Church History
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Retrieving Augustines Doctrine Of Creation
$30.99Add to cartHow might premodern exegesis of Genesis inform Christian debates about creation today? Imagine a table with three people in dialogue: a young-earth creationist, an old-earth creationist, and an evolutionary creationist. Into the room walks Augustine of Hippo, one of the most significant theologians in the history of the church. In what ways will his reading of Scripture and his doctrine of creation inform, deepen, and shape the conversation? Pastor and theologian Gavin Ortlund explores just such a scenario by retrieving Augustine’s reading of Genesis 1-3 and considering how his premodern understanding of creation can help Christians today. Ortlund contends that while Augustine’s hermeneutical approach and theological questions might differ from those of today, this church father’s humility before Scripture and his theological conclusions can shed light on matters such as evolution, animal death, and the historical Adam and Eve. Have a seat. Join the conversation.
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Questions Of Context
$40.99Add to cartThe gospel is for every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelation 7:9), but there is no single biblical or theological model for the relationship between the gospel and these diverse cultures. Indeed, every suggested approach carries its own range of philosophical and theological commitments that all too often remain unexamined. Contextualization is fraught with challenges-yet wrestling with questions of context is essential for how we understand mission, theology, and the embodiment of the Christian faith. German missiology has engaged these questions in a variety of ways that can both inform and critique Anglo-American traditions. In this compilation and analysis, John Flett and Henning Wrogemann translate and comment on a core thread of German missiological works, explaining both their historical and current significance. Drawn from journals and books across a century of academic discourse, these classic writings trace developments from Gustav Warneck, the father of contemporary missiology, through key thinkers such as Karl Hartenstein, who coined the term missio Dei, down to twenty-first century discussions of intercultural hermeneutics. Along the way they reveal advances, mistakes, and changing definitions as German missiologists interacted with the cultural and political realities of their time. This longitudinal study, showcasing many texts available in English for the first time, tackles the history and dynamics of contextualization head-on and sheds new light on the state of missiology today. We are reminded, Flett and Wrogemann argue, that we must keep working to honor difference within the worldwide Christian community as necessary to the fullness of our being in Christ.
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Clare Of Assisi
$19.99Add to cartClare of Assisi is generally known as “the female friend” of Saint Francis of Assisi and for centuries her legacy has remained obscured by his shadow. Yet Clare’s life and story ought to shine in its own light and on its own terms (her name, after all, means “light”). She is a figure of true heroism, tenacity, beatitude and grit who plotted her improbable course in the context of the raucous and explosive period of the Middle Ages. Much went wrong for Clare after the day when, as a teen, she fled the home of her noble and wealthy family to follow Francis in a life of poverty. No one would have begrudged her if, when the trials had become onerous, she had decided simply to “go home.” Yet she stayed the course, even after Francis had died. She pulled from the fire of her trials embers that would become her crown. In this new book, Wendy Murray digs deeply into Clare’s decision to abandon rank and wealth for allegiance to Christ (and in no small way, Francis) and explores the circumstances which, later on, tested Clare’s devotion. Clare’s curious and vivid spiritual vision galvanized her ability to persevere amid difficult circumstances and enabled her to stay her course and lay claim to a legacy that shines brightly among the host of medieval saints.
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Brown Church : Five Centuries Of Latina/O Social Justice, Theology, And Ide
$30.99Add to cartInterest in and awareness of the demand for social justice as an outworking of the Christian faith is growing. But it is not new.
For five hundred years, the Latina/o culture and identity has been shaped by its challenges to the religious, socio-economic, and political status quo, whether in its opposition to Spanish colonialism, Latin American dictatorships, US imperialism in Central America, the oppression of farmworkers, or the current exploitation of undocumented immigrants. Christianity has played a significant role in that movement at every stage. Robert Chao Romero, the son of a Mexican father and a Chinese immigrant mother, explores the history and theology of what he terms the “Brown Church.” Romero considers how this movement has responded to these and other injustices throughout its history by appealing to the belief that God’s vision for redemption includes not only heavenly promises but also the transformation of every aspect of our lives and the world. Walking through this history of activism and faith, readers will discover that Latina/o Christians have a heart after God’s own.
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They Also Serve
$29.99Add to cartWhen a bishop is elected-as is done in The United Methodist Church-it is not only the one elected who is asked to serve but his or her spouse and family as well. Hear the stories of the women and men whose commitment to service often meant leaving behind careers and lives of their own to embark on a life-changing journey revolved around the ministry of their spouse. Through hardships, celebrations, and everyday struggles, these spouses found their own paths of ministry, answering the calls that were also placed upon their lives.
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Recapturing An Enchanted World
$30.99Add to cartWhile the Free Churches rightly sought to cleanse the church of the abuses of sacramentalism, in that process they also set aside some of the church’s historic practices and theology. In response to this liturgically thin space, Mennonite theologian and minister John D. Rempel considers the role of the sacraments and ritual within the Free Church tradition, helping us perceive the sacramental nature of our faith and worship.
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Dynamics Of Spiritual Life (Expanded)
$45.99Add to cartIn this expanded edition of a classic work of spiritual theology, historian Richard Lovelace presents a history of spiritual renewals in light of biblical models. With scholarly and pastoral insight, he offers a powerful vision of renewal that can unify various models across traditions, combining individual and corporate spirituality, social activism, and evangelism.
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Color Of Compromise
$19.99Add to cartAn acclaimed, timely narrative of how people of faith have historically–up to the present day–worked against racial justice. And a call for urgent action by all Christians today in response.
The Color of Compromise is both enlightening and compelling, telling a history we either ignore or just don’t know. Equal parts painful and inspirational, it details how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices. You will be guided in thinking through concrete solutions for improved race relations and a racially inclusive church.
The Color of Compromise
*Takes you on a historical, sociological, and religious journey: from America’s early colonial days through slavery and the Civil War
*Covers the tragedy of Jim Crow laws, the victories of the Civil Rights era, and the strides of today’s Black Lives Matter movement
*Reveals the cultural and institutional tables we have to flip in order to bring about meaningful integration
*Charts a path forward to replace established patterns and systems of complicity with bold, courageous, immediate action
*Is a perfect book for pastors and other faith leaders, students, non-students, book clubs, small group studies, history lovers, and all lifelong learnersThe Color of Compromise is not a call to shame or a platform to blame white evangelical Christians. It is a call from a place of love and desire to fight for a more racially unified church that no longer compromises what the Bible teaches about human dignity and equality. A call that challenges black and white Christians alike to standup now and begin implementing the concrete ways Tisby outlines, all for a more equitable and inclusive environment among God’s people. Starting today.
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History Of Luther Seminary
$29.00Add to cartChurch historian and Luther faculty member Mark Granquist provides a new and comprehensive history of Luther Seminary just in time for the celebration of the institution’s 150th anniversary (1869-2019). Luther Seminary today is the product of the merger of number of seminaries over time. Granquist’s search of Luther’s past will provide an inside look at how Lutheran ministry was defined and formed. The path runs through the early university system, Orthodoxy, Pietism, and Rationalism, as well as the formation of Mission schools, and the beginnings of Lutheran theological education in North America. Granquist explores the confessional Norwegian Synod as well as the pietist Haugean tradition–the two bookends or twin traditions that would define and eventually become Luther Seminary. Chapters 4-6 explore each primary strand that formed the history of Luther. Chapter 7 focuses on unification and merger, concluding with the ELCA merger in 1988. The final chapter looks at more recent history, including internal unification, the challenges faced by the ELCA, and the major shifts in theological education in the early 21st century. Includes a gallery of photos chronicling Luther’s history.
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Evangelicals : Who They Have Been, Are Now, And Could Be
$35.99Add to cartThe past, present, and future of a movement in crisis
What exactly do we mean when we say “evangelical”? How should we understand this many-sided world religious phenomenon? How do recent American politics change that understanding?
Three scholars have been vital to our understanding of evangelicalism for the last forty years: Mark Noll, whose Scandal of the Evangelical Mind identified an earlier crisis point for American evangelicals; David Bebbington, whose “Bebbington Quadrilateral” remains the standard characterization of evangelicals used worldwide; and George Marsden, author of the groundbreaking Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism. Now, in Evangelicals, they combine key earlier material concerning the history of evangelicalism with their own new contributions about present controversies and also with fresh insights from other scholars. The result begins as a survey of how evangelicalism has been evaluated, but then leads into a discussion of the movement’s perils and promise today.
Evangelicals provides an illuminating look at who evangelicals are, how evangelicalism has changed over time, and how evangelicalism continues to develop in sometimes surprising ways.
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Story Of Creeds And Confessions
$38.00Add to cartCreeds and confessions throughout Christian history provide a unique vantage point from which to study the Christian faith. To this end, Donald Fairbairn and Ryan Reeves construct a story that captures both the central importance of creeds and confessions over the centuries and their unrealized potential to introduce readers to the overall sweep of church history. The book features texts of classic creeds and confessions as well as informational sidebars. Additional resources are available through Baker Academic’s Textbook eSources.
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Jesus Remembered : Christianity In The Making, Volume 1
$77.99Add to cartJames Dunn is regarded worldwide as one of today’s foremost biblical scholars. Having written groundbreaking studies of the New Testament and a standard work on Paul’s theology, Dunn here turns his pen to the rise of Christianity itself. Jesus Remembered is the first installment in what will be a monumental three-volume history of the first 120 years of the faith.
Focusing on Jesus, this first volume has several distinct features. It garners the lessons to be learned from the “quest for the historical Jesus” and meets the hermeneutical challenges to a historical and theological assessment of the Jesus tradition. It provides a fresh perspective both on the impact made by Jesus and on the traditions about Jesus as oral tradition — hence the title “Jesus Remembered.” And it offers a fresh analysis of the details of that tradition, emphasizing its characteristic (rather than dissimilar) features. Noteworthy too are Dunn’s treatments of the source question (particularly Q and the noncanonical Gospels) and of Jesus the Jew in his Galilean context.
In his detailed analysis of the Baptist tradition, the kingdom motif, the call to and character of discipleship, what Jesus’ audiences thought of him, what he thought of himself, why he was crucified, and how and why belief in Jesus’ resurrection began, Dunn engages wholeheartedly in the contemporary debate, providing many important insights and offering a thoroughly convincing account of how Jesus was remembered from the first, and why.
