Creation (2002), and Eschatology (2000).
Dick Armstrong was thoroughly committed to his promising future as a major league baseball front-office executive until something happened that completely changed his life and steered him in a totally new direction. In A Sense of Being Called, Armstrong tells the story of what he calls his ""Damascus Road"" experience, an awesome encounter with the God he had always believed in but had never given the slightest thought to serving. The dramatic theophany initiated a remarkable pilgrimage of faith in which he and his supportive wife, Margie, learned how God guides, provides for, and equips those who respond to the divine call.What the unbelieving world would label coincidence Dick and Margie viewed as the miraculous providence of God--of a God whose timing, they came to understand, is often surprising and always perfect. As the doors to entering seminary kept opening or closing in unpredictable ways, Dick was eventually led to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he met then-president John A. Mackay, who was to have a powerful impact on Dick''s life.Dick and Margie''s departure from the Baltimore Orioles and their transition to becoming a full-time seminary couple was traumatic. Their five-and-a-half-year-old son died on the Seminary''s convocation day. The poignant story of Ricky''s death provides another inspirational illustration of how God is able to work for good, even in the death of a child, with those who are called according to God''s purpose.The three years at seminary were transformational for Dick Armstrong, who traces the often -humorous events leading to his ordination and call to be the pastor of the Oak Lane Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. Armstrong''s hope is that this book will move readers to consider how God has been at work in their lives and will awaken in them their own sense of being called.""This is a providential publication. At a time when God''s people are challenged to rediscover their calling, Dick Armstrong''s beautiful story can help people do just that. It is a powerful reminder that when God enters our lives, life''s direction often changes, even dramatically. By the gift of faith we realise that our story has always been intended to be God''s story. The author invites the reader to accompany him on his remarkable journey of faith. This is a journey that I could observe for the almost thirty years that Prof. Armstrong has been my close personal friend and colleague. He and his writings have greatly impacted my ministry and the ministries of many hundreds of pastors and many more lay leaders in South Africa. They will be eager to read his amazing story, and I''m sure they will conclude, as I have, that his passionate commitment and powerful witness to the gospel are an impressive fulfilment of his ''sense of being called.''"" --Malan NelFounding Director of the Centre for Contextual MinistryFaculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa""I am so glad Dick Armstrong has at last written the story of his call to ministry. My unique friendship with Dick began soon after he announced that he was leaving his position as Public Relations Director of the Baltimore Orioles to enter Princeton Seminary. He became a vital partner and indispensable colleague in shaping and enabling the mission of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In the early days of the FCA he served as a most needed interpreter of the unfolding vital relationship being forged between religion and sports. With the publication of A Sense of Being Called he has added another very helpful, adventurous, intriguing, and joyful book to his excellent and varied writings.""--Don McClanenFounder and first Executive Director Fellowship of Christian Athletes ""Dick Armstrong has been a friend and inspiration to me for decades. I thought I knew Dick, but now I really know him after reading A Sense of Being Called. This book will stir your soul and lift your spirit just as it has done for me.""--Pat WilliamsSenior Vice Presid
A great deal of attention has been given over the past several years to the question: What is secularism? In On Diaspora, Daniel Barber provides an intervention into this debate by arguing that a theory of secularism cannot be divorced from theories of religion, Christianity, and even being. Accordingly, Barber''s argument ranges across matters proper to philosophy, religious studies, cultural studies, theology, and anthropology. It is able to do so in a coherent manner as a result of its overarching concern with the concept of diaspora. It is the concept of diaspora, Barber argues, that allows us to think in genuinely novel ways about the relationship between particularity and universality, and as a consequence about Christianity, religion, and secularism.""Writing with extraordinary philosophical imagination, Barber provides an account of Christianity that will challenge Christian and non-Christian alike. Barber will soon be recognized as an intellectual force whose work cannot be ignored.""-Stanley HauerwasDuke University""What a mysterious meditation unfolds here, oscillating subtly ''between namelessness and excessive signification.'' May its illumining construction of diaspora as a composition of differences in their ''intermattering'' refresh current conversations about religion, Christianity, and the secular; about immanence and negative theology; about the co-constitution of beings beyond preexisting identities and the construction of value.""-Catherine KellerDrew University""What are we to do, asks Daniel Barber, with Christianity? With our unavoidable inheritance of its tradition? Barber''s thoughtful, albeit astonishing, answer is that we must formulate, finally, a concept of Christianity, gather it out of its disseminated state, from the originary diaspora Christianity has yet to achieve. Whether Christianity, ''actually existing Christianity,'' retains the potential for such a challenge appears nowhere more in doubt-and nowhere more necessary-than in this unflinching meditation.""-Gil AnidjarColumbia University""This bold Spinozist-Deleuzian (and original) argument for diaspora as that which expresses the profound link between Christianity and differentiality (discontinuity) is simultaneously an extraordinarily nuanced and lucid critique of Pauline thought, of the secular, and of the continuity between Judaism and Christianity. It marks the emergence of a major new voice in the philosophy of religion.""-Eleanor KaufmanUniversity of California, Los AngelesDaniel Colucciello Barber teaches in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Marymount Manhattan College, in New York City.
