Church History
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Pentecostal Origins
$49.99Add to cartHarvey Cox describes Pentecostalism as “the fascinating spiritual child of our time” that has the potential, at the global scale, to contribute to the “reshaping of religion in the twenty-first century.” This study grounds such sentiments by examining at the local scale the origin, development and nature of Pentecostalism in Ireland in its first twenty years. Illustrative, in a paradigmatic way, of how Pentecostalism became established within one region of the British Isles, it sets the story within the wider context of formative influences emanating from America, Europe and in particular, other parts of the British Isles. As a synoptic regional study in Pentecostal history it is the first survey of its kind.
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Social Context Of Pauls Ministry
$15.00Add to cartIn this “slim, readable, and provocative volume” (Journal of Biblical Literature), Ronald Hock focuses on the apostle Paul and his work within the social and intellectual context of the Greek East of the early Roman Empire.
Hock discusses the New Testament evidence concerning tentmaking in relation to Paul’s life as an apostle of Christ. Relevant literary and nonliterary texts from outside the New Testament add detail to a picture of ancient society and open new areas for study. The author describes the typical experiences that arose from such a way of life – traveling, the tentmaking trade, the missionary use of the workshop, attitudes toward work, and Paul’s own reflections on the significance of his tentmaking for the apostolic self-understanding.
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New Song For An Old World
$27.99Add to cartWhile the worship wars continue to rage in the church, many do not realize that conflict over church music goes back to the earliest Christians as they sought to live out the “new song” of their faith. In A New Song for an Old World Calvin Stapert challenges Christians to learn from the wisdom of the early church as they seek to explore appropriate music today.
Stapert draws parallels between the pagan cultures of the second and third centuries and our own multicultural realities, enabling readers to comprehend the musical ideas of early Christian thinkers, from Clement and Tertullian to John Chrysostom and Augustine. Stapert’s expert treatment of the attitudes of the early church toward psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs is ideal for scholars of early Christianity, church musicians, and all Christians looking to add an ancient yet relevant perspective to their worship today. -
Stories : How Mennonites Came To Be
$18.99Add to cartJohn D. Roth’s straightforward, accessible narrative invigorates this contemporary introduction to the Mennonite story. Whether readers are new to the Mennonite community or just yearning for a fresh telling of Anabaptist origins, ‘Stories: How Mennonites Came To Be’ will serve as a compact digest of the church’s history for generations to come.
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Beyond Religious Discourse
$39.99Add to cartDrawing extensively on primary sources, this pioneer work in modern religious history
explores the training of preachers, the construction of sermons and how Irish
evangelicalism and the wider movement in Great Britain and the United States shaped the
preaching event. Evangelical preaching and politics, sectarianism, denominations, education, class, social reform, gender and revival are examined to advance the argument that evangelical sermons and preaching went significantly beyond religious discourse. The result is a book for those with interests in Irish history, culture and belief, popular religion and society, evangelicalism, preaching and communication. -
Searching For Sacred Ground
$19.95Add to cartExplores the universal search for balance in life, using historical events and people to illustrate the constant tensions between conflict and resolution. On a parrallel story line, the author weaves into this rich tapestry the life of an exceptional man.
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Thomas Muntzer : A Tragedy Of Errors
$26.00Add to cartRejected in the sixteenth century by both Protestants and Catholics, yet hailed by Marxist historians as a forerunner of the Marxist revolution, this volume tells Muntzer’s story and offers a critical assessment of him in light of his extant works, with particular attention to the religious foundations of his revolutionary program.
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Gnostic Discoveries : The Impact Of The Nag Hammadi Library
$14.99Add to cartThe Meaning of the Nag Hammadi, now in paperback opens the with the thrilling adventure story of the discovery of the ancient Papyrii at Nag Hammadi. Muhammad Ali, the fellahin, discovered the sealed jar, he feared that it might contain a jinni, or spirit, but also had heard of hidden treasures in such jars. Greed overcame his fears and when he smashed open the jar, gold seemed to float into the air. To his disappointment, it was papyrus fragmenst, not gold, but for scholars around the world, it was invaluable.
Meyer then discusses the pre-Christian forms of wisdom that went onto influence what Christians believe today. In addition, some Nag Hammadi texts are attributed to Valentinus, a man who almost became Pope, and whose rejection changed the church in significant ways. Text by text, Meyer traces the history and impact of this great find on the Church, right up to our current beliefs and popular cultural fascination with this officially suppressed secret knowledge about Jesus and his followers.
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Canons
$35.99Add to cartIn this lively and entertaining volume, Trevor Beeson describes many of the greatest and most engaging Canons in the history of the Church of England. With a wealth of amusing detail and anecdote, as well as a skilful marshalling of the essential facts, he brings the Canons alive, and considers their significance in the social and ecclesiastical history of their times.
Tracing the course of the dramatic change in the fortunes of the English cathedrals and in turn the lives of the most interesting and significant Canons who were in office, Trevor Beeson provides readers with an interesting and undemanding introduction to two centuries of Church history with these portraits of quite remarkable men.
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Oxford Guide To The Book Of Common Prayer
$51.00Add to cartThe Book of Common Prayer runs like a golden thread through the history of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer is the first comprehensive guide to the history and usage of the original Book of Common Prayer and its numerous descendants throughout the world. It shows how a seminal text for Christian worship and devotion has inspired a varied family of religious resources that have had an influence far beyond their use in the churches of a single tradition.
The Guide is unique. In it experts from every part of the globe and every branch of Anglicanism, as well as from the Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Methodist, and Unitarian traditions, provide an unparalleled examination of The Book of Common Prayer and its lineage. From 1549 to the Twenty-first Century, The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer offers a fascinating journey through the history and development of a classic of world literature.
Much more than simply a history, this volume describes how Anglican churches at all points of the compass have developed their own Prayer Books and adapted the time-honored Anglican liturgies to their diverse local cultures. In the dozens of editions now in use throughout the world, the same texts–Daily Prayers, the Eucharist, Marriage and Funerals, and many others–resemble each other, and yet differ from each other in interesting ways. A brief look at “electronic Prayer Books” offers a glimpse at how this story of development and adaptation may continue in the Information Age.
Oxford is pleased to publish a varied selection of The Book of Common Prayer in formats, features, and prices to suit every need and budget. We invite you to explore our Web site for further information regarding these fine resources.
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Experimental Knowledge Of Christ
$16.00Add to cartBiographical Introduction
Sermon 1: The Danger Of Losing One’s Soul While Seeking To Gain The World
Sermon 2: The Experimental Knowledge Of Christ
Sermon 3: The Duty Of Listening To The Gospel As The Voice Of Christ
Sermon 4: Praying For The Spirit
Sermon 5: The Greatness Of The Peace Of God, Which Above Understanding
Sermon 6: The Funeral Sermon Of King George III
Sermon 7: The Coming Of The Son Of Man
Sermon 8: Christ The Physician
Sermon 9: God Attending To The Contrite In Spirit
Sermon 10: God Choosing And Calling Men
Sermon 11: The Saints Loving Christ And Delighting In HimAdditional Info
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Thriving Churches In The 21st Century
$20.99Add to cartIf the body of Christ is truly a living structure, then we must know what to do to keep it functioning, hearty, and mature! Exploring the 10 interacting systems that make up a healthy church, McIntosh and Reeves demonstrate the importance of spiritual energy, corporate intercession, spiritual disciplines, mentoring, team ministry, and more.