Written with peerless scholarly acumen yet accessible to a wide range of readers, Dunn’s Jesus Remembered, together with its successor volumes, will be a sine qua non for all students of Christianity’s beginnings.
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Spirit Of Methodism
$24.99Add to cart“I felt my heart strangely warmed.
“That was how John Wesley described his transformational experience of God’s grace at Aldersgate Street on May 24, 1738, an event that some mark as the beginning of the Methodist Church. Yet the story of Methodism, while clearly shaped by John Wesley’s sermons and Charles Wesley’s hymns, is much richer and more expansive. In this book, Methodist theologian Jeffrey W. Barbeau provides a brief and helpful introduction to the history of Methodism–from the time of the Wesleys, through developments in North America, to its diverse and global communion today–as well as its primary beliefs and practices. With Barbeau’s guidance, both those who are already familiar with the Wesleyan tradition and those seeking to know more about this significant movement within the church’s history will find their hearts warmed to Methodism.
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History Of Early Christian Literature
$50.00Add to cartHistorical events have long been the standard lens through which scholars have sought to understand the theology of Christianity in late antiquity. The lives of significant theological figures, the rejection of individuals and movements as heretical, and the Trinitarian and christological controversies–the defining theological events of the early church–have long provided the framework with which to understand the development of early Christian belief. In this groundbreaking work, esteemed historian of Christianity Justo Gonzalez chooses to focus on the literature of early Christianity. Beginning with the epistolary writings of the earliest Christian writers of the second century CE, he moves through apologies, martyrologies, antiheretical polemics, biblical commentaries, sermons, all the way up through Augustine’s invention of spiritual autobiography and beyond. Throughout he demonstrates how literary genre played a decisive role in the construction of theological meaning. Covering the earliest noncanonical Christian writings through the fifth century and later, this book will serve as an indispensable guide to students studying the theology of the early church.
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Doing Theology With The Reformers
$28.99Add to cartThe Reformation was a time of tremendous upheaval, renewal, and vitality in the life of the church. The challenge to maintain and develop faithful Christian belief and practice in the midst of great disruption was reflected in the theology of the sixteenth century. In this volume, which serves as a companion to IVP Academic’s Reformation Commentary on Scripture, theologian and church historian Gerald L. Bray immerses readers in the world of Reformation theology. He introduces the range of theological debates as Catholics and Protestants from a diversity of traditions–Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Anabaptist–disputed the essentials of the faith, from the authority of Scripture and the nature of salvation to the definition of the church, the efficacy of the sacraments, and the place of good works in the Christian life. Readers will find that understanding how the Reformers engaged in the theological discipline can aid us in doing theology today.
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Greater Things : The Story Of New Wine So Far
$14.99Add to cartIn conjunction with the 30th anniversary of New Wine, this book is a celebration of all the work of the New Wine family, from summer conferences to New Wine network churches, and both within the UK and across the world. With first-hand content from the Pytches and Coles who saw the New Wine story from the beginning, the book follows the journey of the movement from its origins, through its current work and focus, and ends with a brief look at New Wine’s dreams for the near future. Compiled of chapters from a number of people involved in New Wine, the book includes content from leaders and movements which have sprung out of New Wine, such as Soul Survivor’s Mike Pilavachi and worship leaders Matt Redman and Tim Hughes. These chapters provide an opportunity to hear the story directly from the people most involved in the movement: the challenges they’ve faced, the lessons they’ve learned, and the blessings they’ve seen over the years.
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Ancient Christian Commentary On Scripture Set
$1,500.00Add to cartThis unique thirty-volume series from general editor Thomas C. Oden–now in paperback for the first time–offers you the opportunity to study for yourself key writings of the early church fathers. Arranged canonically and employing the RSV, each volume allows the living voices of the church in its formative centuries to speak as they engage the sacred page of Scripture.
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Meaning Of Protestant Theology
$36.00Add to cartThis book offers a creative and illuminating discussion of Protestant theology. Veteran teacher Phillip Cary explains how Luther’s theology arose from the Christian tradition, particularly from the spirituality of Augustine. Luther departed from the Augustinian tradition and inaugurated distinctively Protestant theology when he identified the gospel that gives us Christ as its key concept. More than any other theologian, Luther succeeds in carrying out the Protestant intention of putting faith in the gospel of Christ alone. Cary also explores the consequences of Luther’s teachings as they unfold in the history of Protestantism.
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Look To The Rock
$27.50Add to cartThis history celebrates the Catholic League, an ecumenical society founded in 1913 to promote the unity of Christians and to encourage the journey of all towards the visible unity of the whole Church.
It was founded by Anglicans who believed passionately that the future of their Church lay in the reunion of all Christians in a common Catholic and Apostolic faith in restored full communion with the Successor of Peter in the see of Rome. Today, its members include Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, Free Church Christians who work together in pursuit of the League’s four objectives:
– The promotion of fellowship among those who profess the Catholic faith;
– The union of all Christians with the Apostolic See of Rome;
– The spread of the Catholic faith;
– The deepening of the spiritual life. -
Reformation And The Irrepressible Word Of God
$30.99Add to cartThe Protestant Reformers were transformed by their encounters with Scripture. Bringing together the reflections of church historians and theologians delivered at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, these essays consider historical, hermeneutical, theological, and practical issues regarding the Bible, revealing that the irrepressible Word of God continues to transform hearts and minds.
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Balm In Gilead
$28.99Add to cartPulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson is one of the most eminent public intellectuals in America today, and her writing offers probing meditations on the Christian faith. Based on the 2018 Wheaton Theology Conference, this volume brings together the thoughts of leading theologians, historians, literary scholars, and church leaders who engaged in theological dialogue with Robinson’s work–and with the author herself.
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Putting Joy Into Practice
$16.99Add to cartPutting Joy into Practice: Seven Ways to Lift Your Spirit from the Early Church is an invitation to a life of joy. Phoebe Farag Mikhail explains what joy is and how to experience it through seven spiritual practices that cultivate our inner lives and connect us to our communities. These seven practices, which include giving thanks, hospitality, praise, and more, take us on a journey that leads to joy through the giving and receiving of sacrificial love. She describes her own experiences and struggles with joy and offers practical ways to implement these practices to increase joy in our own lives and in the lives of all those around us.
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Larger Hope : Universal Salvation From The Reformation To The Nineteenth Ce
$51.00Add to cartThis book aims to uncover and explore the ideas of notable people in the story of Christian universalism from the time of the Reformation until the end of the nineteenth century. It is a story that is largely unknown in both the church and the academy, and the characters that populate it have for the most part passed into obscurity. With carefully located bore holes drilled to release the long-hidden theologies of key people and texts, the volume seeks to display and historically situate the roots, shapes, and diversity of Christian universalism. Here we discover a diverse and motley crew of mystics and scholars, social prophets and end-time sectarians, evangelicals and liberals, orthodox and heretics, Calvinists and Arminians, Puritans, Pietists, and a host of others. The story crisscrosses Continental Europe, Britain, and America, and its reverberations remain with us to this day.
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Unimaginable : What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity
$17.00Add to cartIs God dying? Some people think so–and more want it so. They say Christian beliefs and our way of life aren’t relevant anymore. But what critics, and even many churchgoers, don’t realize is the life-changing importance of Christianity.
Showing how the world would be a dark place without Christianity, Unimaginable guides you through the halls of history to see how Jesus’s teachings dramatically changed our world and continue to be the most powerful force for good today. Learn how Christianity has stood against slavery, racism, eugenics, and injustices toward women and children why freedom as a universal value and modern education and legal systems owe much to Christianityhow Christians throughout the ages have demonstrated the value of human life by sacrificially caring for the sick, marginalized, and dying how people of faith are extending God’s kingdom through charities, mental health initiatives, and other ways.
This provocative and enlightening book is sure to encourage believers and equip them to respond to doubters.
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Restless Faith : Holding Evangelical Beliefs In A World Of Contested Labels
$22.00Add to cartOne of the most influential evangelical voices in America chronicles what it has meant for him to spend the past half century as a “restless evangelical”–a way of maintaining his identity in an age when many claim the label “evangelical” has become so politicized that it is no longer viable. Richard Mouw candidly reflects on wrestling with traditional evangelical beliefs over the years and shows that although his mind has changed in some ways, his core beliefs have not. He contends that we should hold on to the legacy that has enriched evangelicalism in the past. The Christian life in its healthiest form, says Mouw, is always a matter of holding on to essentials while constantly moving on along paths that we can walk in faithfulness only by seeking the continuing guidance of the light of God’s Word. As Mouw affirms the essentials of the evangelical faith, he helps a new generation see the wisdom embodied in them.
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ReGrace : What The Shocking Beliefs Of The Great Christians Can Teach Us To
$18.00Add to cartThe church is tired of seeing Christians act ungraciously toward one another when they disagree. Social media has added to the carnage. Christians routinely block each other on Facebook because of doctrinal disagreements. The world watches the blood-letting, and the Christian witness is tarnished.
But what if every Christian discovered that their favorite teacher in church history had blind spots and held to some false–and even shocking–views?
Bestselling author Frank Viola argues that this simple awareness will soften Christians when they interact with each other in the face of theological disagreements. In ReGrace, he uncovers some of the shocking beliefs held by faith giants like C.S. Lewis, Luther, Calvin, Moody, Spurgeon, Wesley, Graham, and Augustine–not to downgrade or dismiss them, but to show that even “the greats” in church history didn’t get everything right. Knowing that the heroes of our faith sometimes got it wrong will empower us to treat our fellow Christians with grace rather than disdain whenever we disagree over theology.
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John Henry Newman And His Age
$27.00Add to cartMany books exist devoted to the life, thought, and writings of Blessed John Henry Newman, the premier Catholic theologian in nineteenth-century England. His influence has been enormous, perhaps especially on Vatican II (1962-65). This book is a Newman primer, and not only a primer about Newman himself, but also about his time and place in church history. It attends to the papacy during his lifetime, his companions and friends, some of his peers at Oxford University, the First Vatican Council (1869-70), as well as some of his writing and theology. It should be especially helpful to an interested reader who has no particular background in nineteenth-century church history or in Newman himself.
