Bücher veröffentlicht von Pickwick Publications

About the Contributor(s):Warner M. Bailey is the Director of Presbyterian Studies at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University. He writes on the impact of biblical studies on the life of the church.

About the Contributor(s):Rodney Wallace Kennedy (PhD, Louisiana State University) is lead pastor of First Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, as well as director of the Baptist House of Studies at United Theological Seminary, also in Dayton. He is the author of several books on homiletics, including Sermons from Mind and Heart (2011).Derek C. Hatch (PhD, University of Dayton) teaches theology and ethics at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas.

About the Contributor(s):Margaret B. Adam is an Affiliate Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of Glasgow.

About the Contributor(s):Miriam Bier teaches Old Testament at the London School of Theology. Tim Bulkeley has taught Old Testament at the Université protestante du Congo, the University of Auckland, and at Carey Baptist College.

Description:This is a book about Christianity in one particular region in Kenya. It walks into churches, listens to sermons, dances to music, and interviews the people sitting in the pews, all with the aim of understanding how spiritual power enables these churches to function as agents within their contemporary society.Ecclesiastical communities in Africa draw upon divine power in order to engage in modernity-related topics. Humans are not unresponsive to global flows of meaning; they are integrative agents who fashion their world by living in it. The kind of modernity arising from these churches does not blindly follow Western forms, but flows from its own internal logic in which spiritual power occupies central hermeneutical function. Theological resources contribute to the formation of sociological expressions. Divine power pertains directly to human constructs, which then allows the churches to actively ""image"" God for the development of unique forms of modernity arising on the continent.Endorsements:""This is precisely the kind of extended and comprehensive, sympathetic yet critical, theological yet socially aware micro-study that we need to grasp the complex reality of Africa''s emerging Christianity.""--Paul Gifford, Emeritus Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London""I warmly recommend this book. It is a profound and illuminating search concerning the human condition, human agency, and vulnerability, love, and power. . . . This is contextual theology of a high order, full of insights in its weaving of local, national, and continental debates.""--From the foreword by Kevin Ward, Senior Lecturer, African Religious Studies, Leeds UniversityAbout the Contributor(s):Gregg A. Okesson taught at Scott Christian University, Kenya, for thirteen years. He holds a PhD from the University of Leeds, UK, in the field of African Christianity and is currently an associate professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky.

About the Contributor(s):Margaret E. Ramey is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.

Critical Conversations provides a series of theological engagements with the work of Michael Polanyi, one of the twentieth century''s most profound philosophers of science. Polanyi''s sustained explorations of the nature of human knowing open a range of questions and themes of profound importance for theology. He insists on the need to recover the categories of faith and belief in accounting for the way we know and points to the importance of tradition and the necessity sometimes of conversion in order to learn the truth of things. These themes are explored along with Polanyi''s social and political thought, his anthropology, his hermeneutics, and his conception of truth. Several of the essays set Polanyi alongside the work of other thinkers, particularly Karl Barth, Lesslie Newbigin, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Rene Girard, and they discuss points of comparison and contrast between the respective figures. While all the essays are appreciative of Polanyi''s contribution, they do not shy away from critical analysis--and take further, therefore, the critical appreciation of Polanyi''s work. ""Though not often heard in contemporary theology, Michael Polanyi''s voice had a significant influence over the likes of T. F. Torrance and Colin Gunton. . . . Polanyi''s groundbreaking work offers constructive avenues for thinking through, not simply the relationship between faith and science, but many central themes in the Christian tradition. Such potential is aptly demonstrated in this warmly recommended collection of essays. Murray Rae and his colleagues have done us a good service in compiling this study.""--John G. FlettHabilitand at the Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel, and author of The Witness of God: The Trinity, Missio Dei, Karl Barth and The Nature of Christian Community (2010)""Michael Polanyi has attracted growing attention . . . in many disciplines in recent years. This scintillating collection . . . critically engages with Polanyi''s post-positivist ideas on the important role in all human knowing played by faith, relationality, authority, tradition, and communities of inquiry. As well as exploring his social, political, anthropological, and theological views, contributors bring Polanyi into conversation with Karl Barth, Lesslie Newbiggin, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Rene Girard. This is theology-and-science at its most responsible, insightful, and interesting. Read it!""--John StenhouseAssociate Professor, Department of History, University of Otago, and editor with Ronald L. Numbers of Disseminating Darwinism: The Role of Place, Race, Religion and Gender (1999)""Critical Conversations displays two remarkably distinctive things about . . . Michael Polanyi''s epistemology. The rich, open-ended truthfulness of his proposals inspires innovative and penetrating cross-disciplinary conversations of all kinds; and conversants thus engaged experience freeing creativity and conviviality. Theological engagement is especially fruitful since Polanyi himself challenges a deadening Enlightenment legacy with an approach that is knowledge- and humanity- and hope-restoring because it is theologically attuned. These essayists offer a rich conversation that others may join profitably--convivially.""--Esther L. MeekAssociate Professor of Philosophy, Geneva College, and author of Loving to Know: Introducing Covenant Epistemology (2011)""This volume is a welcome addition to the literature bridging science and theology as it explores the work of a major thinker who allows us to go beyond . . . shallow post-Enlightenment objectivism. . . . Polanyi showed us that the knower could not be expunged from what was known and so confirmed observations both by Kierkegaard and Heidegger about the extent to which we frame our discoveries by the spirit with which we approach them. To see Polanyi''s work examined in this way is a vindication for those who have attempted to be rigorously post-critical in the rapprochement between contemporary theological ep