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John Calvin Steward Of Gods Covenant
$23.00Add to cartThis selection of the writings of John Calvin (1509-1564) is the first for general readers to appear in many years. It showcases his powerful legacy, which has had far-reaching consequences for the development of religion and culture in Western Europe and in the shaping of American identity.
Calvin was a prodigious preacher and writer, and his sermons, Bible commentaries, tracts, and letters fill dozens of volumes. The works chosen for John Calvin: Steward of God’s Covenant highlight ideas central to the Reformation but also to his influence on modern life, e.g., the importance of a work ethic and the notion of being “called” to action in the world; his belief in universal education for boys and girls; and his belief in the sanctity and freedom of individual conscience. Calvin’s theology of the “elect” of God motivated the English and Dutch Calvinists who settled the Atlantic seaboard, their Promised Land. The traditions of their communities and churches and laws produced the widespread present-day American belief in a divinely favored national destiny.
In her brilliant preface to this edition, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson makes the clearest connection between John Calvin’s own biblical and patristic heritage and the heritage he in turn left the modern world.
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Concise History Of Christian Doctrine
$31.99Add to cartJusto L. Gonzalez, one of today’s best interpreters of church belief and history, lays out the answers to questions crucial to understanding Christian belief. First, what are the core Christian doctrines, and what convictions from the heart of Christian identity? Second, what are the historical contexts in which these doctrines first rose to prominence, and how have they developed across the history of the church? Finally, what claims do these doctrines continue to place on Christian belief and practice in the 21st Century? This book will serve the needs of students in church history, historical theology, and systematic theology classes in college settings, as well as seminaries and theological schools.
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Generous Orthodoxy : Why I Am A Missional Evangelical Post Protestant Liber
$14.99Add to cartWhy I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed- yet hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian. A confession and manifesto from a senior leader in the emerging church movement. A Generous Orthodoxycalls for a radical, Christ-centered orthodoxy of faith and practice in a missional, generous spirit. Brian McLaren argues for a post-liberal, post-conservative, postprotestant convergence, which will stimulate lively interest and global conversation among thoughtful Christians from all traditions. In a sweeping exploration of belief, author Brian McLaren takes us across the landscape of faith, envisioning an orthodoxy that aims for Jesus, is driven by love, and is defined by missional intent. A Generous Orthodoxy rediscovers the mysterious and compelling ways that Jesus can be embraced across the entire Christian horizon. Rather than establishing what is and is not “orthodox,” McLaren walks through the many traditions of faith, bringing to the center a way of life that draws us closer to Christ and to each other. Whether you find yourself inside, outside, or somewhere on the fringe of Christianity, A Generous Orthodoxy draws you toward a way of living that looks beyond the “us/them” paradigm to the blessed and ancient paradox of “we.” Also available on abridged audio CD, read by the author.
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Concept Of Woman Volume 2 Part 2
$55.99Add to cartThis seminal work is the second volume of a widely praised study of the concept of woman in the history of Western philosophy. Sister Prudence Allen explores claims about sex and gender identity in the works of over fifty philosophers (both men and women) in the late medieval and early Renaissance periods.
Touching on the thought of every philosopher who considered sex or gender identity between A.D. 1250 and 1500, The Concept of Woman provides the analytical categories necessary for situating contemporary discussion of women in relation to men. Adding to the accessibility of this fine discussion are informative illustrations, helpful summary charts, and extracts of original source material (some not previously available in English).
Encyclopedic in coverage yet clearly organized and well written, The Concept of Woman will be an invaluable resource for readers interested in a wide range of disciplines.
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Concept Of Woman Volume 2 Part 1
$49.99Add to cartThis seminal work is the second volume of a widely praised study of the concept of woman in the history of Western philosophy. Sister Prudence Allen explores claims about sex and gender identity in the works of over fifty philosophers (both men and women) in the late medieval and early Renaissance periods.
Touching on the thought of every philosopher who considered sex or gender identity between A.D. 1250 and 1500, The Concept of Woman provides the analytical categories necessary for situating contemporary discussion of women in relation to men. Adding to the accessibility of this fine discussion are informative illustrations, helpful summary charts, and extracts of original source material (some not previously available in English).
Encyclopedic in coverage yet clearly organized and well written, The Concept of Woman will be an invaluable resource for readers interested in a wide range of disciplines.
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How On Earth Did Jesus Become A God
$29.99Add to cartIn How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? Larry Hurtado investigates the intense devotion to Jesus that emerged with surprising speed after his death. Reverence for Jesus among early Christians, notes Hurtado, included both grand claims about Jesus’ significance and a pattern of devotional practices that effectively treated him as divine. This book argues that whatever one makes of such devotion to Jesus, the subject deserves serious historical consideration.
Mapping out the lively current debate about Jesus, Hurtado explains the evidence, issues, and positions at stake. He goes on to treat the opposition to – and severe costs of – worshiping Jesus, the history of incorporating such devotion into Jewish monotheism, and the role of religious experience in Christianity’s development out of Judaism. The follow-up to Hurtado’s award-winning Lord Jesus Christ (2003), this book provides compelling answers to queries about the development of the church’s belief in the divinity of Jesus.
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Modern Revivalism : Charles Grandison Finney To Billy Graham
$50.00Add to cartWipf And Stock Publishers
This book is concerned with religious revivalism in the United States since 1825. It attempts to explain the part which revivalism has played, and is playing today, in the social, intellectual, and religious life of America. The aim has been, in describing the development of modern revivalism and the men who devoted their lives to it, to look below the surface phenomenon in an effort to discover why revivals have constantly recurred, what their effects have been, and what they meant not only to those directly concerned but to all Americans. If the revivals of the past century and a quarter have not always been the crucial factors in the course of American history that their devout exponents claimed, they have nevertheless been more significant than the social historians have yet acknowledged. from the Preface
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Covenant Theology Of Caspar Olevianus
$22.00Add to cartPrint on demand title
“The purpose of this study,” writes the author, “is to take a new and hard look at Olevianus’s doctrine of covenant and to determine its place in the larger picture of sixteenth-century thought.” Bierma analyzes all of Olevianus’s work on covenant and challenges the notion that Olevianus was the first to use the covenant idea as the organizing principle of his theology. He maintains that Olevianus’s most significant contribution was in using the covenant to provide assurance of salvation. -
Church And The Churches
$15.99Add to cartwith a Postcript coauthored by Michael W. Goheen
In print for two decades and translated into eight languages, Albert Wolters’s classic formulation of an integrated Christian worldview has been revised and expanded to reach new readers beyond the generation that has already benefited from this clear, concise proposal for transcending the false dichotomy between sacred and secular. Wolters begins by defining the nature and scope of a worldview, distinguishing it from philosophy and theology. He then outlines a Reformed analysis of the three basic categories in human history – creation, fall, and redemption – arguing that while the fall reaches into every corner of the world, Christians are called to participate in Christ’s redemption of all creation. This Twentieth Anniversary edition features a new concluding chapter, coauthored with Michael Goheen, that helpfully places the discussion of worldview in a broader narrative and missional context.