Technologies are deeply embedded in the modern West. What would our lives be like without asphalt, glass, gasoline, electricity, window screens, or indoor plumbing? We naturally praise technology when it is useful and bemoan it when it is not. But there is much more to technology than the usefulness of this or that artifact. Unfortunately, we tend not to consider the inherently social and moral character of technology. As a result, we are prone to overlook the effects of technology on our spiritual lives. This book investigates the role technology plays in helping and hampering our Christian practice and witness.""Only Brad Kallenberg could have written this book. Drawing on an engineering background, schooled by Wittgenstein''s philosophical work, and shaped by Christian theological convictions, he enables us to see how technology can exercise power over us to our detriment without asking us to abandon technology in service to human life.""--Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School""Kallenberg does a masterful job of helping his reader see the blind spots of modern, technological culture. His insights are provocative, instructive, and often redemptive. You will find yourself asking a whole new set of questions after reading this book--questions you might wish you started asking long ago!""--Rick LangerTalbot School of Theology/Biola University""Brad Kallenberg brings a strong philosophical and theological acumen to God and Gadgets. The very idea that technology is a mixed blessing is a true act of Christian witness in a culture immersed in all that is ''new-fangled'' and thus considered almost in god-like terms. Kallenberg addresses in trenchant and true ways the claims of God and the Gospel on our gadget-infested culture. His prophetic voice rings true from a Christian perspective, much as an earlier philosopher, Ernesto Grassi, did in his insistence that technology has its own set of hazards. This is a must read for preachers and other scholars in our time.""--Rodney Wallace KennedyBaptist House of Studies, United Theological SeminaryBrad J. Kallenberg is Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Dayton He is the author of Live to Tell: Evangelism for a Postmodern Age (2002) and Ethics as Grammar: Changing the Postmodern Subject (2001).
This book is a collection of nine articles by the twentieth century''s leading medievalist, Etienne Gilson. A major participant in the revival of Thomistic philosophy, Gilson was a member of the French Academy and, after a university career culminating at the Sorbonne and the College de France, he turned down an invitation from Harvard University to become the guiding spirit of the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto for several decades. Several of the articles stand on their own as making a significant contribution to topics like St. Anselm''s ontological argument for the existence of God. Likewise, ""The Middle Ages and Naturalism"" contrasts Renaissance Humanists and Reformers with the medievals on the defining issue of their attitude toward nature in order to understand who actually stands closer to the ancient Greeks.All of the articles give an insight into the great synthetic visions articulated by the better-known works of Gilson like The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy. We see Gilson''s meticulous spadework for the broader theme of Christian philosophy in his examination of the Latin Averroist Boethius of Dacia''s book on the eternity of the world. Gilson finds that Boethius never expresses the view attributed to Latin Averroism that there are contradictory truths in religion and philosophy, although he does think that Boethius is unsuccessful in his account of the relations between philosophy and theology. The opening piece revisits a battle now won (and won in great measure by Gilson''s efforts), namely the fight to acknowledge the very existence of medieval philosophy and win its place in the academic world. But the article also makes the effort--which becomes a connecting thread throughout the nine articles-to pinpoint the uniqueness of what Gilson calls Christian philosophy. The closing article studies the profound influence of the great Muslim thinker Avicenna on Latin Europe drawing a parallel between Avicenna''s work and that of the great Christian medievals like Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus.When Gilson