Description:J├╝rgen Moltmann and others contend that Christian theology and the church face a dual crisis--one of relevance and the other of identity. Despite making this pronouncement nearly forty years ago, the church in the West continues to struggle with this crisis. Several proposals have been espoused, from the way of wisdom to the way of ecclesial praxis. Yet, little attention is given in Protestant theological discourse to the role God''s beauty plays in bringing theology and ethics together. By neglecting God''s beauty for theological discourse, we risk diminishing Christian worship, witness, and wisdom.God''s Beauty-in-Act addresses these issues, in part, by arguing that the redemptive-creative suffering and glorious resurrection of Christ are the nexus of God''s being, beauty, and Christian living. God''s beauty, understood as the fittingness of the incarnate Son''s actions in the Spirit to the Father''s will, radiates God''s glory and draws perceivers into the dramatic movements of God''s triune life. These movements serve as the patterns that shape the imagination, enabling participants to perform their parts creatively and fittingly in God''s drama of redemption. In doing so, human beings flourish as they jettison false identities and realities of their own making that are incommensurate with God''s purpose found in Christ by the Spirit.Endorsements:""Garrett''s book is an altarpiece with two panels and a hinge, a fitting structure for a work that depicts the cross as the enactment of God''s beauty. . . . This study of Trinitarian theology presents the Son as the expression of the Father''s glory, and the Spirit its impression. God''s Beauty-in-Act describes how Christ''s cross transforms our imaginations, enabling the church to participate in the dramatic movement that defines the beat of God''s own heart.""--Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School""Stephen Garrett has provided us with a deftly constructed and compellingly argued case for the centrality of beauty for a faithful doctrine of God, and indeed for the whole theological project.""--Samuel Wells, Visiting Professor of Christian Ethics, King''s College, London""Stephen Garrett presents a thoughtful Protestant appropriation of the work of Balthasar, which stresses the supreme importance of imagination in the contemplative reception and ethical imitation of the beauty revealed in the cross of Christ. Of particular value is the deeply scriptural and resolutely Trinitarian context of Garrett''s reflections. This work is rich in ecumenical potential and makes a significant contribution to the task of shaping Christian ethics in light of the beauty ''ever ancient, ever new.''""--Francis Caponi, Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova UniversityAbout the Contributor(s):Stephen M. Garrett, PhD, is an Academic Fellow with the International Institute for Christian Studies and Lecturer/Researcher of Public Theology and Philosophy of Religion in the Social Communications Institute at Lithuania University of Educational Sciences.

About the Contributor(s):Monte Shanks is Assistant Professor at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.

Description:A respected lecturer and author, the Rev. Dr. Peter Toon (1939-2009) was born in Yorkshire, England, and graduated from King''s College, University of London. Ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1973, he taught theology in both England and America, and was a visiting professor and guest lecturer at a variety of seminaries and universities in Asia, Europe, and Australia. Through his engagement in debates about all matters Anglican, he became the foremost exponent of ""the Anglican Way,"" a path both Reformed and Catholic. A self-identified evangelical, he brought an evangelical fervor to his love of the church and the gospel, and he has influenced a generation of priests around the world. This volume of essays, collected in his honor, furthers the work that Dr. Toon started, defending the continuing importance of the theology of the English Reformation and Anglican worship. Essays included discuss Thomas Cranmer, the Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and the legacy of Dom Gregory Dix. The authors include Roger Beckwith, Bryan Spinks, Rudolph Heinze, Joan Lockwood O''Donovan, Gillis Harp, Graham Eglington, and Ian Robinson.Endorsements:""Toon''s contribution to the understanding of Anglicanism is hard to exaggerate . . . His courageous and scholarly work evoked much unpopularity for several decades, but it now enjoys deserved and widely acknowledged acceptance. His writings in the last days, while he was struggling with a debilitating disease, have been an indelible encouragement to many. I count myself as one deeply grateful, not only for his scholarly contributions, but his inspiring faith.""--C. FitzSimons Allison, 12th Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina""Anglicanism is not another flavor of liberal Protestantism, nor merely a via media between Protestantism and Catholicism, or an open-ended range of beliefs from Puritanism to Anglo-Catholicism. The essays in this book disclose confessional Anglicanism growing out of conservative Reformation, a theology formed by worshipping with the Book of Common Prayer."" --Gene Edward Veith, Patrick Henry College""Produced by the Prayer Book Society in honor of Peter Toon, its recently deceased, long-serving president, this collection of essays is as feisty, insightful, and formed by Anglican doctrine and worship as was the man himself. While the Episcopal Church wanders through a self-confessed time in the wilderness, those looking for solid joys and lasting treasures will find here thoughtful encouragement for recovering the unique witness of historic Anglicanism''s reformed and catholic Christianity."" --Ashley Null, Humboldt University of Berlin""Toon once made the trenchant observation, ''just as ancient Israel was set by God to be a light to the nations, so I see the Anglican Communion of Churches set by God, in the midst of all the churches, to be a light--providing a luminous example of simultaneous commitment to the gospel and to catholicity.'' This truly excellent collection of essays, contributed by a distinguished company of Anglican scholars, pays a fitting tribute to Toon''s profound dedication to the Anglican way. This book deserves a broad readership.""--Torrance Kirby, McGill UniversityAbout the Contributor(s):Roberta L. Bayer is Assistant Professor of Government at Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, Virginia. She currently edits the Anglican Way, the magazine of the Prayer Book Society of the United States.

Description:Pentecostals are known for an experiential spirituality that emphasizes immediate encounters with God through the Holy Spirit. But how should such experience be understood? Is it, in fact, quite so immediate?Neumann argues that Pentecostal experience of God is mediated by the Spirit''s work through Scripture, the Christian tradition, and the broader cultural context. Using the work of three contemporary Pentecostal theologians--Frank D. Macchia, Simon K. H. Chan, and Amos Yong--the book demonstrates that a mediated view of experience of God is forging a more mature Pentecostal theology. As further evidence of this maturation, Neumann engages these Pentecostal theologians in ecumenical dialogue with leading representatives from Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant traditions.Endorsements:""The maturation of pentecostal theology and scholarship, Neumann''s analysis shows, also brings with it the conflict of pentecostal interpretations. Welcome to the contestations!""--Amos Yong, Regent University""Finally, a sustained engagement of the most essential feature of pentecostal-charismatic spirituality: transformative encounters with God . . . Pentecostal Experience will become a standard reference for future discussions of experience in Pentecostalism, and [it will] serve as a testament to the maturation of pentecostal theology.""--Kenneth J. Archer, Southeastern University""Neumann demonstrates the high level of theological reflection and sophistication undertaken by pentecostal theologians in examining the constructive role of experience. He is mindful of the role of experience in contemporary Christian theology and the plurality that already exists among the leading lights. With the publication of this book, Neumann himself will rank within that company.""--Ralph Del Colle, Marquette University""In Pentecostal Experience, Neumann challenges Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal alike. With laser-sharp theological precision he critiques traditional Pentecostal self-understanding of the experience of the Holy Spirit. But he casts his net wide to capture ecumenical voices, which he sets in dialogue with the best current, Pentecostal thinking. This book is a must-read for anyone hoping to theologically engage a new generation of global Pentecostals.""--David A. Reed, Wycliffe College""Neumann has given us a helpful exploration into how pentecostal theologians deal with the role of experience . . . Those interested in pentecostal theology, or broader issues concerning the role of experience in theological method, will find a feast of insight in this book.""--Frank D. Macchia, Vanguard University of Southern CaliforniaAbout the Contributor(s):Peter D. Neumann (PhD, University of St. Michael''s College, Toronto School of Theology) is the Assistant Academic Dean and Professor of Theology at Master''s College and Seminary, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