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Introduction To The Heidelberg Catechism
$39.00Add to cartA full-scale investigation of this pivotal work in terms of authorship, historical background, socio-political origins, and theology. Includes for the first time translations of two important sources—Zacharias Ursinus’s Smaller and Larger Catechism—plus a bibliography of research since 1900. 240 pages, softcover. Baker.
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Becoming Anabaptist : The Origin And Significance Of 16th Century Anabaptis (Rep
$26.99Add to cart1. Introduction
2. Anabaptism In Switzerland
3. South German And Moravian Anabaptism
4. Anabaptism In The Low Countries
5. The Meaning Of AnabaptismAdditional Info
When Becoming Anabaptist appeared in 1987, it was the first major study to incorporate the new history of multiple beginnings and diverse history of Anabaptism into a synthesis of meanings for the contemporary church. J. Denny Weaver’s second edition will continue to be welcomed by scholars and by church leaders alike. -
American Evangelical Story (Reprinted)
$27.00Add to cartThe American Evangelical Story surveys the role American evangelicalism has had in the shaping of global evangelical history.
Author Douglas Sweeney begins with a brief outline of the key features that define evangelicals and then explores the roots of the movement in English Pietism and the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century. He goes on to consider the importance of missions in the development of evangelicalism and the continuing emphasis placed on evangelism. Sweeney next examines the different subgroups of American evangelicals and the current challenges faced by the movement, concluding with reflections on the future of evangelicalism.
Combining a narrative style with historical detail and insight, this accessible, illustrated book will appeal to readers interested in the history of the movement, as well as students of church history.
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Early New England
$43.99Add to cartThe idea of covenant was at the heart of early New England society. In this singular book David Weir explores the origins and development of covenant thought in America by analyzing the civil and church documents generated and signed by seventeenth-century New Englanders. Unmatched in its breadth of study, this volume takes into account all of the surviving covenants in all of the New England colonies. Weir’s comprehensive survey of seventeenth-century covenants leads to a more complex picture of early New England commitments than what is portrayed in famous civil covenants like the Mayflower Compact. His work shows covenant theology being transformed into a covenantal vision for society, but also reveals the stress and strains on church and state relationships that eventually led to more secularized colonial governments in eighteenth-century New England. He concludes that New England colonial society was much more “English” and much less “American” than has often been thought, and that the New England colonies substantially mirrored religious and social change in Old England.
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Users Guide To Bible Translations
$30.99Add to cartInterVarsity Press Publication
A User’s Guide to Bible Translations escorts you through the history of Bible versions in English from Wycliffe and Tyndale to the English Standard Version and Today’s New International Version, with explanatory glances at the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, and translation theories along the way. In straightforward language, David Dewey explains how we ended up with so many versions of the Bible, shedding light on the difference between word-for-word and meaning-for-meaning translations, the controversy over gender accuracy, and issues of theological bias.
Dewey also reminds us that it’s not enough to ask, “Which Bible is best?” We also must question what purpose the translation will serve, whether for personal study or for reading aloud, as well as what audience the translation will best communicate to, whether for inquirers/seekers or for those who may struggle with the English language. Filled with charts comparing versions and diagrams showing translation difficulties, A User’s Guide provides an easy-to-use handbook for digging through the mountain of translation options until you find the right Bible for the right purpose.
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When Children Became People
$34.00Add to cart1.Introduction
2.Children In The Greco-Roman World
3.Patristic Teaching About The Nature Of Children And Their Characteristics
4.Abortion, Infanticide And Expositio, And Sexual Relations Between Children And Adults
5.Making “athletes Of Christ”: Upbringing And Education Of Children
6.Children’s Participation In Worship
7.Children And A Life Of Religious Perfection
8.Early Christians And The Humanity Of ChildrenAdditional Info
Bakke paints a fascinating picture of children’s first real emergence as people against a backdrop of the ancient world.Using theological and social history research, Bakke compares Greco-Roman and Christian attitudes toward abortion and child prostitution, pedagogy and moral upbringing, and the involvement of children in liturgy and church life. He also assesses Christian attitudes toward children in the church’s developing doctrinal commitments.
Today, growing numbers of children are impoverished, exploited, abandoned, orphaned, or killed. Bakke’s insightful work begins to untangle the roots of their complex plight.
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Birth Of Christianity
$25.99Add to cartContrary to several popular works of Christian scholarship, historian Paul Barnett maintains that the first two decades of Christian history are hardly “lost years.” As he shows in this penetrating book, the period between Jesus and the earliest Christian texts is open to historical investigation, and he richly details the time and setting in which the church was born.
Writing in a very accessible style, Barnett provides an informative, reliable chronology of the years immediately following Jesus’ crucifixion. Just as important, he presents the historical sources, biblical clues, and other telling evidence that we have for accurately documenting this crucial period of time. Looking more widely, Barnett also surveys world events during Christianity’s first twenty years and notes their impact on life in the early church.
The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years is Volume 1 of a trilogy titled After Jesus. Volume 2 will be Paul, Missionary of Jesus, and Volume 3 will be Finding the Historical Christ.
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Reformation For Armchair Theologians
$24.00Add to cartThis readable, accessible narrative story of the Protestant Reformation is written for lay audiences. It is part of the popular Westminster John Knox Press Armchair Series and is illustrated with memorable cartoons by Ron Hill. The chapters of the book are suitable for use in church adult education settings to provide a solid grounding in the history of the Reformation and its leading ideas. No other treatment of the topic is written with this audience in mind and with this comprehensiveness of scope. “Questions for Discussion” and “Suggestions for Further Reading” are provided for each chapter and make this book “group friendly.” Its thirteen chapters fit exactly into a quarter of the church year to enhance its use for church adult education settings.
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Rabbinic Literature
$20.99Add to cartRabbinic literature is a complex and interwoven body of texts whose importance is extensive: it is, of course, central to studying Judaism; its texts are valuable for broad religious study and are crucial for understanding the background of early Christianity; and the history of biblical interpretation inevitably involves this quite immense and varied set of writings.
There is no scholar more highly regarded as an authority on Rabbinic literature and Judaism than Jacob Neusner. And there is no educator better suited to explaining it in clear and concise terms, laying out the list of texts, their background and development, their content, the resources with which to delve more deeply into their meaning, and their importance for Judaism, biblical studies, and Christianity.
This Essential Guide discusses all the texts in Rabbinic literature, including the Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmuds, and Midrash. With this Guide, students will better understand the complex and unique world of Judaism and its significance for studying the Bible, Judaism, and Christian origins.
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Black Church Beginnings
$25.99Add to cartAfrican American slaves (and freedmen) turned wholeheartedly to Christianity for their lifeblood’s sustenance, but how this occurred has always been something of a mystery. In exhaustively reviewing all that’s known about the period, Mitchell dispels a number of misconceptions.