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Larger Hope : Universal Salvation From The Reformation To The Nineteenth Ce
$31.00Add to cartThis book aims to uncover and explore the ideas of notable people in the story of Christian universalism from the time of the Reformation until the end of the nineteenth century. It is a story that is largely unknown in both the church and the academy, and the characters that populate it have for the most part passed into obscurity. With carefully located bore holes drilled to release the long-hidden theologies of key people and texts, the volume seeks to display and historically situate the roots, shapes, and diversity of Christian universalism. Here we discover a diverse and motley crew of mystics and scholars, social prophets and end-time sectarians, evangelicals and liberals, orthodox and heretics, Calvinists and Arminians, Puritans, Pietists, and a host of others. The story crisscrosses Continental Europe, Britain, and America, and its reverberations remain with us to this day.
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John Henry Newman And His Age
$47.00Add to cartMany books exist devoted to the life, thought, and writings of Blessed John Henry Newman, the premier Catholic theologian in nineteenth-century England. His influence has been enormous, perhaps especially on Vatican II (1962-65). This book is a Newman primer, and not only a primer about Newman himself, but also about his time and place in church history. It attends to the papacy during his lifetime, his companions and friends, some of his peers at Oxford University, the First Vatican Council (1869-70), as well as some of his writing and theology. It should be especially helpful to an interested reader who has no particular background in nineteenth-century church history or in Newman himself.
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5 Events That Made Christianity
$14.99Add to cartWith characteristic style, John Pritchard takes us on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, as he unpacks the five great events that made Christianity – Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. We explore: “What happened?” “What did it mean?” “What does it mean for us?” Absorbing, immediate and full of stories, this volume offers deeply considered theology, brilliantly communicated to connect with life as we actually experience it.
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Lion Of Judah
$16.99Add to cartIf Jesus is a Jew, why is there a wedge between Christianity and Judaism?
If Jews and Christians both believe in the same God, why is there such division? Why is history littered with deathly accounts of this division, from the early Jewish persecution of Christians to the Crusades’ slaughtering of Jews?
The Lion of Judah unpacks the roots of this division, showing how jealousy, theology, the law, and the integration of Gentile believers into what was once a predominantly Jewish early church contributed to the schism. It then goes on to reveal how Jesus magnificently fulfilled every word in the Bible. Readers will discover why the Lion of Judah is the rightful Lord and King of all people-Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, atheists, and the rest of creation.
This book will help Christians understand the history of Christianity and Judaism, get into greater alignment with God’s plan of redemption, be better equipped to share the gospel with Jewish people, and become more sensitive to and appreciative of their Hebraic heritage.
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Foxes Book Of Martyrs
$19.99Add to cartIn 1563, John Foxe published an account of the life of Christian martyrs, beginning with Stephen, the first to die for the cause of Christ, and ending with the most recent martyrs of his day–Protestants killed during Bloody Mary’s reign. He knew that dangers lay in forgetting the martyrs–in being insensitive to their struggles. They faced torture and death in their fight of faith, willing to stand for their beliefs and the Word of God regardless of the price. The faithfulness of such historical figures as John Wycliffe, John Huss, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, and so many others has given us our rich Christian heritage. Their courage and dedication inspire us to live for Christ today.
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Christian Music : A Global History Revised And Expanded (Expanded)
$22.99Add to cartChristian Music: A Global History was originally published by Lion Hudson in 2011. This new edition has been substantially extended and updated.
Dr Tim Dowley’s wide-ranging survey includes contributions from nine additional experts. The book covers the Jewish musical tradition; early hymns and psalms; music after Constantine; the rise of music in the Orthodox tradition; Christian chant and the core of medieval music; polyphony in the medieval and Renaissance eras; music and the Lutheran Reformation; the rise of Catholic Baroque; the development of Anglican worship; Christian music in Latin America; the Viennese tradition of liturgical and non-liturgical sacred music; sacred music in the age of Romanticism; 19th-century hymns; the steadily developing tradition of Christian music in Africa; sacred music and the concert hall; music and The Salvation Army; the rise of carols; popular church music in the 20th century; the making of the American Gospel tradition; Christian music in SE Asia; musical traditions in Australia and New Zealand, and in the Pacific Islands; Christian elements in the rise of folk and jazz; and the rise of the contemporary Christian music industry.
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Why Study The Past
$21.99Add to cartThe well-worn saying about being condemned to repeat the history we do not know applies to church history as much as to any other area of history. But how can we discern what lessons we need to learn from the many centuries of church history?
In this small but thoughtful volume, respected theologian and churchman Rowan Williams opens up a theological approach to history, an approach that is both nonpartisan and relevant to the church’s present needs. As he reflects on how we consider the past in general, Williams suggests that church history remains important not so much for winning arguments as for clarifying who we are as time-bound human beings. Williams particularly addresses North American readers in his new preface to this perennially timely invitation to remember who we are.
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Disputed Teaching Of Vatican 2
$43.99Add to cartThe Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) radically shook up many centuries of tradition in the Roman Catholic Church. This book by Thomas Guarino, a noted expert on the sources and methods of Catholic doctrine, investigates whether Vatican II’s highly contested teachings on religious freedom, ecumenism, and the Virgin Mary represented a harmonious development of-or a rupture with-Catholic tradition.
Guarino’s careful explanations of such significant terms as continuity, discontinuity, analogy, reversal, reform, and development greatly enhance and clarify his discussion. No other book on Vatican II so clearly elucidates the essential theological principles for determining whether-and to what extent-a conciliar teaching is in continuity or discontinuity with antecedent tradition.
Readers from all faith traditions who care about the logic of continuity and change in Christian teaching will benefit from this masterful case study.
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Reading Marks Christology Under Caesar
$25.99Add to cartAcknowledgments
Introduction
Abbreviations
1. Reconstructing Mark’s Historical Setting
2. Mark’s Christological Titles
3. The Powerful Jesus Of Mark 1-8
4. The Suffering Jesus Of Mark 8:22-10:52
5. A Roman Reading Of Mark’s So-Called Secrecy Motif
6. Jesus And The Temple
7. Jesus In Mark’s Passion Narrative
Conclusion
Appendix: Yahweh Christology In Mark’s Gospel
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture IndexAdditional Info
The Gospel of Mark has been intensively studied from multiple angles using many methods. But often there remains a discontent, a sense that something is wanting, that the full picture of Mark’s Gospel lacks some background circuitry that-if properly supplied-would light up the whole. Adam Winn finds a clue in the cataclysmic destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. For Jews and Christians it was an apocalyptic moment. The earth shook, the sun went dark in the cosmic canopy, and Rome danced on the ruins of the holy temple. The gods of Rome seemed to have conquered the God of the Jews. And Roman Christians’ allegiance to a messiah crucified by Rome renewed sharp questions.Could it be that Mark wrote his Gospel in response to Roman imperial propaganda surrounding this event? However else they might function, are Mark’s themes and christological titles coded subversions of empire? Have we missed clues to understanding Mark’s messianic secret? Could a messiah crucified by Rome really be God’s Son appointed to rule the world?Adam Winn takes us on the adventure of rediscovering how Mark might have been read by Christians in Rome in the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem. He introduces us to the Roman imperial propaganda of the Flavian emperors and excavates the Markan text for themes that address the Roman imperial setting.Here is an intriguing look into a first-century response to the question Christ or Caesar? Entering a first-century house church in Rome, we hear this Gospel again as if for the first time. -
Religion And American Culture
$33.99Add to cartWhile Americans still profess to be one of the most religious people in the industrialized world, many aspects of American culture have long been secular and materialistic. That is just one of the many paradoxes, contradictions, and surprises in the relationship between Christianity and American culture. In this book George Marsden, a leading historian of American Christianity and award-winning author, tells the story of that relationship in a concise and thought-provoking way.
Surveying the history of religion and American culture from the days of the earliest European settlers right up through the elections of 2016, Marsden offers the kind of historically and religiously informed scholarship that has made him one of the nation’s most respected and decorated historians. Students in the classroom and history readers of all ages will benefit from engaging with the story Marsden tells.
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Protestant Reformation Of The Church And The World
$55.00Add to cartFrom a distinguished assembly of twelve internationally acclaimed scholars comes this rich, interdisciplinary study that explores the Protestant Reformation and its resultant effects on the church as well as the world.
The Reformation extended from the church to revolutionize art, music, literature, architecture, and aesthetics and transformed economics, trade, and banking; these transformations shifted power away from the church to the state as they unleashed radical new campaigns for freedom, equality, democracy, and constitutional order.
Each contributor to this volume draws on distinctive methods and themes in an effort to understand the Reformation on its own complex terms, as well as to reconstruct its teachings and warnings for our day.
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Know How We Got Our Bible
$22.99Add to cartThe easy accessibility of the Bible in most of the world’s major languages can obscure a dramatic and sometimes unexpected story. In Know How We Got Our Bible, scholars Ryan Reeves and Charles Hill trace the history of the Bible from its beginnings to the present day, highlighting key figures and demonstrating overall the reliability of Scripture.
Reeves and Hill begin with the writing of the Bible’s books (including authorship and dating), move into the formation of the Old and New Testaments (including early transmission and the development of the canon), and conclude with several chapters on Bible translation from the Latin Vulgate to the ongoing work of translation around the world today.
Written simply and focused on the overarching story of how the Bible came to us today, Know How We Got Our Bible is an excellent introduction for formal students and lay learners alike. Each chapter includes reflection questions and recommended readings for further learning.
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Scripture And The Wesleyan Way Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$15.99Add to cart1. What Is The Bible’s Message?