died in 1978, a great deal of his work on the history of philosophy, and specifically God, the primacy of existence or esse over essence, and the impact of Christianity on philosophy had been translated. A significant amount of material, however, has not yet appeared in English. The publication of Medieval Studies represents a vital step in bringing these important works into the English-speaking world. ""Back in the days before Vatican II, when Catholic students of philosophy were trying to understand manuals such as the ones written, say, by the Benedictine, Joseph Gredt, OSB, while their contemporaries at secular schools were excited by existentialism or phenomenology or analytic philosophy, they would turn to the works of Etienne Gilson. In my recollection, Gilson''s luminous historical works helped them both to understand Aquinas and to situate his thought in relation to such modern philosophers as Descartes, Hume, and Kant intelligently and without distorting caricature. Turning to these Medieval Essays with a certain sentiment of nostalgia, then, I marveled to encounter the subtle scholarship, the wide-ranging erudition, and the detailed knowledge of the authors and texts in relation to issues that still burn today. Gilson''s even-handed defense of the study of medieval philosophy is imbued with an understanding of the justice of the Renaissance and Enlightenment complaints against scholastic thought; but it takes the readers by the hand and leads them into an utterly refreshing appreciation of those old authors and texts that is rarely, if ever, matched in the depth of its gratitude to his masters and in its profound courtesy towards those with whom he disagrees. These essays take the readers back to school and offer the opportunity to experience the thrill of discovery even with regard to texts and issues with which they may have had a great familiarity.""--Frederic
In this study-the third panel of a trilogy on J''s tales about evil and innocence in the primeval era-the author turns to Genesis 11:1-9, another parable, this time on the so-called ""Tower of Babel."" The Captivity of Innocence analyzes a systemic robotization of society as a way of keeping innocence behind bars, contending that innocence never fails to offend, never fails to stir envy and hate. Here, evil is not wrought by an individual like Cain or Lamech, but by ""all the earth,"" so that the summit of evil is now reached before Abraham''s breakthrough in Genesis'' following chapter. The present analysis uses a variety of techniques to interpret the biblical text, including historical-critical, literary, sociopolitical, psychoanalytic, and deconstructive approaches. The inescapable conclusion is that ""Babel"" is the ""Kafkaesque"" image of our world and is a powerful paradigm of our hubristic contrivances and constructions-""Des Tours de Babel,"" says Derrida-in order to deny our finiteness. Then innocence is trampled upon, but it is not overcome: Babel/Babylon''s fate is to crumble down, and to bring up from her ashes the Knight of Faith.""Breaking free from the compartmentalized exegesis of traditional commentaries, LaCocque suggests some lively, diverse, and somehow splintered leads of interpretation for Babel. Giving up the illusion of producing the meaning of the text, juxtaposing instead various approaches and ways to translate and understand it, he echoes the teaching of this moral tale : men''s calling is to understand each other without denying their differences, without submitting to any unifying tyrant.""--Hubert BostEcole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris-Sorbonne)""There are few scholars in the world today who can combine expertise in Hebrew and biblical scholarship with intimate familiarity with leading figures in theory and philosophy. The range of disciplinary languages brought together in this new Babel is deeply impressive; the conversation is genuine, rich, and insightful."" --Yvonne SherwoodSenior Lecturer in Biblical StudiesUniversity of GlasgowAndre LaCocque is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Chicago Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Trial of Innocence and Onslaught against Innocence (Cascade Books); The Feminine Unconventional; Romance, She Wrote; Esther Regina; and a commentary on Ruth. He is also the coauthor (with Paul Ricoeur) of Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies.