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Face To Face
$34.00Add to cartEarly depictions of Christ tended to be symbolic (e.g., the good shepherd, the fish) and avoided portraiture. Jensen explores how early iconography evolved, its Greco-Roman context, and the theological conflicts it generated. One hundred photographs enhance the discussion.
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Power Over The Body Equality In The Family
$41.99Add to cartThe term “conjugal rights” has long characterized ways of speaking about marriage both in the canonistic tradition and in the secular legal systems of the West. This book explores the origins and dimensions of this concept and the range of meanings that have attached to it from the twelfth century to the present.
Employing far-ranging sources, Charles Reid Jr. examines the language of marriage in classical Roman law, the Germanic legal codes of early medieval Europe, and the writings of canon lawyers and theologians from the medieval and early modern periods. The heart of the book, however, consists of the writings of the canonists of the High Middle Ages, especially the works of Hostiensis, Bernard of Parma, Innocent IV, and Raymond de Peafort. Reid’s incisive survey provides a new understanding of subjects such as the right of parties to marry free of parental coercion, the nature of “paternal power,” the place of bodies in the marriage contract, the meaning and implications of gender equality, and the right of inheritance.
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Devoted Life : An Invitation To The Puritans Classics
$37.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
This book is designed to introduce you to a wide range of influential Puritan writers and a representative work for each that pushes through stereotypes to the heart and soul of these Christian pastors and theologians. In these pages notable scholars, such as J.I. Packer, John Coffey, Mark A. Noll, Leland Ryken, Richard F. Lovelace and Sinclair Ferguson, invite you to sit at the feet of Puritan writers, ranging from William Ames, William Perkins and Richard Sibbes to Thomas Goodwin, John Milton, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan and Jonathan Edwards. What comes through is a living, three-dimensional portrait of the devoted life that emphasized the Christian experience of communion with God, corporate revival, biblical preaching, and the sanctifying working of God’s Holy Spirit.
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Orestes A Brownson A Print On Demand Title
$39.99Add to cartOrestes Augustus Brownson (1803-1876) was a philosopher, essayist, and minister whose broad-ranging ideas both reflected and influenced the social and religious mores of his day. This superb biography by Patrick Carey provides a thorough, incisive account of Brownson’s shifting intellectual and religious life within the context of American cultural history.
Based on a close reading of Brownson’s diary notebooks, letters, essays, and books, this biography chronicles the course of Brownson’s eventful life, particularly his restless search for a balance between freedom and communion in his relations with God, nature, and the human community. Yet Carey’s work is more than an excellent account of one man’s development; it also portrays the face of an important period in American religious history. What is more, 200 years after Brownson’s birth, America is marked by the same pressing social and religious issues that he himself addressed: religious pluralism, changing religious identifications, culture wars, military conflicts, and challenges to national peace and security. Carey’s book shows how Brownson’s values and ideas transcend his own time period and resonate helpfully with our own.
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Practicing Congregation : Imagining A New Old Church
$29.00Add to cartDiana Butler Bass’ groundbreaking project to explore encouraging signs of vitality among mainline Protestant churches is now gaining the momentum of a movement. The author’s cover story in Sojourners magazine offers a compelling overview of what characterizes these healthy, vital, and inspiring congregations. The Practicing Congregation is a central text on the road to envisioning a new way of being a church. From Nomads to Pilgrims, its follow-up companion book, contains reflections on practices by the pastors of some of the vibrant congregations that were studied in the writing of The Practicing Congregation.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The conventional wisdom about mainline Protestantism maintains that it is a dying tradition, irrelevant to a postmodern society, unresponsive to change, and increasingly disconnected from its core faith tenets. In her provocative new book, historian and researcher Diana Butler Bass argues that there are signs that mainline Protestant churches are indeed changing, finding a new vitality intentionally grounded in Christian practices and laying the groundwork for a new type of congregation.
The Practicing Congregation tracks these changes by looking at the overall history of American congregations, noting the cultural trends that have sparked change, and providing evidence of how mainline churches are reappropriating traditional Christian practices. The signs of life that Butler Bass identifies lead the reader beyond the crumbling “liberal vs. conservative” dualities to a more nuanced and fluid understanding of the shape of contemporary ecclesiology and faithfulness. In so doing, she helps readers understand tradition in new ways and creates an alternative path through the culture wars that today arrest the energies of most denominations.
Invigorated by stories from Bass’s own experience, The Practicing Congregation provides a hopeful and exciting vision of “the once and future church” that Alban founder Loren Mead first named over 10 years ago. The imaginative “retraditioning” the author identifies and celebrates will guide pastors and other leaders on this “pilgrimage of creating church,” and convincingly counter the naysayers that long ago gave up on the viability of the mainline church.
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Spirit And Resistance
$22.00Add to cartWriting from a Native American perspective, theologian George Tinker probes American Indian culture, its vast religious and cultural legacy, and its ambiguous relationship to the tradition–historic Christianity–that colonized and converted it. After five hundred years of conquest and social destruction, he says, any useful reflection must come to terms with the political state of Indian affairs and the political hopes and visions for recovering the health and well-being of Indian communities. Does Christian theology have a positive role to play? Tinker’s work offers an overview of contemporary native American culture and its perilous state. Critical of recent liberal and New Age co-opting of Native spiritual practices, Tinker also offers a critical corrective to liberation theology. He shows how Native insights into the Sacred Other and sacred space helpfully reconfigure traditional ideas of God, Jesus’ notion of the reign of God, and our relation to the earth. From this basis he offers novel proposals about cultural survival and identity, sustainability, and the endangered health of Native Americans.
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God Entranced Vision Of All Things
$25.00Add to cartCommemorating the 300th birthday of Jonathan Edwards, this volume celebrates the philosopher-theologian’s life and legacy. General editors John Piper and Justin Taylor chose ten essays that enlighten different aspects of Edwards. Opening with biographical and historical background, contributors then examine lessons from Edwards still useful today, concluding with an analysis of three of his most influential and demanding works.
Contributors Stephen Nichols, J. I. Packer, Donald Whitney, Mark Dever, Sam Storms, and Mark Talbot – among others – are helpful in guiding today’s readers to understand the man who strived to glorify God in his personal life and public ministry.
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Christian Identity In The Jewish And Graeco Roman World
$295.00Add to cartTable Of Contents
1. Introduction: The Emergence Of Christian Identity
2. Text And Identity
3. History, Memory, And The Invention Of Tradition
4. Boundaries
5. The Grammar Of Practice
6. Embodiment And Gender
7. Space And Place
8. The Christian Race
9. `The Other’
10. Made Not Born: ConclusionsAdditional Info
Description
‘I am a Christian’ is the confession of the martyrs of early Christian texts and, no doubt, of many others; but what did this confession mean, and how was early Christian identity constructed? This innovative study sets the emergence of Christian identity in the first two centuries, as it is constructed by the broad range of surviving literature, within the wider context of Jewish and Graeco-Roman identity. It uses a number of models from contemporary constructionist views of identity formation to explore how what comes to be seen as ‘Christian’ literature creates a sense of what to be ‘a Christian’ means, and traces both continuities and discontinuities with the ways in which Jewish and Graeco-Roman identity were also being constructed through their texts. It seeks to acknowledge the centrality of texts in shaping early Christianity, historically as well as in our perception of it, while also exploring how we might move from those texts to the individuals and communities who preserved them. Such an approach challenges more traditional emphases on the development of institutions, whether structures or credal and ethical formulations, which often fail to recognize the rhetorical function of the texts on which they draw, and the uncertainties of how well these reflect the actual practice and experience of individuals and communities. While building on recent recognition of the diversity of early Christianity, the book goes on to explore the question whether it is possible to speak of a distinctive Christian identity across both the range of early texts and as a pressing historical and theological question in the contemporary world. -
Worship Wars In Early Lutheranism
$145.00Add to cartHow important was music to Martin Luther? Drawing on hundreds of liturgical documents, contemporary accounts of services, books on church music, and other sources, Joseph Herl rewrites the history of music and congregational song in German Lutheran churches. Herl traces the path of music and congregational song in the Lutheran church from the Reformation to 1800, to show how it acquired its reputation as the “singing church.”