2. How Can I Be Saved?
3. Am I A Real Christian?
4. Do I Have To Obey The Law?
5. Am I A Sinner?
6. How Can I Connect With God?
7. Why Is The Christian Life No Easier?
8. What About My Money?Additional Info
The Bible was central to John Wesley’s faith and the Christian movement he founded. In Scripture and the Wesleyan Way, you will discover a Wesleyan approach to the Bible and the Christian life through a Bible study using Wesley’s own words. In this study, authors Scott and Arthur Jones use John Wesley’s sermons to illuminate the Bible passages at the heart of Wesley’s understanding of what it means to be a real Christian. Each chapter explores a key Scripture text and one of Wesley’s sermons on it. Through their insightful and engaging study, Bishop Jones and his son Arthur show how the teachings of Wesley address questions that many of us in the twenty-first century still struggle with today. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the eight-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options. -
New Testament Christological Hymns
$34.99Add to cartAcknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Cultural Matrices
3. The Philippian Hymn
4. The Colossian Hymn
5. The Prologue Of The Gospel Of John
6. A Wider Look: Other Hymnic Passages In The New Testament
7. Conclusion
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture IndexAdditional Info
We know that the earliest Christians sang hymns. Paul encourages believers to sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” And at the dawn of the second century the Roman official Pliny names a feature of Christian worship as “singing alternately a hymn to Christ as to God.” But are some of these early Christian hymns preserved for us in the New Testament? Are they right before our eyes?New Testament scholars have long debated whether early Christian hymns appear in the New Testament. But where some see preformed hymns and liturgical elements embossed on the page, others see patches of rhetorically elevated prose from the author’s hand.Matthew Gordley now reopens this fascinating question. He begins with a new look at hymns in the Greco-Roman and Jewish world of the early church. Might the didactic hymns of that cultural current set a new starting point for talking about hymnic texts in the New Testament? If so, how should we detect these hymns? How might they function in the New Testament? And what might they tell us about early Christian worship?An outstanding feature of texts such as Philippians 2:6-11, Colossians 1:15-20, and John 1:1-17 is their christological character. And if these are indeed hymns, we encounter the reality that within the crucible of worship the deepest and most searching texts of the New Testament arose.New Testament Christological Hymns reopens an important line of investigation that will serve a new generation of students of the New Testament. -
Rapture And Revelation 3rd Edition
$11.95Add to cartThe world is a mess. Something is desperately wrong in many families and common ground hides wherever common sense went. There’s an end to business as usual in this world and it’s here. Not the literal last day, but the last times. This book won’t tell you what to believe, but will challenge you to get real about why you believe what you do.
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Lost Discipline Of Conversation
$24.99Add to cartRecovering Spiritual Practices of the Past titles reach beyond commonly known spiritual formation practices in order to mine the wisdom of the past, bringing to light ways of thinking, living, and growing in Christ that the church today has largely overlooked.
In The Lost Discipline of Conversation, spiritual formation professor and author Joanne Jung walks readers through the Puritan practice of “conference,” or focused, spiritual conversations intended to promote ongoing transformation. An antidote to privatized faith, conference calls believers to biblical literacy and soul care in a context of transparency and accountability.
Useful for believers in any sphere or ministry or stage in life, conference is ultimately a tool for nurturing mutual, godly authenticity within community.
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2 Ways : The Early Christian Vision Of Discipleship From The Didache And Th
$8.00Add to cartHow did earliest Christians receive and understand the teaching of Jesus and the apostles? These writings, among the earliest used in training new disciples, show a clear, vibrant, practical faith concerned with all aspects of discipleship in daily life–vocation, morality, family life, social justice, the sacraments, prophesy, citizenship, and leadership.
For the most part, these writings have remained buried in academia, analyzed by scholars but seldom used for building up the church community. Now, at a time when Christians of every persuasion are seeking clarity by returning to the roots of their faith, these simple, direct teachings shed light on what it means to be a follower of Christ in any time or place.
The Didache, an anonymous work composed in the late first century AD, was lost for centuries before being rediscovered in 1873. The Shepherd was written by a former slave named Hermas in the second century AD or possibly even earlier.
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To The Galatians
$22.00Add to cartPaul’s letter to the Galatians is about three things: (1) it is the apostle’s reaffirmation that God has acted in Jesus of Nazareth, whom Paul proclaims as the crucified Christ; and (2) this now means that everything has changed, not in neat supersessionist terms, but rather that Paul’s gospel places what preceded it (inter alia circumcision) and all of what comes after our hearing of it in a new light, i.e. that his gospel is the account of why there’s a new-but-yet-old basis for salvation reckoned most fundamentally as a new covenant-identity; and (3) that the covenant-identity not just of Israel but henceforth of the entire world will be based on a unitary faith in Jesus as the Christ, and that the Holy Spirit’s manifestation will be the proof of that identification. In every way that Paul is the apostle of the Christ crucified, he is in equal measure the apostle of the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s letter is about the way in which we are to understand the terms of the identity that comes to us in the Christ who has been “clearly portrayed as crucified.” There is no longer any identity per se because in the wake of the Pauline gospel all of the traditional elements of identity have been transformed by God, so that by means of the gospel through identity we will have died to identity. It is thus only when we hear the Galatian letter “with faith” and respond to it in obedience, that is, when we hear it precisely as scripture, that it provides what is our only valid identity in God’s eyes: a gospel-based membership in his family that will be the believer’s eschatological way forward.
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Katharina And Martin Luther (Reprinted)
$16.99Add to cartTheir revolutionary marriage was arguably one of the most scandalous and intriguing in history. Yet five centuries later, we still know little about Martin and Katharina Luther’s life as husband and wife. Until now. Against all odds, the unlikely union worked, over time blossoming into the most tender of love stories. This unique biography tells the riveting story of two extraordinary people and their extraordinary relationship, offering refreshing insights into Christian history and illuminating the Luthers’ profound impact on the institution of marriage, the effects of which still reverberate today. By the time they turn the last page, readers will have a deeper understanding of Luther as a husband and father and will come to love and admire Katharina, a woman who, in spite of her pivotal role, has been largely forgotten by history.
Together, this legendary couple experienced joy and grief, triumph and travail. This book brings their private lives and their love story into the spotlight and offers powerful insights into our own twenty-first-century understanding of marriage.
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Questions And Answers About The United Methodist Church (Revised)
$5.99Add to cartMcAnally has revised Questions & Answers About the United Methodist Church to update statistics and information throughout the book, along with new frequently asked questions not in the current edition. This book is a useful guide that answers the most frequently asked questions about the beliefs, practices, and history of The United Methodist Church. The information is brief, and is presented in an easy question-and-answer format. It is great for those new to the United Methodist Church or those who want to know more. Revised to update statistics and information throughout the book. Also, updated with the answers to the current most commonly asked questions.
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Demanding Liberty : An Untold Story Of American Religious Freedom
$22.99Add to cartReligious liberty is one of the most contentious political issues of our time. How should people of faith engage with the public square in a pluralist era? Some citizens hope to reclaim a more Christian vision of national identity, while others resist any religious presence at all.
This dispute is not new, and it goes back to the founding era of American history. As the country was being formed, some envisioned a Christian nation where laws would require worship attendance and Sabbath observance. Others advocated for a thoroughly secular society where faith would have no place in public life. But neither extreme won the day, thanks to the unsung efforts of a Connecticut pastor who forged a middle way.
Historian Brandon O’Brien unveils the untold story of how religious liberty came to be. Between the Scylla and Charybdis of theocracy and secularism, Baptist pastor Isaac Backus contended for a third way. He worked to secure religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all Americans, not just for one particular denomination or religious tradition. Backus’s theological ideas had social consequences, giving us insights into how people of faith navigate political debates and work for the common good.
Backus lived in an age of both religious revival and growing secularism, competing forces much like those at work today. Then and now, people fiercely argue about the role of government and the limits of liberty. The past speaks into the present as we continue to demand liberty and justice for all.
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Covenantal Priesthood : A Narrative Of Community For Baptist Churches
$39.99Add to cartThis work in practical theology begins with an exploration of the psychosocial issues at play in Australian Baptist churches as communities. Many of those who attend such churches, and those like them in Britain and North America, often find a warm sense of welcome and belonging. What follows builds on this positive subjective experience through the lens of Christian community framed by the rich scriptural narrative of covenantal priesthood. Such corporate priesthood, as demonstrated by our early Baptist forebears, comes to joint expression in worship and sharing God’s blessing with his world, and affirms the mutual priestly service of covenanted church community.
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For The Gospels Sake
$48.99Add to cartInformed take on the amazing growth of a very unusual missionary organization
The two-sided mission organization comprising Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics is a paradox that begs explanation. The scientific Summer Institute of Linguistics has worked in many countries around the world to translate the New Testament, develop unwritten languages, and educate indigenous communities. At the same time, Wycliffe Bible Translators has been one of the largest, fastest growing, and most controversial evangelical Christian movements during the last century.
In this wide-ranging study Boone Aldridge-a religious historian and twenty-year insider at WBT-SIL-looks back at the organization’s early years, from its inception in 1934 to the death of its visionary founder, William Cameron Townsend, in 1982. He situates the iconic institution within the evolving landscape of mid-twentieth-century evangelicalism, examines its complex and occasionally confusing strategies and policies, and investigates the factors that led, despite persistent criticism from many sides, to its remarkable rise to prominence.
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Pocket Dictionary Of Christian Spirituality
$14.99Add to cartBeginning the practice and study of Christian spirituality is like stepping into a centuries-old cathedral. People are praying, prostrating, pondering Scripture, both individually and in groups. As outsiders we may be intrigued but a bit lost, searching for bearings, and a bit fearful of embarrassment. The mix of old and new, of tradition and vitality, inspires awe and longing. How do we find our way around, overcome our awkwardness, join in, and draw near to God?
The Pocket Dictionary of Christian Spirituality is an A to Z introduction and resource for curious newcomers and novice students of spirituality. From our early call to Abba until we arrive at Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, Don Thorsen charts the Christian spiritual pilgrimage through its many traditions, schools of thought, and tested practices.
Among the over 300 definitions you’ll find
terms and ideas
traditions and movements
practices and rituals
texts and theologyA reliable guide and launching pad for learning, the Pocket Dictionary of Christian Spirituality is a basic resource for the pilgrimage travel bag.
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Church And Theology In The 19th Century
$64.00Add to cartThe last volume of Baur’s church history, based on lectures delivered during the 1850s, covers the nineteenth century. They were edited and published by Eduard Zeller after Baur’s death. Since the lectures devote equal attention to theological and ecclesiastical matters, the title in English is Church and Theology in the Nineteenth Century. Baur provides critical analyses of the philosophers and theologians of the nineteenth century (Herder, Schiller, Goethe, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Jacobi, Schleiermacher, Marheineke, Neander, Mohler, Hegel, Strauss, Feuerbach, and many others), as well as details about European Catholic and Protestant church history from 1800 to 1860. What he produces is a “”participant history,”” written by a scholar very much engaged in the issues of his time. Ferdinand Christian Baur was a professor of theology at the University of Tubingen from 1826 to 1860. He is known for his path-breaking studies in New Testament literature and historical theology. Recent translations of his work by Brown and Hodgson include History of Christian Dogma and Lectures on New Testament Theology.