Description:People are moving to the margins of the Catholic Church. As one dialogue partner states, ""I left the Church to beat the rush."" Yet, another remarks, ""I just wonder. I have to ask, who''s on the margins? I''m not sure."" Let Your Voice Be Heard details original practical theology research that endeavors to understand the dynamics on the margins of the Roman Catholic Church in dialogue with fifty dialogue partners from across the United States. Practical theology, the theology of marginality of Jung Young Lee, reciprocal ethnography, and the communication theory of Mikhail Bakhtin join in a cross-disciplinary dialogue.In conversation with dialogue partners, Joan Hebert Reisinger seeks the reasons why Catholics over the age of twenty-one who were once active and involved in the Catholic Church find themselves on the margins of the Church and how they understand their own marginality. The dialogue partners speak of new ways of being Church emerging on the margins. This emerging Church is marked by inclusive relationships that include dialogue that does not seek agreement or consensus, a critical and thoughtful recalling of memories and narratives of the Catholic faith tradition, and appropriation of these in new and creative ways.Endorsements:""Creating a rich theological dialogue rooted in cross-disciplinary inquiry, Reisinger makes room at the table for those who in the past have been overlooked and undervalued. In Let Your Voice Be Heard, we are challenged to rethink our perceptions of margin and center, discovering the creative potential situated in the diversity of voices at the margins of the church.""--L. Juliana Claassens, Stellenbosch University""If you pick up this book, be prepared to listen. When Joan Reisinger invites us to listen to Catholics at the margins, she means it. She lets us hear their voices, their longings, and their pain. But these voices are not outsiders looking in; they are wisdom-seekers forging new ground and space with faith that is both bold and hopeful.""--Kathleen A. Cahalan, Saint John''s School of Theology┬╖Seminary""This is an amazing book, learned and very wise. Catholic leaders talk today about ''the new evangelization.'' I think they would be well advised to read this book to understand both the challenge and importance of this new evangelization for those who are so faithful, and yet find themselves at the church''s margins. Such women and men may well evangelize us!""--Stephen Bevans, Catholic Theological Union""This is practical theology for the U.S. Catholic context, where the margins are an increasingly crowded and--as this book shows--theologically rich place.""--Tom Beaudoin, Fordham UniversityAbout the Contributor(s):Joan Hebert Reisinger combines a dual career as both a practical theologian and a speech language pathologist. Her primary research interests are in ecclesiology, particularly the study of those on the margins of the Church, and religious education.

Description:In this book Marianne Bjelland Kartzow suggests that ideas taken from recent discussions of multiple identities and intersectionality, combined with insights from memory theory, can renew our engagement with biblical texts. Some marginal early Christian passages, and what the scholarly community has reconstructed of their historical contexts, are encountered, looking for alternative ways these texts can produce meaning. A fresh look at some marginal biblical figures--such as male and female slaves who are beaten by a fellow slave, the queer figure of the Ethiopian eunuch, foreign Egyptian women, rebellious widows, or a possessed fortune-telling slave girl--can help biblical users to talk in more critical and creative ways about responsibility, identity, injustice, violence, inclusion/exclusion, and the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and class. These perspectives may be relevant for those who see the New Testament as Christian canon or as cultural canon, or as both.Endorsements:""Kartzow has a rare gift for writing highly accessible but theoretically sophisticated prose. Drawing upon memory theory and concepts of intersectionality, Kartzow pays special attention to the marginalized figures in ancient texts, including the neglected female slave . . . This study greatly advances our understanding of the construction of early Christian identities and will be welcomed by scholars, students, and general readers alike.""--Margaret Y. MacDonald, St. Francis Xavier University""Combining an intriguing, multifaceted methodological approach with an urge to make visible those outside our spheres of moral concern, Kartzow convincingly demonstrates her renown as a talented, innovative, and committed biblical scholar."" --Christina Petterson, Australian National University""A deliberate attempt to remember the struggling survivors and hybrid personalities found in the early Christian archives, Destabilizing the Margins shows ''that ideas taken from recent discussions of multiple identities and intersectionality, combined with insights from memory theory, can renew our engagement'' with Christian traditions, as well as challenge contemporary simplifications of life worlds, raising hope for the future.""--Pieter Botha, University of South AfricaAbout the Contributor(s):Marianne Bjelland Kartzow is Senior Research Fellow within the project Jesus in Cultural Complexity at the University of Oslo, supported by the Research Council of Norway. She is the author of Gossip and Gender: Othering of Speech in the Pastoral Epistles (2009).

Description:In 1967 Karl Rahner famously wrote: ""The economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity, and vice versa."" From that time onwards, Rahner''s Rule has become the norm for conceiving the relationship between the Trinity in the economy of salvation and God''s eternal inner life. Evangelical theologians currently employ Rahner''s Rule in a variety of ways. One of the most popular is the ""Strict Realist Reading"" whereby trinitarian relationships in salvation history are taken to mirror eternal relationships within God. This book brings this norm into conversation with the witness of Scripture in order to assess its viability. In doing so, it highlights troubling issues that arise from the application of the Strict Realist Reading of Rahner''s Rule to the narrative of Luke-Acts. This book suggests that the Strict Realist Reading can be shown to be a questionable basis for our doctrine of God''s inner life. Endorsements:""Based on Luke-Acts Scott Harrower has mounted an exegetical challenge to the strict realist reading of Rahner''s rule that evangelicals would be foolish to avoid. The biblical accent does not fall on the imitation of the Trinity''s inner life but on the imitation of Christ in the economy of salvation. The onus is now on those who champion the rule or something like it in its strict form to meet the challenge.""--Dr. Graham A. ColeAnglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Samford UniversityAuthor of Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith? (2012)""The book leverages its investigation of Luke-Acts to lodge a protest against a widespread, highly influential, but seldom critically examined movement in modern Trinitarian methodology. . . . I commend this book as an excellent piece of research theology, the kind of solid work that captures the theological moment, advances the next few steps into new territory, and indicates where future progress lies.""--Fred Sanders, from the forewordAssociate Professor in the Torrey Honors Institute, Biola UniversityAuthor of The Deep Things of God (2010) ""''Rahner''s Rule'' has exercised massive influence over recent theology. To this point it has not-quite surprisingly-been subjected to adequate biblical scrutiny. In this insightful work, Scott Harrower takes important steps to provide such scrutiny. The result is a book that will repay careful study, and even those who are not fully persuaded by all the arguments will benefit from engagement with it.""--Thomas H. McCallAssociate Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity SchoolAuthor of Which Trinity? Whose Monotheism? (2010)About the Contributor(s):Rev. Dr. Scott Harrower is Assistant Professor of Theology and History at the Melbourne School of Theology in Australia. He has authored various articles in theology and historical theology.