In the centuries after its founding, in a debate that was to have a strong impact on Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries, the Lutheran church was torn over a new style of church music that many found more entertaining than devotional. By the end of the eighteenth century, Lutherans were trying to hold their own against a new secularism, and many members of the clergy favored wholesale revision or even abandonment of the historic liturgy in order to make worship more relevant in contemporary society. Herl paints a vivid picture of these developments, using as a backdrop the gradual transition from a choral to a congregational liturgy.
The author eschews the usual analyses of musical repertoire and deals instead with events, people and ideas, drawing readers inside the story and helping them sense what it must have been like to attend a Lutheran church in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Parallel developments in Catholic churches are discussed, as are the rise of organ accompaniment of hymns and questions of musical performance practice. Although written with academic precision, the writing is clear and comprehensible to the nonspecialist, and entertaining anecdotes abound.
Appendixes include translations of several important historical documents and a set of tables outlining the Lutheran mass as presented in 172 different liturgical orders. The bibliography includes 400 Lutheran church orders and reports of ecclesiastical visitations read by the author. -
Moderatism Pietism And Awakening
$58.99Add to cartThe Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church is a multivolume study by Hughes Oliphant Old that explores the history of preaching from the words of Moses at Mount Sinai through modern times. In Volume 5, Moderatism, Pietism, and Awakening, Old brings the story of preaching up through the eighteenth century, showing how, after the tumultuous age of the Reformation, preaching in the eighteenth century was driven in several very different directions. The book’s first chapter considers moderatism, an inevitable reaction against the high tensions of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. In the second chapter Old discusses pietism, examining the contributions of Philipp Jakob Spener, Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Samuel Davies, and other preachers. The remaining seven chapters delve into a variety of national or denominational schools of preaching.
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Building On The Gospel Foundation
$79.99Add to cartEdsel Burdge Jr. and Samuel L. Horst tell the stories of three centuries of faith and life among the Washington County (Md.), and Franklin County (Pa.) Mennonites. From small beginnings in colonial American settlements, issues such as personal spiritual commitment, corporate accountability, nonconformity, and peace have been constants. This history describes in detail the particulars of that struggle as well as recounting stories illustrative of community life in general.
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God You Have
$9.99Add to cartThe political hijacking of theological language and God’s prerogatives is always a danger. In this perceptive study, an Old Testament theologian sets these issues in the context of the Ten Commandments, and especially the First Commandment. From that statement of God’s person, work, and expectations of loyalty, Miller articulates the modern challenge of faithful living in a complex world with complex choices. As he states it, the abiding problem has been “the coalescence of God and country, the takeover of the language of faith in the speech of politics, and the confusion of loyalty with obedience.”
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Bonhoeffer Phenomenon : Portraits Of A Protestant Saint
$23.00Add to cartStephen Haynes offers a provocative assessment of the Bonhoeffer mystique, which interprets Bonhoeffer’s legacy through the medium of sainthood. Before casting an eye on the great pastor-theologian through a hagiographic lens, Haynes examines various receptions and appropriations of Bonhoeffer from different theological, ecclesial, and political contexts. Bonhoeffer is viewed from such divergent perspectives as radical theology and politics (exemplified in “death of God” theology), liberal theology and social ethics, conservative popular Christianity and evangelicalism, and lastly, the universal portrait of Bonhoeffer, which highlights his ecumenical significance. The Bonhoeffer Phenomenon provides an invaluable introduction to Bonhoeffer studies, while also offering its own unique analysis of Bonhoeffer’s life and thought.
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Pentecostal And Charismatic Studies (Student/Study Guide)
$55.00Add to cartThe Pentecostal and Charismatic movement is one of the miracles of the 20th century. Without government support, without an advertising campaign, often without the notice of journalists and academics and sometimes in the face of persecution and ridicule, it has spread its message around the world and now attracts in the region of 500 million people. Many of its original and formative documents are unknown and out of print. This book collects together samples from the writings of key Pentecostals and charismatics going back about 100 years and, over a range of issues and practices, shows how they vary and how they have developed historically.
These texts have lain in out of print magazines and archives and, so far as we know, have never been collected before in this way. This book allows you to hear the authentic voice of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, drawing especially from sources in English.
The book will be of benefit to theologians, clergy and teachers who wish to teach about the Pentecostal and charismatic movement using original sources but with the help of informed introductory comment.
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Wonderful Words Of Life
$31.99Add to cartAlthough the use of hymns in many evangelical congregations seems to be declining, Richard Mouw (in the introduction) predicts a resurgence of hymnody in the future. Other notable contributors examining the various historical and theological dimensions of hymns in American Protestantism include Mark Noll, Susan Wise Bauer, Kevin Kee, and Jeffrey VanderWilt. The essays probe the influence of Isaac Watts, the practical implications of hymns for living the Christian life, and the character of hymns as bearers of good (or bad) theology. Wonderful Words of Life provides an engaging treatment of an often neglected field of study, which bridges the gap between Christian belief and practice.
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Christian Assembly : Marks Of The Church In A Pluralistic Age
$24.00Add to cartWhat is church? What makes the church one? While these questions may seem innocuous, church has become conflicted territory, with internal factions, external pressures, and ecumenical turmoil all calling for a more positive, sturdy, more resilient notion of Christian community.
Wengert approaches the questions as a Reformation historian. He shows how the New Testament notion of ”marks” of the church was taken up by Martin Luther and developed by Phillip Melanchthon not as a descriptive tag but as a criterion for authenticity in Christian community. Lathrop, a liturgical theologian, shows concretely how those marks can stamp the worship life of a congregation as well as the evaluative work of congregations with their pastors, bishops, superintendents, and conference ministers. -
Songs Of The Isles
$25.00Add to cartMany people know of the Carmina Gadelica, the collection of Gaelic songs, prayers and blessings from the Hebrides, yet few have access to its five volumes published in Scotland between 1900 and 1952.
Here, an attractive selection is made for the contemporary reader and freshly translated to reflect the particular Christian experience of the people who composed them: Celtic Christians in the 7th to 9th centuries who worshipped the Trinitarian God, had a devotion to the Virgin Mary, the Archangels and the Saints, and a love of the Bible, especially the Psalms. Some 130 poems and prayers are included, arranged in eleven sections including The Power of Heaven, Home and Family and Soul Journey. An extended introduction opens up the world that produced these extraordinary and beautiful prayers and blessings.