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Faith In A Pluralist Age
$22.00Add to cartMost academics agree with Peter Berger that pluralism theory appears more accurate than secularization theory in accounting for the societal changes that accompany modernization. Yet Berger’s earlier book Many Altars of Modernity gives limited attention to the implications of the pluralist paradigm for religious discourse, in particular for evangelicals. According to Berger–who wrote the first chapter in this book–while pluralism leads to less certainty about faith and creates “”secular spaces,”” it also, more positively, clarifies the importance of trust in God, highlights the nature of religious institutions as voluntary associations rather than birth rights, and challenges Christians to know what they believe in. Subsequent chapters respond to the first. Four responses are theoretical (e.g., challenging the concept of secular spaces, exploring social constructionism) and four are contextual (e.g., describing anti-pluralist forces in India, challenging feminists to pluralism, examining women’s responses to pluralism, and exploring values in Brazil and China). The ideas are easily accessible to the lay reader and are intended to initiate a much-needed conversation about the implications of pluralist theory. We conclude that pluralism is challenging for Christian faith but, as Peter Berger says, in most ways it is “”good for you.””
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Mennonite Encyclopedia 3
$99.99Add to cartVolume 3 of the Mennonite Encyclopedia, containing entries I-N.
This gigantic resource covers the 435-year history of the faith, life, and culture of Anabaptists in Europe and Mennonites throughout the world. Presented are people, movements, and places in their relation to Mennonites. A few of the many articles covered are Argentina, Arminianism, Baptism, Baptist, Brazil, Calvin, Church, Communion, Congo, Deaconess, Education, Farming, Furniture, Grebel, Hubmaier, Hymnology, Industry, Literature, Marriage, Publishers, Reedley, Ukraine, and Zurich.
The Mennonite Encyclopedia was jointly edited by historians and scholars of the Mennonite Church, General Conference of Mennonites, and Mennonite Brethren Church. More than 2,700 writers contributed articles to this reference work. Volume V includes updates on materials in the first four volumes plus nearly 1,000 new articles edited by Cornelius J. Dyck and Dennis D. Martin
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Christian Peace Experiment
$53.00Add to cartThis book examines part of the development of the Bruderhof community, which emerged in Germany in 1920. Community members sought to model their life on the New Testament. This included sharing goods. The community became part of the Hutterite movement, with its origins in sixteenth-century Anabaptism. After the rise to power of the Nazi regime, the Bruderhof became a target and the community was forcibly dissolved. Members who escaped from Germany and travelled to England were welcomed as refugees from persecution and a community was established in the Cotswolds. In the period 1933 to 1942, when the Bruderhof’s witness was advancing in Britain, its members were in touch with many individuals and movements. This book covers the Bruderhof’s connections with (among others) the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Peace Pledge Union, the social work of Muriel and Doris Lester in East London, Jewish refugee groups, and artistic pioneers like Eric Gill. As significant numbers of British people joined the Bruderhof, its farming, publishing and arts and crafts activities extended considerably. But with the outbreak of the Second World War, German members came to be regarded with suspicion and British members became unpopular locally because they were pacifists. Although the Bruderhof was defended in Parliament, notably by Lady Astor, it seemed that German members would be interned as enemy aliens. The consequence was that by 1942 over 300 community members had left England. With Mennonite assistance, they began to forge a new life in South America. This book traces a remarkable Christian peace experiment being undertaken in a time of great political upheaval.
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Faith In A Pluralist Age
$42.00Add to cartMost academics agree with Peter Berger that pluralism theory appears more accurate than secularization theory in accounting for the societal changes that accompany modernization. Yet Berger’s earlier book Many Altars of Modernity gives limited attention to the implications of the pluralist paradigm for religious discourse, in particular for evangelicals. According to Berger–who wrote the first chapter in this book–while pluralism leads to less certainty about faith and creates “”secular spaces,”” it also, more positively, clarifies the importance of trust in God, highlights the nature of religious institutions as voluntary associations rather than birth rights, and challenges Christians to know what they believe in. Subsequent chapters respond to the first. Four responses are theoretical (e.g., challenging the concept of secular spaces, exploring social constructionism) and four are contextual (e.g., describing anti-pluralist forces in India, challenging feminists to pluralism, examining women’s responses to pluralism, and exploring values in Brazil and China). The ideas are easily accessible to the lay reader and are intended to initiate a much-needed conversation about the implications of pluralist theory. We conclude that pluralism is challenging for Christian faith but, as Peter Berger says, in most ways it is “”good for you.””
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Defenders Of The Faith
$11.99Add to cartThis title, released in association with Essential Christian, will accompany a set of seminars for Spring Harvest 2018 under the overall theme of ‘Only the Brave’. The church has been under attack from its inception, but certain struggles seemed to threaten its very existence. In this inspiring book, Dr Matthew Knell celebrates some of these key figures who have kept the church alive in the midst of great adversity, exploring three major periods of persecution from the early church to the present day. This fascinating journey begins with Irenaeus of Lyon, who battled courageously against the theological threat of Gnosticism, followed by Basil of Caesarea, who defended the church from attacks on its spirituality. The book concludes with the modern Chinese church, many members of which have been attacked and even martyred for their faith. Using the examples of these defenders and many others, Dr Knell inspires readers to stand firm in the face of adversity as the global church continues to experience persecution.
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Christian Peace Experiment
$33.00Add to cartThis book examines part of the development of the Bruderhof community, which emerged in Germany in 1920. Community members sought to model their life on the New Testament. This included sharing goods. The community became part of the Hutterite movement, with its origins in sixteenth-century Anabaptism. After the rise to power of the Nazi regime, the Bruderhof became a target and the community was forcibly dissolved. Members who escaped from Germany and travelled to England were welcomed as refugees from persecution and a community was established in the Cotswolds. In the period 1933 to 1942, when the Bruderhof’s witness was advancing in Britain, its members were in touch with many individuals and movements. This book covers the Bruderhof’s connections with (among others) the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Peace Pledge Union, the social work of Muriel and Doris Lester in East London, Jewish refugee groups, and artistic pioneers like Eric Gill. As significant numbers of British people joined the Bruderhof, its farming, publishing and arts and crafts activities extended considerably. But with the outbreak of the Second World War, German members came to be regarded with suspicion and British members became unpopular locally because they were pacifists. Although the Bruderhof was defended in Parliament, notably by Lady Astor, it seemed that German members would be interned as enemy aliens. The consequence was that by 1942 over 300 community members had left England. With Mennonite assistance, they began to forge a new life in South America. This book traces a remarkable Christian peace experiment being undertaken in a time of great political upheaval.
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Tried By Fire
$19.99Add to cartA major narrative history of Christianity’s first thousand years by acclaimed educator and #1 New York Times bestselling author William J. Bennett. Now in trade paper.
Full of larger-than-life characters, stunning acts of bravery, and heart-rending sacrifice, Tried by Fire narrates the rise and expansion of Christianity from an obscure regional sect to the established faith of the world’s greatest empire with influence extending from India to Ireland, Scandinavia to Ethiopia, and all points in between. William J. Bennett explores the riveting lives of saints and sinners, paupers and kings, merchants and monks who together-and against all odds-changed the world forever. To tell their story, Bennett follows them through the controversies and trials of their time. Challenged by official persecution, heresy, and schism, they held steadfast to the truth of Christ. Strengthened by poets, preachers, and theologians, they advanced in devotion and love. In this moving and accessible narrative, Tried by Fire speaks across centuries to offer insight into the people and events that shaped the faith that continues to shape our lives today.
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Christianity At The Crossroads
$32.99Add to cartChristianity in the twenty-first century is a global phenomenon. But in the second century, its future was not at all certain.
Initially Christianity possessed little social or cultural influence and found itself fighting for its life. While apostolic tradition was emerging as a “rule of faith,” factions contested the nature of the gospel, and pagan philosophers found its claims scandalous. And while its pathway was tenuous, Christianity was forming structures of leadership and worship, and a core of apostolic texts was emerging as authoritative. But it was the challenges, obstacles, and transitions faced by Christians in the second century that, in many ways, would determine the future of the church for the next two millennia. It was a time when Christianity stood at a crossroads.
Michael Kruger’s introductory survey examines how Christianity took root in the second century, how it battled to stay true to the vision of the apostles, and how it developed in ways that would shape both the church and Western culture over the next two thousand years. Christianity at the Crossroads provides an accessible and informative look at the complex and foundational issues faced by an infant church still trying to determine its identity. The church’s response to the issues of heresy and orthodoxy, the development of the canon, and the transmission of the Christian Scriptures not only determined its survival, but determined the kind of church it would be for generations to come.
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Unique And Universal Christ
$44.00Add to cartThere are tremendous pressures on Christians in the contemporary world to conform to a libertarian vision of a multi-faith society where no one makes truth-claims about their faith. In such a situation Christians need to think afresh about the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ and what this might mean in today’s plural world. Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali shows how Jesus’ understanding of himself and his work bears on contemporary cultures and their values. He explores critical questions Christians must face: – What does the gospel affirm in contemporary cultures? – What does the gospel fulfil in contemporary cultures? – What does the gospel challenge in contemporary cultures? – How does our understanding of the crucified and risen Lord affect our view of the human condition? – How can we evaluate the different religious traditions of the world in the light of Christ? – How can we be welcoming and hospitable but also committed to that conversion and transformation of individuals and of human societies which has been revealed as God’s purpose in Christ? Christian claims of uniqueness have a direct bearing on what informs the social order. Consequently this book takes on the challenge of relativism in the contemporary social and political arena. ‘Drawing on unparalleled cross-cultural experiences and wide-ranging scholarship, Michael Nazir-Ali offers a powerful challenge to Christians tempted to dilute their faith in Christ to render it “”relevant.””