Description:What may happen when Christians take doctrine seriously? One possible answer is that the shape of churchly life ""on the ground"" can be significantly altered. This pioneering study is both an account of the doctrine of the person of Christ as it has been expounded by the theologians of historic English and Welsh Nonconformity, and an attempt to show that while many Nonconformists held classical orthodox views of the doctrine between 1600 and 2000, others advocated alternative understandings of Christ''s person; hence the evolution of the ecclesial landscape as we have come to know it. The traditions here under review are those of Old Dissent: the Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians and their Unitarian heirs; and the Calvinistic and Arminian Methodist bodies that owe their origin to the Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century.Endorsements:""This encyclopedic but accessible survey stands as witness to the church''s ongoing wrestle with an ancient question--''Who do you say that I am?'' It demonstrates Professor Sell''s acumen as a meticulous researcher, his contagious devotion to the nonconformist tradition, and his aptitude for bringing the dead back to life. With wit and sober-headedness, this bold and theologically informed study records many christological enthusiasms and ecclesiological consequences that this perduring question has birthed--its invitation lingers still.""-Rev. Dr. Jason GoroncyLecturer and Dean of StudiesKnox Centre for Ministry and LeadershipAbout the Contributor(s):Alan P. F. Sell is a philosopher-theologian and ecumenist. He has held academic posts in England, Canada, and Wales, ecclesiastical posts in England and Geneva, and now works full time as a researcher/author/editor, and as a Visiting Professor at home and abroad. His most recent book is Convinced, Concise, and Christian: The Thought of Huw Parri Owen.

Description:Wonder has often occupied a place of unique importance across a variety of human practices and intellectual activities. At different times and historical periods, it has been hailed as the beginning of philosophy and as the end that philosophy should aspire to pursue; as the motive force of scientific quests and their fruit; as the aim of art and the means art uses to accomplish its aims; and as the religious experience par excellence and the hallmark of a deeper spiritual life. Yet despite the special relationship it has borne to many of our most highly valued intellectual and spiritual practices, wonder remains a neglected and understudied notion. This volume aims to redress this neglect, bringing together a collection of essays drawn from different disciplines to consider the sense of wonder from a number of complementary perspectives. What is wonder? What role has it historically played in philosophy, science, art and aesthetics, and the religious or spiritual life? Can wonder be dangerous? Is wonder an experience in which we should, or indeed could, aspire to dwell? Why, among human experiences, should it be prized?Contributors: Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Stephen Mulhall, Sylvana Chrysakopoulou, Derek Matravers, Michel Hulin, Alexander Rueger, Robert Fuller, David Burrell, Claude-Olivier Doron & Sophia Vasalou.Endorsements:""Is wonder of importance, and if so, why? This wide-ranging and thought-provoking collection of essays can be warmly recommended to anyone with an interest in this intriguing topic.""--Jane Heal, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge""We all recognize wonder, but we are puzzled by what exactly it is. Sophia Vasalou''s multidisciplinary team of specialists unravels the strands of our perplexity, and her own substantial contribution presents the topic with her customary imagination, learning, and originality.""--John Marenbon, Professor of Medieval Philosophy, University of CambridgeAbout the Contributor(s):Sophia Vasalou is Junior Research Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge. She is the author of Moral Agents and Their Deserts (2008).

Description:What does it mean to be created in the image of God? How can the existence of evil be explained if we believe in a good and loving God? What is the precise meaning of the notion of original sin? How can God transfer the guilt of humanity to one innocent individual, or should we rather dispense with the notion of penal satisfaction? The first part of Created in the Image of God grapples in a concise manner with these and other elusive and controversial theological and anthropological issues. The second part proceeds to address societal issues that relate to dignity, equality, and freedom. How can human dignity and the dignity of the environment be reconciled? Are the values of freedom and equality natural enemies? When does theology become a tool of oppression? How should we evaluate neo-liberalist economic theory after the greatest recession since the Depression? This book cautiously attempts to provide some answers that might help modern society to re-invent itself in a tumultuous age.Endorsements:""After decades in which quandaries dominated the field of ethical deliberation in an often depressing way, there is now a growing interest in the anthropological dimension of morality. Nico Vorster offers an attractive contribution to this approach by combining the discussion of theological themes like man as the image of God, and sin, with perspectives on values such as dignity, freedom, and equality. This is promising!""--Gerrit de KruijfProtestant Theological University, The Netherlands""In this timely and thorough-going study, Nico Vorster probes some of the core doctrines of Reformed theology-especially the relationship between God and humanity as established by the imago Dei, thwarted by sin, and restored by atonement. He not only comes up with some creative proposals for relating these classical doctrines to the contemporary scientific worldview, but also convincingly shows how the resulting theological anthropology is able to deal constructively with some of the most pressing ethical challenges of our time. This book is a must-read for everyone with an interest in Reformed theology as a living tradition of ongoing relevance.""--Gysbert van den BrinkVU University, Amsterdam""Nico Vorster draws deeply from the rich wells of scripture, reformed theology, and ethics as he reworks perennial topics in ways that are open to new understandings from the natural and social sciences and are creatively relevant to pressing issues of our time. This would be an excellent textbook for courses in theology, ethics, or theological ethics.""-Douglas J. SchuurmanSt. Olaf CollegeAbout the Contributor(s):Nico Vorster is Extraordinary Professor of Systematic Theology at the Theological Faculty of the Northwest University in South Africa. He is the author of Restoring Human Dignity in South Africa (2007).

Description:This is the first comprehensive study of the thought of the Welsh theologian-philosopher Huw Parri Owen (1926-1996). Indebted to the heritage of Christian thought, and not bewitched by Barth, bothered by Flew, or bewildered by Bultmann, Owen brought considerable biblical, philosophical, and theological acumen to the articulation of a reasonable, experientially grounded faith. A sharp-minded Christian thinker--a number of whose discussions of philosophico-theological themes remain pertinent to current scholarly debate--is here rescued from unjustified neglect.Endorsements:""Some theologians trumpet their arguments; others, with much less fanfare, simply get on with the dogmatic task. Huw Parri Owen was of the latter breed. His work continues to repay careful study as a model of clear, reasoned, careful theology informed by the Christian tradition and the biblical witness. So it is a delight to commend this study of Owen''s thought by Professor Alan Sell. It offers a fair, balanced, yet critical account of some of the central themes in Owen''s work, with an eye to the interlocutors and movements to which Owen addressed himself. I hope it will commend Owen to a new generation of readers as a twentieth-century theologian worthy of serious intellectual engagement.""-Oliver D. CrispProfessor of Systematic TheologyFuller Theological Seminary""Sell here retrieves the thought of an under-known, undervalued Welsh theologian-philosopher who made some significant contributions toward ''a reasonable, experientially grounded Christian faith.'' Sell''s treatment is, as ever, evenhanded. He recognizes Owen''s desire to be ''reasonable'' without being a rationalist in faith while also insisting on the prime reality of experience, which tempers all else in his overall theology. Owen''s thought is instructive; and this fine work makes it accessible to a new generation.""-Donald K. McKimExecutive Editor for Theology and ReferenceWestminster John Knox PressAbout the Contributor(s):Alan P. F. Sell, a philosopher-theologian and ecumenist, is employed in research, writing, and lecturing in the United Kingdom and abroad. He has held academic positions in England, Canada, and Wales, and ecclesiastical posts in England and Geneva. He is the author or editor of over thirty books, including Confessing and Commending the Faith (Wipf & Stock, 2006) and Hinterland Theology (Wipf & Stock, 2008).