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Missions Nationalism And The End Of Empire
$48.99Add to cartChristian missions have often been seen as the religious arm of Western imperialism. What is rarely appreciated is the role they played in bringing about an end to the Western colonial empires after the Second World War. “Missions, Nationalism, and the End of Empire” explores this neglected subject.
Respected authorities on the history of missions explore new territory in these chapters, examining from diverse angles the linkages between Christianity, nationalism, and the dissolution of the colonial empires in Asia and Africa. This work not only sheds light on the relation of religion and politics but also uncovers the sometimes paradoxical implications of the church’s call to bring the gospel to all the world.
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Anglicans And Orthodox
$25.00Add to cartElizabeth I deliberately divided her episcopate at the outset of her reign between Geneva reformers and bishops who looked to the Fathers of the Early Church. Thereafter in the Church of England there would always be divines who would be drawn to the Orthodox East. Such men suffered mightily in the 17th century at the hands of the first Puritans and then Whigs when these gained political power, and their suffering impelled them more and more to ‘look to the East.’
This book traces the fortunes of the quest, through the study of Greek texts, involvement in the intricate politics of the Near and Middle East, deprivation and isolation in the Nonjuror schism, and finally the rejection by the Greek Patriarchs of requests for Orthodox Communion in the 1720’s.
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Anglicanism And The Western Christian Tradition
$29.99Add to cartAn impressive line up of high profile names from the academic world and the churches reflect on the changing nature of Anglicanism’s relations with the Catholic Church from the Reformation to the present day. A key text for libraries, colleges and all students of church history and ecumenical relations, this volume is based on a prestigious set of lectures given in Rome in 2002. Anglican and Catholic voices together explore continuity and change in the Anglican church and its relations with Rome from its earliest days, through the Elizabethan era, Civil War, the age of Hooker, the Oxford Movement and in its becoming a worldwide communion.
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Reformed Confessions Of The 16th Century
$60.00Add to cartReformed Confessions of the Sixteenth Century makes available a number of confessional documents that are not easily accessible elsewhere. Arthur Cochrane’s introduction to the work and to each confession indicates each document’s importance and its theological emphases. A new introduction by Jack Rogers focuses on developments in the study of Reformed Confessions since the first appearance of Cochrane’s book in 1966.
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Faith Cure : Divine Healing In The Holiness And Pentecostal Movements
$20.00Add to cartAs Holiness denominations began to emerge out of Methodism and other denominations, they were characterized by three distinctive teachings: sanctification, divine healing, and dispensational views of the second coming. This book will look at the second element: the roots of divine healing teaching, its results, its practitioners, its cultural milieu, its biblical and theological foundations, and its relevance today. In general, in this period Holiness and Pentecostal leaders offered healing as an experience and expectation within the community of faith and did not see themselves in any way as dispensers of healing. Their teaching and practice has persisted in many churches today. Hardesty focuses on the period from roughly 1870 to 1920, and in the last chapters, discusses spiritual healing and its connection with the broader cultural search for alternative medicines.
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Early Christian Families In Context Print On Demand Title
$41.99Add to cartA Print on Demand Title
Typical studies of marriage and family in the early Christian period focus on very limited evidence found in Scripture. This interdisciplinary book offers a broader, richer picture of the first Christian families by drawing together research by experts ranging from archaeologists to ancient historians.
By exploring the nature of households in the ancient Greco-Roman world, the contributors assemble a new understanding of ancient Christian families that is both compelling and instructive. Divided into six parts, the book covers key aspects of ancient family life, from meals and child-rearing to women’s roles and the lives of slaves. Three concluding chapters explore the implications of all this information for theological education today.
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Waldensian Way To God
$35.99Add to cartThe story of the Waldensians’ faith and commitment begins in the late twelfth century when the followers of Peter Waldo chose to ignore the Church’s decree against preaching without authority. Condemned for heresy, they left the city of Lyon and wandered the European countryside. Ruthlessly suppressed by the Inquisition and medieval crusades, their clandestine movement was reduced to a few enclaves by the time Protestant reformers from Switzerland arrived at their foremost settlements in the Cottian Alps between France and Italy. The basic compatibility between the pre-Reformation beliefs of the Waldensians and the ideas of the Swiss reformers eventually led to their adoption of the Calvinist form of Reformed Protestantism. However, by affirming their new faith, they became a conspicuous target for the forces of the Counter Reformation. Torture, imprisonment, exile, and martyrdom all became part of the heritage of the small but vibrant Waldensian Reformed Church that arose in the 1500s. The survival of the Waldensians down to the present, despite the numerous attempts to destroy their traditions and beliefs, is testimony that all things are possible through faith.
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2nd Century Christianity (Expanded)
$25.00Add to cartThis revised and expanded edition of a book that first appeared in 1945 offers an inside look at the growth and spread of Christianity in the second century by providing source materials from pagan witnesses, Christian churches, and movements that became known as heretical. Reading these selections provides a first-hand sense of issues and concerns in that period. It brings the reader right into the arena in which Christianity and Christians were being discussed and provides a first-hand look at what churches were facing as the Christian movement spread. Thirty-nine sections plus a biography are included.
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History Of Christian Thought
$20.99Add to cartA society with no grasp of its history is like a person without a memory. This is particularly true of the history of ideas. This book is an ideal introduction to the thinkers who have shaped Christian history and the culture of much of the world. Writing in a lively, accessible style, Jonathan Hill takes us on an enlightening journey from the first to the twenty first centuries. He shows us the key Christian thinkers through the ages – ranging from Irenaeus, Origen, Augustine and Aquinas through to Luther, Wesley, Kierkegaard and Barth – placing them in their historical context and assessing their contribution to the development of Christianity.
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Calvin And The Consolidation Of The Genevan Reformation
$45.00Add to cartThis book chronicles the history of the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth century Geneva under the leadership of John Calvin and is the best modern study of the Genevan Reformation available. The narrative of this work is enhanced by twenty-seven tables of extensive statistical data and eleven prosopographical appendices drawn from the author’s extensive studies in the Geneva archives. His work shows the challenges faced by Calvin and his associates as they sought to proclaim and enact their Christian faith in a Genevan society that was facing severe problems with the influx of refugees from all over Europe.
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In Search Of Christian Unity (Revised)
$28.95Add to cartThe decision to publish a revised and updated edition of In Search of Christian Unity was reached because the earlier edition was found to be a useful text and resource in numbers of college and seminary classrooms. All texts that treat historical movements and institutions have continuing significance and relevance need frequent updating, and it is hoped that the present work will fulfill this need for the Stone/Campbell movement, currently entering its third century. The author has been pleased by the positive reception accorded the earlier edition by historians and students in each of the three branches of the Stone-Campbell heritage…
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Readers Companion To Augustines Confessions
$45.00Add to cartThis book is a tool for teaching and studying the great Christian classic, Augustine’s Confessions. It is a unique venture in which thirteen different scholars look at each of the thirteen books in the Confessions and interpret their chapters in light of that book and in light of the rest of Augustine’s work. The result is that the richness and ambiguity of Augustine’s work shines through as well as the richness and ambiguity of different readings of the Confessions.