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John Wesley : Optimist Of Grace
$24.00Add to cartJohn Wesley was an Anglican priest and major leader in the eighteenth-century Evangelical awakening whose theology and practice continues to influence the church today. This book tells how his own search for a heart renewed in love ultimately led him to a fresh vision of the way of salvation, one that is centered on sanctification, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and available to all. Transcending the theological dichotomies of his day, Wesley developed a distinctive Protestant tradition that continues to shape Methodist and Holiness Christians, and has had a significant impact on Pentecostalism. It was Wesley’s optimism of grace that gave his Methodists and generations to come a vibrant hope that hearts and lives, churches, and the world at large can all be changed by the power of God’s amazing love.
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Unique And Universal Christ
$24.00Add to cartThere are tremendous pressures on Christians in the contemporary world to conform to a libertarian vision of a multi-faith society where no one makes truth-claims about their faith. In such a situation Christians need to think afresh about the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ and what this might mean in today’s plural world. Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali shows how Jesus’ understanding of himself and his work bears on contemporary cultures and their values. He explores critical questions Christians must face: – What does the gospel affirm in contemporary cultures? – What does the gospel fulfil in contemporary cultures? – What does the gospel challenge in contemporary cultures? – How does our understanding of the crucified and risen Lord affect our view of the human condition? – How can we evaluate the different religious traditions of the world in the light of Christ? – How can we be welcoming and hospitable but also committed to that conversion and transformation of individuals and of human societies which has been revealed as God’s purpose in Christ? Christian claims of uniqueness have a direct bearing on what informs the social order. Consequently this book takes on the challenge of relativism in the contemporary social and political arena. ‘Drawing on unparalleled cross-cultural experiences and wide-ranging scholarship, Michael Nazir-Ali offers a powerful challenge to Christians tempted to dilute their faith in Christ to render it “”relevant.””
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John Wesley : Optimist Of Grace
$44.00Add to cartJohn Wesley was an Anglican priest and major leader in the eighteenth-century Evangelical awakening whose theology and practice continues to influence the church today. This book tells how his own search for a heart renewed in love ultimately led him to a fresh vision of the way of salvation, one that is centered on sanctification, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and available to all. Transcending the theological dichotomies of his day, Wesley developed a distinctive Protestant tradition that continues to shape Methodist and Holiness Christians, and has had a significant impact on Pentecostalism. It was Wesley’s optimism of grace that gave his Methodists and generations to come a vibrant hope that hearts and lives, churches, and the world at large can all be changed by the power of God’s amazing love.
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Studies In Hellenistic Religions
$49.00Add to cartThis selection of essays by Luther Martin brings together studies from throughout his career–both early as well as more recent–in the various areas of Graeco-Roman religions, including mystery cults, Judaism, Christianity, and Gnosticism. It is hoped that these studies, which represent spatial, communal, and cognitive approaches to the study of ancient religions might be of interest to those concerned with the structures and dynamics of religions past in general, as well as to scholars who might, with more recent historical research, confirm, evaluate, extend, or refute the hypotheses offered here, for that is the way scholars work and by which scholarship proceeds.
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Studies In Hellenistic Religions
$74.00Add to cartThis selection of essays by Luther Martin brings together studies from throughout his career–both early as well as more recent–in the various areas of Graeco-Roman religions, including mystery cults, Judaism, Christianity, and Gnosticism. It is hoped that these studies, which represent spatial, communal, and cognitive approaches to the study of ancient religions might be of interest to those concerned with the structures and dynamics of religions past in general, as well as to scholars who might, with more recent historical research, confirm, evaluate, extend, or refute the hypotheses offered here, for that is the way scholars work and by which scholarship proceeds.
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Lord Is Good
$27.99Add to cart1. Simplicity
2. You Are Good
3. Goodness And The Trinity
4. You Do Good
5. The Good Creator
6. Goodness And Evil
7. Teach Me Your Statutes
8. Goodness And Jesus Christ
9. PerfectionAdditional Info
God is good.“Taste and see that the Lord is good,” the Psalmist writes (Ps 34:8). And to those who called him good, Jesus said, “No one is good-except God alone” (Mk 10:18).
In this volume in IVP Academic’s Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture series, Christopher R. J. Holmes explores the divine attribute of God’s goodness through a theological interpretation of the Psalter that engages with the church’s rich tradition, including Augustine and Barth, but especially Aquinas. He contends that in the very depths of God’s being, God is goodness itself and that goodness is preeminent among the divine attributes.
Leading us in this journey through the Psalms and the church’s tradition, Holmes helps us to understand what it means to make that simple affirmation: God is good.
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Story Of Latino Protestants In The United States
$31.99Add to cartThe first major historical overview of one of America’s most vibrant Christian movements
This groundbreaking book by Juan Francisco Martinez provides a broad historical overview of Latino Protestantism in the United States from the early nineteenth century to the present.
Beginning with a description of the diverse Latino Protestant community and a summary of his own historiographical approach, Martinez then examines six major periods in the history of American Latino Protestantism, paying special attention to key social, political, and religious issues-including immigration policies, migration patterns, enculturation and assimilation, and others-that framed its development and diversification during each period. He concludes by outlining the challenges currently facing Latino Protestants in the United States and considering what Latino Protestantism might look like in the future.
Offering vital insights into key leaders, eras, and trends in Latino Protestantism, Martinez’s work will prove an invaluable resource for all who are seeking to understand this rapidly growing US demographic.
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Post Christendom 2nd Edition
$35.00Add to cartWestern societies are experiencing a series of disorientating culture shifts. Uncertain where we are heading, observers use “”post”” words to signal that familiar landmarks are disappearing, but we cannot yet discern the shape of what is emerging. One of the most significant shifts, “”post-Christendom,”” raises many questions about the mission and role of the church in this strange new world. What does it mean to be one of many minorities in a culture that the church no longer dominates? How do followers of Jesus engage in mission from the margins? What do we bring with us as precious resources from the fading Christendom era, and what do we lay down as baggage that will weigh us down on our journey into post-Christendom? Post-Christendom identifies the challenges and opportunities of this unsettling but exciting time. Stuart Murray presents an overview of the formation and development of the Christendom system, examines the legacies this has left, and highlights the questions that the Christian community needs to consider in this period of cultural transition.
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Post Christendom 2nd Edition
$55.00Add to cartWestern societies are experiencing a series of disorientating culture shifts. Uncertain where we are heading, observers use “”post”” words to signal that familiar landmarks are disappearing, but we cannot yet discern the shape of what is emerging. One of the most significant shifts, “”post-Christendom,”” raises many questions about the mission and role of the church in this strange new world. What does it mean to be one of many minorities in a culture that the church no longer dominates? How do followers of Jesus engage in mission from the margins? What do we bring with us as precious resources from the fading Christendom era, and what do we lay down as baggage that will weigh us down on our journey into post-Christendom? Post-Christendom identifies the challenges and opportunities of this unsettling but exciting time. Stuart Murray presents an overview of the formation and development of the Christendom system, examines the legacies this has left, and highlights the questions that the Christian community needs to consider in this period of cultural transition.
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Remembering The Reformation
$37.00Add to cartIn 1517, Martin Luther set off what has been called, at least since the nineteenth century, the Protestant Reformation. Can Christians of differing traditions commemorate the upcoming 500th anniversary of this event together? How do we understand and assess the Reformation today? What calls for celebration? What calls for repentance? Can the Reformation anniversary be an occasion for greater mutual understanding among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants? At the 2015 Pro Ecclesia annual conference for clergy and laity, meeting at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, an array of scholars–Catholic and Orthodox, Evangelical Lutheran and American Evangelical as well as Methodist–addressed this topic. The aim of this book is not only to collect these diverse Catholic and Evangelical perspectives but also to provide resources for all Christians, including pastors and scholars, to think and argue about the roads we have taken since 1517–as we also learn to pray with Jesus Christ “”that all may be one”” (John 17:21).
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Remembering The Reformation
$17.00Add to cartIn 1517, Martin Luther set off what has been called, at least since the nineteenth century, the Protestant Reformation. Can Christians of differing traditions commemorate the upcoming 500th anniversary of this event together? How do we understand and assess the Reformation today? What calls for celebration? What calls for repentance? Can the Reformation anniversary be an occasion for greater mutual understanding among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants? At the 2015 Pro Ecclesia annual conference for clergy and laity, meeting at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, an array of scholars–Catholic and Orthodox, Evangelical Lutheran and American Evangelical as well as Methodist–addressed this topic. The aim of this book is not only to collect these diverse Catholic and Evangelical perspectives but also to provide resources for all Christians, including pastors and scholars, to think and argue about the roads we have taken since 1517–as we also learn to pray with Jesus Christ “”that all may be one”” (John 17:21).
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Thinking With The Church
$28.00Add to cartOver the centuries, Baptists have labored to follow Christ in faithful devotion and service. More recently, they have occasionally partnered with fellow Christians from other traditions in these efforts while learning from each other along the way. In Thinking With the Church, Derek Hatch argues that Baptists need to follow the same pattern when it comes to their theological reflection, engaging the wisdom of all Christian pilgrims across time. This will require a new theological method–ressourcement–that embraces Baptists’ place within the Great Tradition of the Christian faith. Such work will not abandon long-held Baptist convictions but offers resources for renewing Baptists’ theological vision as they participate in the fullness of the mystical body of Christ.
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Unimaginable (Reprinted)
$19.99Add to cartIn a day when Christians are often attacked for their beliefs, this provocative and enlightening book looks at the positive influence of Christianity, both historically and today. Unimaginable guides readers through the halls of history to see how Jesus’ teachings dramatically changed the world and continue to be the most powerful force for good today.
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Crispina And Her Sisters
$29.00Add to cartDiscovering reliable information about women in early Christianity is a challenging enterprise. Most people have never heard of Bitalia, Veneranda, Crispina, Petronella, Leta, Sofia the Deacon, and many others even though their catacomb and tomb art suggests their authority was influential and valued by early Christian communities. This book explores visual imagery found on burial artifacts of prominent early Christian women. It carefully situates the tomb art within the cultural context of customary Roman commemorations of the dead. Recent scholarship about Roman portrait sarcophagi and the interpretation of early Christian art is also given significant attention. An in-depth review of women”s history in the first four centuries of Christianity provides important context. A fascinating picture emerges of women”s authority in the early church, a picture either not available or sadly distorted in the written history. It is often said “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The portrait tombs of fourth-century Christian women suggest that they viewed themselves and/or their loved ones viewed them as persons of authority with religious influence.