Description:This book reveals--for the first time ever--the extraordinary impact of Huldah the prophet on our Bible. She was both a leader of exilic Jews and a principal author of Hebrew Scripture. She penned the Shema: the ardent, prayerful praise that millions of worshipers repeat twice daily. Moreover, Jesus quoted as his own last words the ones that Huldah had written centuries before--""Into your hand I commit my spirit."" Huldah was an extraordinary writer--arguably she ranks among the best in Hebrew Scripture. As such, she added to God''s Word a feminine aspect that has inspired numberless believers--men and women alike. This book''s new techniques reveal that though subjected to extreme verbal abuse, Huldah surmounted her era''s high barriers to women. As elder, queen mother, and war leader during the sixth century BCE, she helped shape Israel''s history. And what, then, can this book mean to scholars--both women and men? Feminists need a rallying point and a heroine, and Huldah makes a superb one. In years ahead, experts might well place Huldah alongside the very greatest women of antiquity; indeed, they may even conclude that she is among the most influential people in human history.Endorsements:""Kavanagh''s latest book is another fascinating and creative recasting of biblical narratives. His writing is precise and lucid and his analyses are unlike anyone else''s, combining biblical scholarship, mathematical statistics, and a deep reading of Jewish canonical and literary sources, including esoteric material. Provocative and richly documented, Huldah will be well received by anyone who has followed Kavanagh''s previous research and writing.""--Jeff Levin, University Professor and Director of the Program on Religion and Population Health, Baylor Institute for Studies of ReligionAbout the Contributor(s):Preston Kavanagh holds degrees from Princeton and Harvard. He retired twenty-five years ago from an executive position in a large company to seek the identities of those who wrote the Hebrew Bible. Huldah discusses what he has found, as do several prior books--Secrets of the Jewish Exile (2005), The Exilic Code (Pickwick Publications, 2009), and The Shaphan Group (Pickwick Publications, 2011). He and his wife, Lois, live quietly in Maryland.

Description:What would a comparative study of prayer look like? If the human impulse is to survive by thinking and acting religiously, Reinhart says religion is born on the day prayer first finds breath. He discusses prayer as a discourse since that first day that is speech out of brokenness or suffering is expressed in the hope of something more. Through his engagement with theorists of language and memory (Habermas, Derrida, Metz, Ricoeur, and others), Reinhart develops a framework that sustains an innovative approach to apocalyptical thought that also lays the foundation for a new field: the comparative study of prayer.Endorsements:""Prayer as Memory blends theory and theology to explore how prayer--at once a religious performance and an enactment of moral imagination--is rooted in ''the loam of memory,'' a fertile ground that locates prayer within a collective, historically situated context. Theoretically astute and theologically insightful, this book will be of interest to readers who want to know more about the perduring effects of collective memory on everyday religious practice.""--Elizabeth Castelli, Professor of Religion, Barnard College""Prayer as Memory is an astute and foundational essay in theologia prima. By bringing together the contrasting, contemporary philosophical scenarios and the theological insights of the likes of Barth and Metz, this book is an eloquent elucidation of prayer as an apocalyptic genre that offers a theoretical frame and practical guidance to understand and engage a devotional life. This book deserves praise for daring originality, interdisciplinary acumen, and pastoral relevance."" --Vítor Westhelle, Professor of Systematic Theology, Lutheran School of Theology""Asserting that prayer is a form of discourse, Reinhart explores the multifaceted ethical dimensions and functions of prayers, as they relate to self-understanding, memory, awareness of others'' suffering, apocalyptic sentiments, redemption, and reconciliation. Eloquently written, and drawing upon a wide range of important thinkers, including Jacques Derrida and Jürgen Habermas, this book is an illuminating and fascinating exposition of prayer as a practice with continuing relevance.""--Yuki Miyamoto, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, DePaul University""In prayer we remember the woundedness of our communities while enacting the eschatological hope for how the world ought to be. Reinhart presents a nuanced argument for both the rationality and mystery of prayer, in which the experience of otherness overwhelms ideological fixation. This work brings a fresh perspective to the debate on prayer in the public sphere.""--Björn Krondorfer, Professor of Religious Studies, Martin-Springer InstituteAbout the Contributor(s):David Reinhart is Lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. He has lived in Chicago almost all of his life, previously teaching at DePaul University and Richard J. Daley City College.

Description:The Holy Spirit provides access to relationship with and reflection on the Triune God. In West Africa, Christians approach the Triune God in a way that challenges the Jewish-Christian memory. Deeply rooted in their ancestral memory, where living is relationality, they embrace the Trinitarian faith, the economy of the relational God-Christ-Spirit, by expanding and reinventing their indigenous experience of God, deities, spirits, and ancestors. Christian faith-practice is marked by the spectacular dominance of the Holy Spirit, whose charisms reflect the operations of deities. African Initiated Churches (AICs), Protestant and Catholic charismatic movements, experience God-Spirit''s liberating and healing hand for the enhancement and realization of communal and individual destiny (what one expects from a concerned providential deity). This book argues that the emergent West African Trinitarian imagination is in harmony with Hebrew insight into the One and Only Yahweh of the patriarchs that assumed the dimensions of Elohîm, God--experienced as a sound of sheer silence by Elijah, and proposed in utter weakness as the Only God by Deutero-Isaiah--the God that Jesus called Abba, Father. As Spirit and Life, the Holy Spirit, which is the source of all charisms (Origen), is our link to the Trinity. Endorsements:""Uzukwu has provided us with a groundbreaking overview of a theological anthropology from engagement with West African religious traditions. This insightful and creative text will stretch and transform traditional concepts and claims of Western theological thought. Reading Uzukwu''s work opens up the rich and largely untapped treasures of African religious experience.""--George WorgulChair, Department of Theology, Duquesne University, PittsburghAbout the Contributor(s):Elochukwu Uzukwu C.S.Sp. is Associate Professor of Theology at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. He is the editor of Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology, and author of Liturgy, Truly Christian, Truly African (1982); A Listening Church: Autonomy and Communion in African Churches (1996; 2006); Worship as Body Language: Introduction to Christian Worship, an African Orientation (1997).