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Judaism Before Jesus
$40.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
Turning the page from Malachi to Matthew, we skip a lot of history. In fact, it is something like missing several key episodes in an ongoing television saga. The setting and main plot line are familiar, but new characters have appeared and more recent events and developments are assumed. Did anyone record the episodes we missed? Fortunately a few did. Their reception wasn’t always good, and there are annoying cuts and splices. But Anthony J. Tomasino has put together the missing episodes and skillfully retells the story of Judaism before Jesus, from the time of Ezra and Nehemiah to the Herods, and even up to Masada. The result is an entertaining, informative and enlightening retelling of the story of Judaism and the development of the ideas, subplots and characters that shaped the world of Jesus and the first Christians.
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When God Walked On Campus
$16.99Add to cartA brief history of evangelical awakenings at American colleges and universities. Do you long for revival on your college or university campus ? Is your heart burdened for the students you interact with each day? Here are some accounts of revivals in the past two centuries that will whet your appetite for the transforming work of God’s Spirit on your campus today. From the academic halls of America-Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Middlebury, Union, Bethel, Wheaton, Williams, Trinity, Ashland, and many others-comes the stirring stories of awakening and revival. On both secular and Christian campuses, the moving of God was evident as men and women were converted and stirred to ministry and foreign service. Out of these pockets of awakening came the formation or strengthening of student and campus fellowships such as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Youth for Christ, Campus Crusade for Christ, Navigators and the YMCA. The powerful ministries of men such as Timothy Dwight, J. Edwin Orr, Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Charles Spurgeon were used to promote revival in these seasons of collegiate awakening and a sermon from each has been selected to quicken your heart and challenge your thinking. May this brief look at history equip you with fresh hope for revival today!
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Theology Of The Heart
$29.00Add to cartBengt Hoffman elevates Christian spirituality and spiritual formation as proper subjects for serious theological study. This book reveals Luther’s mystical experience of God in a prayerful life to be essential in the development of his theology. It shows how the spiritual life is essential to Luther’s understanding of the gospel. Balanced by his emphasis on the “external Word” Luther’s experience of the divine was a critical influence on his understanding of faith and salvation.
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Jesus And Caesar
$19.95Add to cartThis book by Brian C. Stiller thoughtfully captures 20 years of insights and reflections from his work in the public square, providing an analysis for the biblical call to “occupy until I come” and a practical guide for serving God through serving our world. As president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Stiller bacame a key public voice for people of biblical faith. As founder and editor-in-chief of Canada’s national Christian magazine, “Faith Today,” he spoke out on these issues. He also hosted the national television program, Cross Currents, and is author of eight books. Today he serves as president of Tyndale College &Seminary. He and his wife Lily live in Newmarket, Ontario.
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Signs Amid The Rubble Print On Demand Title
$19.99Add to cartThe late Lesslie Newbigin was widely regarded as one of this generation’s most significant voices on Christianity in relation to modern society. Now that he is gone, there is a call for his unpublished writings to be made available. To that end “Signs amid the Rubble” gathers some of Newbigin’s finest statements on issues of continuing relevance.
The first set of chapters consists of the 1941 Bangalore Lectures, in which Newbigin speaks powerfully of the kingdom of God in relation to the modern severely deficient idea of “progress.” The second group of writings, the Henry Martyn Lectures of 1986, deals mainly with the importance of Christian mission. In the last piece, his address to the World Council of Churches conference on mission and evangelism in Brazil in 1996 which editor Geoffrey Wainwright calls his “swan song on the ecumenical stage” Newbigin wonders aloud how future generations will judge today’s practice of abortion.
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Missionary Zeal And Institutional Control
$41.50Add to cartIn the historical literature on mission, this book stands out for its detailed examination of the of the organization dynamics that gave shape-and brought enduring success-to the Evangelical Missionary Scoiety at Basel. A first-rate account of the early Basel Mission on the Gold Coast of West Africa (present-day Ghana), this volume takes readers inside the mission itself, revealing its dynamic, though sometimes contradictory, methods of motivation and discipline and how they impacted effective evangelism both at home and abroad. Working from archival records, Jon Miller details the collaboration across class lines that made the mission possible, and he shows how basic pietist beliefs about authority and obedience were the source of both the mission’s strengths and its most serious internal weaknesses. Also included are two dozen photographs, a foreword by Richard V. Pierard, and an afterword by Paul Jenkins.
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Glorious Companions : Five Centuries Of Anglican Spirituality (Reprinted)
$36.99Add to cart“Schmidt offers a very substantial but simply written view of notables in the Anglican communion since the days of Thomas Cranmer, including Donne, the Wesleys, Underhill, and L’Engle. Included are excerpts from many eloquent and varied witnesses. For most collections,”—
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Christian Worship In Reformed Churches Past And Present
$48.99Add to cart438 Pages
Additional Info
Worship renewal is now on the agenda of many Reformed churches, as the need for adaptation and new approaches is acutely felt all over. How can the church faithfully worship God in the midst of rapidly changing situations? How can it constructively relate to widely differing cultural contexts? What is its place in the wider ecumenical scene? In preparing a sweeping survey of Reformed worship across time and place, this volume provides some help to those engaged with vital questions like these.Written by theologians and liturgical scholars from a wide range of churches and countries, these chapters explore the history of Reformed worship on every continent from the sixteenth century to the present. Surveying the most significant developments in the growth of Reformed worship, the book identifies the major “ingredients” that make the Reformed worship tradition distinctive and highlights those aspects of Reformed worship that are particularly relevant to present efforts at renewal. Indeed, an important component of this book is the inclusion of “A Common Reflection on Christian Worship in Reformed Churches Today,” the result of a major consultation in January 2001 at the International Reformed Center John Knox.
Revealing the rich variety of forms and diversity of perspectives that have made and do make up Reformed worship worldwide, this volume will be a valuable resource for church and worship leaders both in and outside the Reformed family.
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To God Alone Be Glory
$57.00Add to cartIn this highly useful text, the fruit of extensive study and research, Harold Daniels tells the fascinating story of the history of Reformed worship in America, from the 1600s to the present. He describes the development and objectives of the Book Of Common Worship and explores how the book itself serves as an agenda for liturgical reform within the church. In a substantive second part of the book, Daniels provides the sources of the prayers and other material used in the Book Of Common Worship. Persons involved in planning, presenting, studying, or teaching about Presbyterian worship will benefit greatly from having a copy of this comprehensive resource in their personal library.
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Church In A Postliberal Age
$33.99Add to cartGeorge Lindbeck is one of the most influential and important of post-war American theologians. His books and essays generate debate not only among his fellow Lutherans but also among other Christians as well as Jews and students of religions in the academy more generally. The goal of this anthology is to collect key samples of his enterprise, especially for readers who may no none or few of his books and articles. By characterizing Lindbeck’s Christian theology as at once evangelical, catholic and postliberal, we are able to understand what describing this theology as a radical tradition might mean as well as locate some of his critics. This volume provides a superb introduction to all those interested in Lindbeck’s thought as well as to the significant debates surrounding postliberalism.