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Praying With The Senses
$30.00Add to cartIndiana University Press
How do people experience spirituality through what they see, hear, touch, and smell? Sonja Luehrmann and an international group of scholars assess how sensory experience shapes prayer and ritual practice among Eastern Orthodox Christians. Prayer, even when performed privately, is considered as a shared experience and act that links individuals and personal beliefs with a broader, institutional, or imagined faith community. It engages with material, visual, and aural culture including icons, relics, candles, pilgrimage, bells, and architectural spaces. Whether touching upon the use of icons in the age of digital and electronic media, the impact of Facebook on prayer in Ethiopia, or the implications of praying using recordings, amplifiers, and loudspeakers, these timely essays present a sophisticated overview of the history of Eastern Orthodox Christianities. Taken as a whole they reveal prayer as a dynamic phenomenon in the devotional and ritual lives of Eastern Orthodox believers across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.
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Praying With The Senses
$80.00Add to cartIndiana University Press
How do people experience spirituality through what they see, hear, touch, and smell? Sonja Luehrmann and an international group of scholars assess how sensory experience shapes prayer and ritual practice among Eastern Orthodox Christians. Prayer, even when performed privately, is considered as a shared experience and act that links individuals and personal beliefs with a broader, institutional, or imagined faith community. It engages with material, visual, and aural culture including icons, relics, candles, pilgrimage, bells, and architectural spaces. Whether touching upon the use of icons in the age of digital and electronic media, the impact of Facebook on prayer in Ethiopia, or the implications of praying using recordings, amplifiers, and loudspeakers, these timely essays present a sophisticated overview of the history of Eastern Orthodox Christianities. Taken as a whole they reveal prayer as a dynamic phenomenon in the devotional and ritual lives of Eastern Orthodox believers across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.
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Thinking With The Church
$48.00Add to cartOver the centuries, Baptists have labored to follow Christ in faithful devotion and service. More recently, they have occasionally partnered with fellow Christians from other traditions in these efforts while learning from each other along the way. In Thinking With the Church, Derek Hatch argues that Baptists need to follow the same pattern when it comes to their theological reflection, engaging the wisdom of all Christian pilgrims across time. This will require a new theological method–ressourcement–that embraces Baptists’ place within the Great Tradition of the Christian faith. Such work will not abandon long-held Baptist convictions but offers resources for renewing Baptists’ theological vision as they participate in the fullness of the mystical body of Christ.
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Methodist Defense Of Women In Ministry
$60.00Add to cartJohn Wesley promoted the ministry of women in early Methodism. Amazing women like Phoebe Palmer, Catherine Booth, and Frances Willard–founding figures in the holiness movement, the Salvation Army, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union–claimed biblical precedent for their groundbreaking ministries. They withstood the onslaught of criticism and hostility from those who thought they had stepped out of their proper sphere. Methodists have championed the cause of women and developed biblical, spiritual, and practical arguments for their ministry for two and a half centuries. More than fifty documents from the history of Methodism chronicle the tortuous journey leading to biblical equality in this family of churches. At a time when the ministry of women is under serious attack in a number of quarters, yet again, we all have much to learn from the witness of Wesleyan Christians who argued for women’s ministry. This story illustrates how faithful women, when they knew they had the Lord’s approval, stood “”like the beaten anvil to the stroke.”” Courage. Defiance. Perseverance. Faithfulness. These qualities define the Methodist defense of women in ministry.
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Methodist Defense Of Women In Ministry
$40.00Add to cartJohn Wesley promoted the ministry of women in early Methodism. Amazing women like Phoebe Palmer, Catherine Booth, and Frances Willard–founding figures in the holiness movement, the Salvation Army, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union–claimed biblical precedent for their groundbreaking ministries. They withstood the onslaught of criticism and hostility from those who thought they had stepped out of their proper sphere. Methodists have championed the cause of women and developed biblical, spiritual, and practical arguments for their ministry for two and a half centuries. More than fifty documents from the history of Methodism chronicle the tortuous journey leading to biblical equality in this family of churches. At a time when the ministry of women is under serious attack in a number of quarters, yet again, we all have much to learn from the witness of Wesleyan Christians who argued for women’s ministry. This story illustrates how faithful women, when they knew they had the Lord’s approval, stood “”like the beaten anvil to the stroke.”” Courage. Defiance. Perseverance. Faithfulness. These qualities define the Methodist defense of women in ministry.
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Jesus Followers In The Roman Empire
$33.99Add to cartWhen Jesus of Nazareth began proclaiming the kingdom of God early in the first century, he likely had no intention of starting a new religion, especially one that included former pagans. Yet a new religion did eventually develop–one that not only included non-Jews but was soon dominated by them. How did this happen?
Jesus Followers in the Roman Empire by Paul Duff offers an accessible and informed account of Christian origins, beginning with the teaching of Jesus and moving to the end of the first century. Duff’s narrative shows how the rural Jewish movement led by Jesus developed into a largely non-Jewish phenomenon permeating urban centers of the Roman Empire.
Paying special attention to social, cultural, and religious contexts–as well as to early Christian ideas about idolatry, marriage, family, slavery, and ethnicity– Jesus Followers in the Roman Empire will help readers cultivate a deeper understanding of the identity, beliefs, and practices of early Christ-believers.
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In The Beauty Of Holiness
$75.99Add to cartBeautifully illustrated work from an eminent authority on the Bible, art, and culture
Beauty is a highly significant subject in the Bible. So is holiness. In this study of Christian fine art David Lyle Jeffrey explores the relationship between beauty and holiness as he integrates aesthetic perspectives from the ancient Hebrew Scriptures through Augustine, Aquinas, and Kant down to contemporary philosophers of art.
Incorporating sample artworks ranging from the Roman catacombs to Marc Chagall, Jeffrey demonstrates that the Bible has consistently been the most profound and productive resource for the visual arts in the West. He contextualizes Western European art from the second century through the twenty-first in relation not only to the biblical narrative but also to liturgy and historical theology.
Lavishly illustrated with more than one hundred masterworks, In the Beauty of Holiness is ideally suited to students of Christian fine art and to general readers wanting to better understand the story of Christian art through the centuries.
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Rediscovering Paul : An Introduction To His World Letters And Theology
$50.00Add to cartIntroduction: The Challenges Of Rediscovering Paul
1. Rediscovering Paul In His World
2. The Christophany
3. Paul, The Letter Writer
4. The Itinerant Paul: Galatians
5. The Itinerant Paul: The Thessalonian Letters
6. The Itinerant Paul: The Corinthian Letters
7. The Itinerant Paul: Romans
8. The Imprisoned Paul
9. The Pastoral Paul
10. Paul’s Theology And Spirituality
11. Paul’s Legacy
12. Paul’s Letters To Our Churches
Maps
Glossary
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture IndexAdditional Info
For some of us, the apostle Paul is intimidating, like a distant and difficult uncle. We’re told he’s pretty important. We’ve even read some of the good parts of his letters. But he can come across as prickly and unpredictable. Not someone you’d like to hang out with at a coffee shop on a rainy day. He’d make a scene, evangelize the barista, and arouse looks across the room. For a mid-morning latte, we’d prefer Jesus over Paul.But Paul is actually the guy who-from Ephesus to Athens-was the talk of the marketplace, the raconteur of the Parthenon. He knew everyone, founded emerging churches, and held his own against the intellectuals of his day. Maybe it’s time to give Paul a break, let go of some stereotypes, and try to get to know him on his own terms.
If you’re willing to give Paul a try, Rediscovering Paul is your reliable guide. This is a book that reacquaints us with Paul, as if for the first time-arrested by Christ on the Damascus Road, holding forth in the marketplace of Corinth, working with a secretary in framing his letter to the Romans, or dealing with the messiness of emerging churches from Ephesus to Rome.
Drawing on the best of contemporary scholarship, and with language shaped by teaching and conversing with today’s students, Rediscovering Paul is a textbook that has passed the test. Now in an expanded edition, it’s better than ever. There are fresh discussions of Paul’s letter writing and how those letters were received in the churches, new considerations of pseudonymity and the authenticity of Paul’s letters, and updated coverage of recent developments in interpreting Paul. In addition, the “So What?” feature-much loved by students-has been expanded. For considering the full range of issues, from Paul’s conversion and call to his ongoing impact on church and culture, this second edition of Rediscovering Paul comes enthusiastically recommended.
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Popes And Feminists
$16.00Add to cartBefore the time of the Reformation, in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church, a wife or mother was not a holy vocation. The only spiritual calling for women was to be found in a convent. The Reformers confronted the bad theology which lead to this (and other worse abuses, like priest-patronized brothels) and returned to the Bible to develop a theology of vocation that began to free women to be “holy” no matter their occupation. But today, modern feminist claims about vocation have more in common with the pre-Reformation popes than anything else — except feminists have replaced the nunnery with the hallowed corporate workplace. Christian women wondering about their place in society and comparing feminism with the Bible should start with the teaching of the Reformers and the lives of many exceptional women of the Reformation.
Part history and part contemporary reflection, Popes and Feminists argues that women today have some of the same choices facing them as women in the sixteenth century. In this fascinating book, published on the five hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, Elise Crapuchettes shows how the Reformation changed the lives of Christian women as it turned them away from trying to earn their salvation in the convent towards a joyful, liberating view of vocation and work. And that changed their families and the world.
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Martin Luther And The Seven Sacraments
$30.00Add to cartThis introduction to Luther’s sacramental theology explores the medieval church’s understanding of the seven sacraments, the Protestant rationale for keeping or eliminating each sacrament, and implications for contemporary theology and worship.
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Rise And Fall Of The Incomparable Liturgy
$32.99Add to cartMost histories of Church of England liturgy, for good reason, begin in the 1530s, and centre on the 1549 and 1552 Books of Common Prayer. That is important for initial doctrinal changes, and the establishment of the liturgical text, However, both liturgies were extremely short-lived, and the real history of the Book of Common Prayer as the Liturgy of the Church of England begins with the Elizabethan Settlement, 1559, and a long tenure of the enacted Elizabethan liturgy. The only revision of any note was that of 1662, and this revision lasted without serious challenge until the 19th century, and without legal alternative until the twentieth century. This study therefore concentrates on 1559 until the Report of the Royal Commission in 1906 which paved the way for liturgical revision.