Description:This book articulates a contextual pneumatology from a perspective of the Eastern idea of ch''i (ki in Korean). Rather than understanding the Spirit from a Westernized philosophical perspective, this book utilizes East Asian categories rooted in the I Ching and Asian religions in dialogue with such prominent Western theologians as Barth, Pannenberg, Moltmann and Harvey Cox. The result is an exciting interaction between the Bible, traditions of the West, and experiences of the Spirit rooted in East Asia. Yun argues that the formal dimension of the Spirit (sangjeok) is present and active in all cultures and religions while the material dimension of the Spirit (muljeok) is categorically revealed and embodied through the life of Jesus Christ, the event of Pentecost, and Charisms given to the church. In making his case, he mediates a creative balance between countercultural and exclusivist models on the one hand, and pluralistic and anthropocentric models on the other. Endorsements:""Koo Dong Yun''s work is simply brilliant and beautiful! It is written by an author who accurately knows both Western and Eastern theology and philosophy. I applaud it sincerely. Yun''s work escaped many perils of ''post-colonial'' theology and has opened a promising new way to move ahead with a genuinely Korean Christian theological vision. This is an authentic contextual theology rooted in the East Asian soil. Instead of trying to write something ''universal'' and ''totalitarian'' that stands against the post-modern era, Yun has created something that is really ''chiological'' and original. If I teach my seminar here on Asian theology or Pentecostalism again, I will surely make use of this book.""-Harvey CoxHollis Research Professor of DivinityHarvard University""Although numbers of different kinds of ''contextual'' approaches to the theology of the Holy Spirit are emerging at the beginning of the third millennium, Professor Koo D. Yun''s constructive ''chiological'' pneumatology stands out as distinctive and has the capacity to give leadership and inspiration to many such explorations to come. In this highly creative and constructive work, ancient and contemporary Chinese, Korean, and other East Asian philosophico-religious resources are put into a mutual dialogue with biblical, historical, and systematic Christian theological voices. The end result is a feast of theological, philosophical, and religious insights highlighting the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit through the lens of Ch''i and related Asian ways of conceiving the ''divine spirit/essence.''""-Veli-Matti KärkkäinenProfessor of Systematic TheologyFuller Theological Seminary""Constructing a transcultural theology of the third article based on the Spirit and Ch''i (Qi), Dr. Yun''s book is a truly astonishing and groundbreaking work, which will establish him as one of his generation''s leading Asian theologians. Dr. Yun paves a new way toward hermeneutically configuring an intersection of the Holy Spirit in Judeo-Christian tradition with East Asian philosophy of Taoism and Confucianism through his astute interpretation and extensive knowledge. This book is an original, creative, and extraordinary attempt to conceptualize a new pneumatology in intercultural studies of the Spirit in parallel with my construction of irregular-minjung theology. This is the first full monograph dealing solely with the Holy Spirit and Ch''i written in English by an author who accurately grasps three horizons: 1) the Bible, 2) traditional Western theologies (especially in regard to Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg), and 3) East Asian philosophy of Ch''i in classic Taoism and Confucianism. Finally, the contextual, irregular pneumatology rooted in the East Asian soil for which we have been waiting with excitement has emerged in this book.""-Paul S. ChungAssociate Professor of Mission and World ChristianityLuther Seminary""Professor Yun''s book represents a groundbreaking work in the study of pneumatology.

Description:Today, many evangelicals in the Russian-speaking world emphasize sanctification as a distinctive mark of their Christian faith. This is a unique characteristic, particularly in the European context. Their historic tapestry has been woven from a number of threads that originated in the second half of the nineteenth century. Missionary efforts of the German Baptists, a revival sparked by a British evangelist, and a pietistic awakening among the Mennonites in the South converged to form a tapestry that displays Protestant, Baptist, and Anabaptist heritage. Ivan Kargel uniquely participated in the formation and ministry of each of these threads. His life spans from Tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union. Kargel refused to adhere to a systematic view of theology. Instead, he urged believers to go to Scripture and draw from the riches of a life united with Christ. Kargel''s influence today is keenly felt across the Russian-speaking evangelical world as they seek to identify the roots of their spiritual identity. This book examines the influences on Ivan Kargel and offers insights into how his life and work are expressed in the tapestry of Russian evangelical spirituality.Endorsements:""The work not only provides an excellent biographical narrative of Ivan V. Kargel, an elusive yet seminal figure in the development of evangelical spirituality in Russia, but also a careful study of his theological thought. The work''s comprehensive grasp of the evangelical movement as a whole, its meticulous use of sources in three languages, and its setting in the context of the times represent scholarship at its best.""-Albert W. Wardin Jr.Belmont University ""Ivan Kargel was the most important spiritual writer in the early years of the evangelical Christians-Baptists in Russia and Ukraine. Using previously neglected primary sources, Gregory Nichols has examined the variety of influences that formed Kargel''s spirituality, showing in particular the significance of Keswick holiness teaching for this greatly respected author.""-David BebbingtonUniversity of Stirling""Gregory Nichols''s careful probing of the developing spirituality and theology of Ivan V. Kargel, who was both German and Russian, is an important contribution from an American historian-theologian who has earned the right to be heard. It will help shape thinking and discussion . . . Nichols''s book earns him a respected place in ongoing theological conversations among current east European evangelical theologians.-Walter SawatskyCo-editor of Religion in Eastern Europe""Gregory L. Nichols has made a major contribution to our understanding of the theological development of evangelical faith in Russia . . . Thanks to this carefully wrought work we have the clearest explanation to date for the unique blend of holiness, pietistic, and Anabaptist strains in Russian evangelicalism.""-Mark R. ElliottAsbury SeminaryAbout the Contributor(s):Gregory L. Nichols is Lecturer of Baptist and Anabaptist Studies and Church History at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic. He also lectured for several years at the Odessa Theological Seminary in Odessa, Ukraine.