Christian ethics is less a system of principles, rules, or even virtues, and more of a free and open-ended responsible witness to God''s gracious action to be with and for others and the world. Postmodernity has left us with the risky uncertainty of knowing and doing the good. It also leaves us with the global risks of political violence and terrorism, economic globalization and financial crisis, and environmental destruction and global climate change. How should Christians respond to these problems? This book creatively explores how Christian ethics is best understood a witness to God''s action, thereby providing the ethical framework for addressing the various problematic social issues that put our world at risk. Haddorff develops the notion of witness through a detailed study of Karl Barth''s theological ethics. Barth, he argues, provides a language enabling us to know what a Christian ethics of witness actually looks like in both theory and in practice. In correspondence to God''s gracious action, Christians remain free to think and act in faith, hope, and love in respondence to their unique circumstances, even in a world at risk. In their witness, Christians remain confident that God has not abandoned the world but loves and cares for its future.""At a time when one might be tempted more than ever to offer an ethics of self-help, David Haddorff presents us with a truly theological ethics of ''witness'' based on the truth of the Gospel that is at once hopeful and realistic because its hope is found in the God who empowers us to do the good and not in our attempts to live any sort of self-chosen good. Relying on the theology of Karl Barth, Haddorff skillfully holds together theology and ethics as well as theory and practice. This is a compelling book that will be of great interest to theologians, ethicists, and to students of the theology of Karl Barth.""-Paul D. MolnarSt. John''s University, Queens, New York""That Barth is a moral theologian is now firmly established; this presentation offers its readers sure guidance as they explore the large landscape of Barth''s ethics, and is much to be commended.""-John WebsterUniversity of Aberdeen, Scotland""Far more than a summary of Barth''s ethics, David Haddorff''s book is a first-class effort to think in company with Barth about the source of our knowledge of the good and about the meaning of human freedom and ethical responsibility as faithful correspondence to God''s free grace in Jesus Christ. Employing witness as the interpretive key of his work, Haddorff shows that Barth''s ethics is radically Christocentric, and just for that reason is highly dialectical, free to recognize its limitations and avoid absolute claims, and free to engage in conversation with and learn from other ethical perspectives without becoming captive to them. In particular, Haddorff underscores the difference between Barth''s ethics of witness on the one hand and the ethics of both reductionist secularism and theological isolation on the other. In the final section of the book, the author offers a highly creative deployment of Barth''s ethics as it bears on the political, economic, and ecological crises of our time."" -Daniel Migliore Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New JerseyDavid Haddorff is Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at St. John''s University, New York. His previous works include Dependence and Freedom: The Moral Thought of Horace Bushnell and a lengthy introduction on Barth''s political theology in the reprint of State, Community, and Church (Wipf and Stock).
Virtues are values underlying human practices. We are at the dawn of a new era, an era of global ethics requiring some core virtues. These core virtues are hospitality, co-living, respect, tolerance, and communality. Book 1 treats the virtue of hospitality that is a right and a duty of all, and which is still to be discovered and practiced unconditionally. Book 2 deals with the virtues of co-living, respect, and tolerance, which are important virtues if the peoples of the earth are to live together in peace in our common home, the planet Earth. Finally, Book 3 deals with the virtue of communality; this is a very important virtue because a large part of humanity experiences hunger and thirst, which is something scandalous in this day and age, and which demonstrates a lack of humanity, because we possess the technical means and political framework to resolve this situation. If these core virtues become a reality, they will transform human practices into something beneficial both to human beings and to the planet Earth, our common home.""Leonardo Boff touches on a theme which is central to human flourishing and is a timely reminder of the need for the implementation of the practical politics of human connectedness. The exploration of the necessary processes to achieve hospitality, co-living, respect, tolerance, and communality is a key challenge of our age, and this book makes a positive contribution to that goal.""--Christopher RowlandDean Ireland Professor of the Exegesis of Holy ScriptureUniversity of Oxford""Leonardo Boff spins the spirituality of St. Francis into an ecological, cosmic, political--albeit human--vision of what our world could become if we are willing to practice hospitality, co-living, tolerance, respect, and feasting together. As a pastor whose church is earth-friendly and becoming green with solar panels, I found in Boff''s Virtues a credible, sustainable spirituality for all peoples of faith to meet the challenges of th twenty-first century. Very few theologians weave environmental and social justice into a unified holistic vision as Boff has accomplished here.""--Robert Shore-GossSenior Pastor/TheologianMCC in the ValleyLeonardo Boff was born in Brazil in 1938 and received a doctorate from the University of Munich in Germany in 1970. For the following twenty years, he worked as Professor of Theology at the Franciscan School for Philosophy and Theology in Petropolis, Brazil. During the 1970s, he and Gustavo Gutierrez helped to define liberation theology. Since 1993 he has been a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, where he is now Emeritus Professor of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology. He is also a member of the international Earth Charter Commission. Boff is the author of more than seventy books, including Saint Joseph: The Father of Jesus in a Fatherless Society. In 2001 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (which is considered to be the ""alternative"" Nobel Prize) by the Swedish Parliament.Alex Guilherme teaches in the Department of Philosophy at Durham University.
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