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Urban World And The First Christians
$51.99Add to cartIn the tradition of The First Urban Christians by Wayne Meeks, this book explores the relationship between the earliest Christians and the city environment. Experts in classics, early Christianity, and human geography analyze the growth, development, and self-understanding of the early Christian movement in urban settings.
The book’s contributors first look at how the urban physical, cultural, and social environments of the ancient Mediterranean basin affected the ways in which early Christianity progressed. They then turn to how the earliest Christians thought and theologized in their engagement with cities. With a rich variety of expertise and scholarship, The Urban World and the First Christians is an important contribution to the understanding of early Christianity.
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Hitting The Holy Road
$22.99Add to cartIn the face of climate change and other environmental trends, it is easy to be pessimistic about the future. Philosophers, film-makers, environmentalists, politicians and even senior scientists increasingly resort to apocalyptic rhetoric to warn us that a so-called “perfect storm’ of factors are coming together in a way that threatens the future of life on earth. Do these dire predictions amount to nothing more than ideological scaremongering, perhaps hyped-up for political or personal ends? Or are there good reasons for thinking that we may indeed be facing a crisis unprecedented in its scale and in the severity of its effects?Jonathan Moo and Robert White encourage us to assess the evidence for ourselves. Their own conclusion is that there is in fact plenty of cause for concern. Climate change, they suggest, is potentially the most far-reaching threat that our planet faces in the coming decades, but only the most publicized. There is a wide range of much more obvious, interrelated and damaging impacts that an ever-growing number of people, consuming more and more, are having on the planet upon which we all depend.Yet if the Christian gospel fundamentally reorientates us in our relationship with God and his world, then there ought to be something radically distinctive about our attitude and approach to such threats. Moo and White therefore reflect on just what difference the Bible’s vision of the future of all of creation makes to how we live now and respond to the challenges facing life on earth.
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Presbyterian Experience In The United States
$35.00Add to cartThis book introduces readers to the Presbyterian movement in the United States as told by those who lived through and contributed to its history. William Yoo has drawn together essential documents from the colonial period to the present that illustrate and illumine U.S. Presbyterianism across diversities of race, ethnicity, geography, gender, age, and theological position. Readers will follow the church’s journey from modest origins as a Scots-Irish immigrant church to prominence on the national stage, from early revivals and tent meetings to large-scale theological debates, from defense of slavery and racial intolerance to the pursuit of social justice and racial reconciliation, and from retreat into theologically narrow enclaves to active engagement with national and international politics and culture. Yoo weaves together a coherent and compelling narrative using the voices of those who sought a faithfully Presbyterian witness to the gospel. Arranged both chronologically and thematically with historical maps and photos, this book provides a lively and accessible vista into the making and shaping of Presbyterianism in the United States.
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Right Here Right Now
$15.99Add to cartChristians have always practiced mindfulness. Yet, from the popular landscape of mindfulness movement, you’d never know that. Where is the Christian voice in this fast-growing movement? Many Christians practice mindfulness outside of church and believe it does not belong to our faith tradition. This book reveals the Christian roots of mindfulness and the actual practices that, when reclaimed, deepen the life of faith and the power of our mission of love in the world. When we understand how radical it is to live in God’s presence right here, right now, our lives are transformed toward mercy, justice and abundant life. In her new book, Amy Oden shows how the practice of Christian mindfulness begins with the teachings of Jesus and continues throughout Christian history. It also includes step-by-step instructions for the practice of Christian mindfulness today. Pastors and leaders will find this book useful on the ground as they curate current culture and guide Christians in spiritual practices.
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Old Testament Yahweh Texts In Pauls Christology
$34.99Add to cartThe earliest Christian communities engaged in bold and imaginative rereadings of their Scriptures–none more astounding and potentially inflammatory than of the passages that focus upon the name and nature of Israel’s God. In this volume, David B. Capes tracks the Apostle Paul’s use of Old Testament texts that directly invoke God’s name, Yahweh, for what they can disclose about the earliest Christian beliefs and practices.
Since Paul writes to his churches in Greek and quotes the Old Testament extensively from the Septuagint, Capes focuses upon Old Testament quotations and allusions in which kyrios translates the divine name. He discovers that Paul applies a majority of his quotations of and allusions to Yahweh texts to the Lord Jesus Christ, thus offering to him designations originally reserved for Israel’s God.
Given the high regard that Judaism placed upon both Scripture and the divine name in the first century, the application of Yahweh texts to Jesus bears significant christological weight. These texts reveal that Paul considered Jesus to be more than a man or a divine agent–Paul believed that Christ was in some sense Yahweh Himself. Capes thus unveils Paul’s strategy for the reading of Scripture, which provides a basis for properly interpreting early Christianity’s veneration of Jesus, including prayers and hymns to Christ, the authoritative status attributed to Jesus’ words, and the notions of Christ’s pre-existence, role in creation, and authority as coming eschatological Savior and Judge. How Paul reread his Bible goes hand-in-glove with the differences that developed between Christianity and Judaism.
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Into All The World
$61.99Add to cartInto All the World–the third volume from editors Mark Harding and Alanna Nobbs on the content and social setting of the New Testament–brings together a team of eminent Australian scholars in ancient history, New Testament, and the early church to take the story of Christianity into the Jewish and Greco- Roman world of the first century.
In thirteen chapters, the contributors discuss all the post-Pauline New Testament writings, devoting attention to both their content and their context. They examine the impact of the growth of the church on both Jews and Gentiles, exploring issues such as the diaspora, minorities, the Book of Acts, and the Fourth Gospel. The book then proceeds to a discussion of the impact of Christianity on the Roman state, including consideration of the book of Revelation and the imperial cult. A final chapter investigates how the church was perceived by Clement of Rome at the end of the first century.
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Azusa Street Mission And Revival
$16.99Add to cartIn Azusa Street Mission and Revival, Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. brings to bear expertise from decades of focused study in church history to reveal the captivating story of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Los Angeles, which became known as the Azusa Street Mission.
From humble beginnings with few resources, this small uniquely diverse and inclusive congregation led by William J. Seymour ignited a fire that quickly grew into a blaze and spread across the world giving rise to the global Pentecostal movement. Sifting through newspaper reports and other written accounts of the time as well as the mission’s own publications, and through personal interaction with some of those blessed to stand very near to the fire that began at the mission, Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. relates not only the historical significance of the revival but also captures the movement of the Holy Spirit that changed the face of modern Christianity.
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Angelomorphic Christology : Antecedents And Early Evidence
$44.99Add to cartIn Angelomorphic Christology author Charles Gieschen demonstrates that angel and angel-related traditions, especially those built upon the so-called “Angel of the Lord” figure in the Hebrew Bible, had a profound impact upon the origin, development, and shape of early Christian claims about Jesus.
Gieschen’s book falls neatly into two halves. The first catalogues the various antecedents for Angelomorphic Christology-Jewish speculation about principal angels, mediator figures, and related phenomena-with chapters on “An Angelomorphic God,” “Angelomorphic Divine Hypostases” (including the Divine Name, the Divine Glory, Wisdom, the Word, the Spirit and Power), Principal Named Angels, and Angelomorphic Humans. The book’s second half examines the evidence for Angelomorphic Christology in early Christian literature. This portion begins with a brief overview of the principal Angel and Angelomorphic Christology from Justin to Nicea and then examines, in turn, the Pseudo-Clementines, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Revelation of John, the Fourth Gospel, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Pauline Corpus.
Gieschen argues that Christian use of the angelomorphic tradition did not spawn a new and variant kind of Christology, one that competed with accepted belief about Jesus for early Christians’ favor, but instead shows how Christians adapted an already variegated Jewish tradition to weave a single story about a common Lord.
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Early Religious Writings 1903-1909
$38.99Add to cartProfound writings by one of the twentieth century’s greatest polymaths “Perhaps the most remarkable person devoured by the Gulag” is how Alexandr Solzhenitsyn described Pavel Florensky, a Russian Orthodox mathematician, scientist, linguist, art historian, philosopher, theologian, and priest who was martyred during the Bolshevik purges of the 1930s. This volume contains eight important religious works written by Florensky in the first decade of the twentieth century, now translated into English-most of them for the first time. Splendidly interweaving religious, scientific, and literary themes, these essays showcase the diversity of Florensky’s broad learning and interests. Including reflections on the sacraments and explorations of Russian monastic culture, the volume concludes with “The Salt of the Earth,” arguably Florensky’s most spiritually moving work.
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Christology Of The Family
$14.99Add to cartChristology of the Family is about learning to care for one another as Christ cares for us. The heart of the gospel is centered on the caring love of God. The incarnation, atonement, Word of God, the sacraments, and the church itself, would not exist without God’s redemptive care for each of us. The calling of a disciple is to care, and it comes straight from the heart of God through the work of the Holy Spirit, who gifts us in ways to care for the lost, the suffering, and the brokenhearted. The family has been affected by our culture of entertainment and immediacy. The result has been that it has lost sight of its primary purpose to care for one another as the Good Shepherd cares for His sheep.
The Christian family needs to reclaim the heart of the gospel and create new disciples, not just church members. The pastoral care community has to be trained in listening and in reflecting theologically from practical experience. All disciples are to be caregivers, whether at home with family, at work, or in the church. The job of the church and the family is to train, support, and guide them.
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Whole Church Sings
$36.99Add to cartAuthoritative study by a renowned musicologist and Reformation scholar
Many scholars think that congregational singing was not established in Lutheran worship until well after the start of the Reformation. In this book Robin A. Leaver calls that view into question, presenting new research to confirm the earlier view that congregational singing was both the intention and the practice right from the beginning of the Wittenberg reforms in worship.
Leaver’s study focuses on the Wittenberg hymnal of 1526, which until now has received little scholarly attention. This hymnal, Leaver argues, shows how the Lutheran Reformation was to a large degree defined, expressed, promoted, and taken to heart through early Lutheran hymns. Examining what has been forgotten or neglected about the origins of congregational hymnody under Martin Luther’s leadership, this study of worship, music, and liturgy is a significant contribution to Reformation scholarship.