Description:If Schillebeeckx had been Asian, how would he have responded to the phenomenon of religious pluralism? This book attempts to answer that question, beginning with a dialogue with the Vatican Declaration Dominus Iesus and discerning how Schillebeeckx''s methodology has been applied in Asian theology. Employing the hermeneutical-critical method, Schillebeeckx asserts that the Word of God did not come ""down to us, as it were, vertically in a purely divine statement""--it must be interpreted! In today''s context of so many religions, so many cultures, and so many poor, God''s Word invites the church to be a ""sacrament of dialogue."" Through dialogue the church will be ""challenged by other religions and challenge them in return."" Christianity will then be ""put in its place, as well as given the place which is its due.""Endorsements:""A frank and articulate commentary on Dominus Iesus, this volume offers reflections on the respectful and authentic relationship between the Catholic Church and other religious traditions. . . . What is intriguing is not only that it deals with the greatest theological conundrum of our time, but also explores how Western and Asian theologies can be bridged, mindful of the aspirations of the wronged of this world.""--Bahar DavaryAssociate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, University of San DiegoAuthor of Women and the Qur''an""Combining the theology of Schillebeeckx and the experience of religious diversity of the Asian churches, Chia takes on the ''600-pound gorilla'' that stalks all Catholic conversations about interreligious dialogue: the tensions between official Vatican pronouncements such as Dominus Iesus and the views of communities and theologians. Chia''s final proposal for an ''Asian theology of dialogue'' opens a way forward.""--Paul F. KnitterPaul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions, and Culture, Union Theological SeminaryAuthor of Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian""Edmund Chia puts us all, especially Asian theologians, in his debt with this scholarly analysis of the thought of one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the twentieth century. Chia brilliantly succeeds in extending Schillebeeckx''s insights into the challenging field of cultural and interreligious dialogue. In this way he builds a bridge between Western and Asian theologies, long kept apart, or worse, with the former dominating the latter. Chia''s work is proof that Asian theology has come of age.""--Peter C. PhanEllacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought, Georgetown UniversityAuthor of Being Religious InterreligiouslyAbout the Contributor(s):Edmund Chia is a Malaysian who served from 1996 to 2004 as Executive Secretary of Interreligious Dialogue for the Federation of Asian Bishops'' Conferences. He then joined Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he last served as Associate Professor and Chair of the Doctrinal Studies Department. Since 2011 he has been on the faculty of the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. He holds an MA in human development, an MA in religion from the United States, and a PhD in intercultural theology from the Netherlands. Fr. Schillebeeckx witnessed his doctoral defense.

Description:Why do many U.S. residents, Catholics and Catholic leaders among them, too often fall short of adequately challenging the use of violence in U.S. policy? The opportunities and developments in approaches to peacemaking have been growing at a significant rate. However, violent methods continue to hold significant sway in U.S. policy and society as the commonly assumed way to ""peace."" Even when community organizers, policymakers, members of Catholic leadership, and academics sincerely search for alternatives to violence, they too often think about nonviolence as primarily a rule or a strategy. Catholic Social Teaching has been moving toward transcending the limits of these approaches, but it still has significant room for growth. In order to contribute to this growth and to impact U.S. policy, McCarthy draws on Jesus, Gandhi, Ghaffar Khan, and King to offer a virtue-based approach to nonviolent peacemaking with a corresponding set of core practices. This approach is also set in conversation with aspects of human rights discourse to increase its possible impact on U.S. policy. As a whole, Becoming Nonviolent Peacemakers offers an important challenge to contemporary accounts of peacemaking in the U.S.Endorsements:""Many believe, myself among them, the world must change its violent course if humanity is to survive and go forward. The opposite of violence, and its cure, is nonviolence; but the term is still shrouded in confusion. This well-researched book does a masterful job making nonviolence--arguably the most important principle we can learn--available to millions of readers.""--Michael Nagler, Professor Emeritus, University of California Berkeley ""Using the time-tested virtue approach to ethics, McCarthy helps us cultivate the dispositions, practices, and rules needed for nonviolent peace-building. But then, with virtue''s ability to culturally adapt, he engages Hindu, Christian, and Muslim models, and proposes a contemporary, realistic vision. He translates this vision into the language of human rights so as to give it even more universal appeal. The result is an interreligious, comprehensive project of a new world order. A truly timely and engaging work!""--James F. Keenan, Boston College""This is an excellent book. It is highly original and intellectually precise, while remaining grounded in the Christian life and passion for social change. McCarthy cuts across standard divisions of just war theory and pacifism to create a public and political peacemaking ethic of virtue for an era in which Christian action for global justice is not optional.""--Lisa Cahill, Boston College""McCarthy''s deep discussion of the challenges of nonviolent peacemaking should be essential reading for all would-be peacemakers and, more especially, for all those who still see lethal force as the answer to international problems.""--Alan Goulty, Former British Ambassador to SudanAbout the Contributor(s):Eli Sasaran McCarthy is Adjunct Professor of Justice and Peace Studies at Georgetown University. He has published an essay in Peace Movements Worldwide, along with articles in the Peace Studies Journal and the Journal of Political Theology.

Description:This book uses insights from a modern theory of communication, Relevance Theory, to examine the function of the particle i(/na [SET IN SpIonic] in New Testament Greek. It claims that the particle does not have a lexical meaning of ""in order that,"" contrary to accepted wisdom, but that it alerts the reader to expect an interpretation of the thought or attitude of the implied speaker or author. Evidence is adduced from pagan Greek and in particular the writings of Polybius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Epictetus, as well as the New Testament. The implications of this claim give an opportunity for a fresh interpretation of many problematic texts.Endorsements:""This timely and fascinating study is of interest, not only to biblical scholars, but also to those interested in linguistic theory. Margaret Sim''s original study of the ''purpose'' marker i3na utilises the notion of metarepresentation, familiar from Relevance Theory, to provide new insight into the interpretation of certain key texts in the Gospels. In so doing, she shows how the ideas of theoretical pragmatics can be brought to bear on the study of other fields to enable new and exciting perspectives to be opened up on difficult problems of translation and interpretation.""Ronnie Cann, University of Edinburgh""A model dissertation accounting for an important, long-ignored question. Literary and non-literary extra-biblical sources have been considered and the perspective is diachronic, distinguishing earlier and later usage from that of the New Testament. It is grounded in linguistic theory but free of jargon and intelligible to those not trained in Linguistics.""Carl W. Conrad, Washington University, St. Louis, MissouriThis is a major, innovative thesis in which insights from linguistic study (Relevance Theory) are used to free our understanding of the Greek particle i3na from the shackles of a fixed lexical meaning to one that is based on the communicator''s intention, thus widening its scope from the traditional translation as ''in order that'' (purpose). The implications of this carefully argued monograph for the interpretation of theological texts in the New Testament, especially those that are generally assumed to deal with divine purposes, are highly significant.""I. Howard Marshall, University of Aberdeen""Dr. Margaret Sim has an excellent solution to the problem that one Greek word can introduce very different clauses--expressing purpose or result, but also requests wishes and opinions. Using Relevance Theory from linguistics, and well aware of the long history of the Greek language, she infers that we do not have a word with one meaning which has been ''weakened,'' but rather a word whose function is to signal a thought about a state of affairs which is potential rather than actual. Drawing examples from wider Hellenistic Greek, and from our own use of language, she throws a flood of light on difficult biblical passages.""David Mealand, University of EdinburghAbout the Contributor(s):Margaret G. Sim is an International Translation Consultant with SIL and has been lecturing in New Testament at Africa International University since 1992.

Description:"". . . that you may become partakers in the divine nature"" 2 Peter 1:4""The theme of deification intimately touches on human identity and the actualization of humanity''s ultimate purpose. It is predominantly an anthropological and soteriological expression of Christian theology. At the same time, it testifies to the identity of a Christian God, divine universal design, and God''s economy, where the trinitarian and christological apprehension receives the central place. Theosis, both on an individual and cosmic scale, is not exiguous in its eschatological perspective, either. The testimony of theosis is testimony to the inexplicable mystery of divine intimacy. Deification penetrates all spheres of human existence, and can be seen as an answer to most pending ultimate questions. It is essentially practical in its manifestation and uplifting in its content, but nevertheless, always evasive and arcane in its comprehension.""From the IntroductionThis book contains biblical and historical-theological essays that offer innovative approaches to the issue of theosis. The interconnections between the theology of deification and the doctrines of the Trinity, Christology, anthropology, protology, hamartiology, soteriology, and eschatology are made manifest in these fascinating new studies. It is aimed both at those who are already students of theosis and at those who are looking for an introductory text. It also contains a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography for those seeking further resources on the theme.Endorsements:""Theosis is back, and it is here to stay--no longer as the focus solely of one stream of the Christian tradition, but as a fully biblical and ecumenical account of salvation. Vladimir Kharlamov, with his colleagues, offers us another volume of significant essays on theosis/deification in the Christian tradition, from the evangelists to contemporary Baptists. They add to the burgeoning literature on the central reality of Christian faith: transformative participation in the very life of the Triune God.""--Michael J. GormanThe Ecumenical Institute of Theology, St. Mary''s Seminary & University, Baltimore, MD""Vladimir Kharlamov has successfully gathered a lively collection of studies covering foundational aspects of the ancient concept of theosis. The chapters range from the teachings of Jesus and the Fathers, to contemporary attempts to appropriate the notion today (its relevance to the Reformed tradition, its importance to Christian ecology). The book is an exciting example of the energy that still exists in putting the ancient tradition in discussion with the pressing concerns of the world.""--V.Revd. Dr. John A. McGuckinNielsen Professor of Ancient & Byzantine Christian HistoryUnion Theological Seminary, New York""Vladimir Kharlamov has assembled a rich and remarkable volume that will offer profound gifts to the church''s theological reflection. Whether one is already a student of the doctrine of theosis or is seeking an introduction to its riches, s/he will do well to take this volume and read it carefully."" --Philip E. ThompsonProfessor of Systematic Theology and Christian HeritageSioux Falls Seminary, Sioux Falls, South Dakota""A well-researched,  carefully edited, and welcomed volume on the amazing, engaging, enduring, bold, and bewildering notions of deifying grace in Scripture, historical theology, ecumenical discussion, and contemporary reflection.Vladimir Kharlamov, as editor, expertly navigates students of Scripture and seasoned scholars through the complexities of theosis, from East to West, from historical to contemporary contexts, and succeeds in connecting esoteric ideas, Eastern Orthodox spirituality, and Baptist theologies in one volume.""Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D, co-editor of Partakers of the Divine Nature: Deification in the Christian Traditions, and Affiliate Associate Professor of Theology at Drew University.About the Contributor(s):Vladimir Khar

Description:Much of the emerging Protestantism of the sixteenth century produced a Reformation in conscious opposition to formal philosophy. Nevertheless, sectors of the Reformation produced a spiritualizing form of Platonism in the drive for correct devotion. Out of an understandable fear of idolatry or displacement of the uniquely redemptive place of Christ, Christian piety moved away from the senses and the material world--freshly uncovered in the Reformation.This volume argues, however, that in the quest for restoring ""true religion,"" sectors of the Protestant tradition impugned too severely the material components of prior Christian devotion.Larry Harwood argues that a similar spiritualizing tendency can be found in other Christian traditions, but that its applicability to the particulars of the Christian religion is nevertheless questionable. Moreover, in that quest of a spiritualizing Protestant ""true religion,"" the Christian God could shade toward the conceptual god of the philosophers, with devotees construed as rationalist philosophers. Part of the paradoxical result was to propel the Protestant devotee toward a denuded worship for material worshipers of the Christian God who became flesh.About the Contributor(s):Larry D. Harwood is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Viterbo University in Wisconsin and has authored numerous articles and a few short stories. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Lisbon in Portugal in 2008 and is presently at work on a book on Bertrand Russell and religion.

About the Contributor(s):Maura Hearden, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Theology at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. She is the author of several articles on Mary.Virginia Kimball, STD, is an online theology professor at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. She is president of the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary USA.

Description:They Who Give from Evil: The Response of the Eastern Church to Moneylending in the Early Christian Era considers St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa''s fourth-century sermons against usury. Both brothers were concerned with the economic and theological implications of destructive and corrosive practices of lending at high rates of interest and implications for both on the community and the individual soul of lender and debtor. Analysis of their sermons is placed within the context of early Greek Christian responses to lending and borrowing, which were informed by Jewish, Greek, and Roman attitudes toward debt.Endorsements:""Focusing on the Greek patristic tradition, Ihssen shows how a millennium of reflection on the problem of usury, codified in ancient Greek philosophy, the Hebrew Scriptures, Roman law, and the New Testament, was used to elaborate a nuanced and consistently critical attitude towards the practice of taking interest on a loan, culminating in the brilliant writings of Gregory of Nyssa. Witty and engaging, this book will interest a wide readership.""--T. Allan Smith, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies""Ihssen''s patient study describes Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa''s teachings on usury against the backdrop of the ancient world, of biblical teaching, and of other Christian voices in late antiquity. The result is a book that is both timely in its warnings against economic injustice, and illuminating in its elucidation of early Christian teachings on usury. Most importantly, Ihssen shows that Nyssa''s approach to usury has its own unique emphases.""--Hans Boersma, Regent College""They Who Give from Evil attempts something quite bold: to ask the modern world to rethink its passive acceptance of buying and selling interest-earning loans with the moral and ethical insights of two writers who died sixteen centuries ago. . . . By the end, readers will have enjoyed learning something about moneylending in late antiquity as much as they will have enjoyed Ihssen''s subtle questioning of ourselves.""--Brian Matz, Carroll College""Loans and debts have a timeless power to foster shame, moral silence, and dehumanizing injustices that cripple individuals, societies, and nation-states. Ihssen''s welcomed scholarly overview of early Greek and Christian voices about this ''evil gift'' tells stories that are painfully familiar even today. Her book will appeal to anyone interested in the problem of poverty and ethical responses to economic rights.""--Susan R. Holman, Harvard School of Public HealthAbout the Contributor(s):Brenda Llewellyn Ihssen is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Pacific Lutheran University, where she teaches courses in the early and medieval history of Christianity and Islam, and Eastern Orthodox theology.