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Paul Thessalonica And Early Christianity
$31.50Add to cartThis significant book contains essays on Pauline thought and theology that span some twenty-five years, placing themes and issues in a broad chronological context of academic discussion. In addition to discussing major Pauline themes, 1 Thessalonians in its religious and cultural context in particular, Kark Donfried raises the question of Paul’s Jewishness with a fresh urgency and opens new perspectives on the origins of early Christianity and its relationship to Second Temple Judaism.
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Martyn Lloyd Jones 1899-1981 And 20th Century Evangelicalism
$39.99Add to cartJohn Brencher’s thematic study of Martyn Lloyd-Jones critically examines the many events, persons, and issues surrounding one of the leading and most controversial preachers in modern Protestantism who is also one of the most influential Evangelicals in the twentieth century.
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Changing Shape Of Church History
$23.99Add to cart“[Gonzalez] shows how church historians such as Eusebius, Augustine, the Magdeburg authors of Centuries, Baronius, and Harnack changed the way church history has been written over the centuries, how people of color and women have recently changed the writing of church history, and what might be the future of church history in the 21st century.”
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Christians And Missionaries In India
$41.50Add to cart392 pages
Additional Info
These studies explore the significant, yet often contested, impact of Christian missions around the world. Bringing together monographs by established and emerging scholars, collections of essays on themes in the history of missions, and new editions of seminal primary texts, this sereis provides rich source material for studying the relation between religion and culture. Realizing that many more studies, yielding deeper and wider understandings, of many different Christian communities in India can be written, each chapter here is an attempt to address some particular aspect of cultural cross-contact and communication with special refernece to Christians in India. Subjects address range from histories of Sanskrit grammar and modern scientific knowledge to histories of populist Pentecostalism, Urdu polemis, and Tamil poetry. -
Effective Small Churches In The 21st Century (Revised)
$23.99Add to cartIn a complete revamping of his much admired Making the Small Church Effective, Dudley tackles such recent developments as shifts in institutional loyalty and how individuals identify with large groups and organizations. Enunciates those key components for building mature, faithful, unified Christians.
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60 Second Guide To Denominations
$14.99Add to cartThis easy-to-use, non-biased resource guide to all the major denominations in the US includes a summary of doctrinal beliefs, and is perfect for the new believer or the long-time Christian.
An alphabetical listing of over 300 denominations
Information concerning the church beliefs on over 20 major topics
Brief overview of church group history
Statements of faith
Stands on current issues and events of relevance for today
Contact information for denominational headquarters
A summary of doctrinal beliefs in a completely non-biased manner -
Noise Of Dry Bones
$22.99Add to cartGod is no different with the church. He shows in the Bible exactly how He wants the church to be organized and run. The Noise of Dry Bones documents Bible events, dialog, Greek word meanings – anything that God has been fit to put in the Bible on this topic. For you see, when the church leaves out or misapplies vital parts of God’s operational architecture, this is lawlessness, allowing the Devil to steal, kill and destroy… I don’t think the Almighty is concerned at all with church variety; He just wants to be the one in charge. When God just shows up at church, hearts are changed, sick bodies are healed and even the dead are raised to life. This happened in the first-century church. I believe all these changes in the church are inevitable. Jesus prayed for church unity in John 17 (“That they may be one even as We are One”). Ezekiel saw an end-time army of God made from dry bones that comes together “suddenly with great noise.” Have these happened yet? No. An army must be organized or it is no army.
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New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity 9
$43.99Add to cart148 Pages
Additional Info
This series seeks to keep New Testament and early church researchers, teachers, and students abreast of emerging documentary evidence by reproducing and reviewing recently published Greek inscriptions and papyri that illumine the context in which the Christian church developed. Produced by the Ancient History Documentary Research Centre at Macquarie University, the New Docs volumes broaden the context of biblical studies and other related fields and provide a better understanding of the historical and social milieus of early Christianity.Volume 9 reproduces, translates, and reviews a selection of Greek inscriptions and papyri that were first published or reissued in 1986 and 1987. The documents gathered here include secular texts as well as texts directly relating to Judaica and ecclesiastica. Some notable entries in this volume:
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Ancient And Postmodern Christianity
$35.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
The consensual roots of Christianity found in the common understanding of the faith among the early church fathers is the foundation on which the church can and should build in the twenty-first century. Edited by Kennth Tanner and Christopher A. Hall, the eighteen essays found in this volume span theological and ecclesiastical perspectives that emphasize what the various Christian traditions hold in common. This shared heritage is applied to a wide range of topics–from worship and theology to ethics and history and more–that point the way for the people of God in the decades ahead. Ancient & Postmodern Christianity is created in honor of Thomas C. Oden, who has done much in recent decades to promote these ideas with such signal publications as After Modernity . . . What? and the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, which was launched under his editorial direction. Contributing scholars include Richard John Neuhaus, Alan Padgett, J. I. Packer, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Carl Braaten, Stanley Grenz, Bradley Nassif, Thomas Howard and more. Here is a volume that will set a course needed for succeeding generations to restore and renew a living orthodoxy.
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Worship In The Melting Pot
$11.99Add to cartNew trends in worship have shaken traditional concepts and attitudes, giving rise to much heart-searching and a flurry of books. Is it all just a matter of generation and taste? Are the traditions of today only the innovations of yesterday?
This lively and clearly reasoned book focuses on four crucial principles of worship laid down by Christ and strongly re-affirmed at the Reformation. These central pillars are rapidly passing out of sight today, yet it is surely by these that all new ideas should be assessed.Here also is a fascinating view of how they worshipped in Bible times, including the Old Testament rules for the use of instruments, and New Testament light on all the elements of worship normative for today.
‘Worship in the Melting Pot’ has instantly become core reading among British evanglical pastors and lay people. Searching and challenging; dealing with principles not personalities.
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Evangelicalism And The Stone Campbell Movement 1
$35.99Add to cartThe Stone-Campbell Movement, also known as the Restoration Movement, arose on the frontiers of early nineteenth-century America. Like-minded Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians abandoned denominational labels in order to be “Christians only.” They called followers to join in Christian unity and restore the ideals of the New Testament church, holding authoritative no book but the Bible and believing no creed but Christ.
Modern-day inheritors of this movement, including the Churches of Christ (a cappella) and the Christian Churches (independent), find much in common with wider evangelical Christianity as a whole. Both groups are committed to the authority of Scripture and the importance of personal conversion. Yet Restorationists and evangelicals, separated by sociological history as well as points of doctrinal emphasis, have been wary of each other. Evangelicals have often misunderstood Restorationists as exclusivist separatists and baptismal regenerationists. On the other hand, Stone-Campbell adherents have been suspicious of mainstream denominational evangelicals as having compromised key aspects of the Christian faith.
In recent years Restoration Movement leaders and churches have moved more freely within evangelical circles. As a result, Stone-Campbell scholars have reconsidered their relationship to evangelicalism, pondering to what extent Restorationists can identify themselves as evangelicals. Gathered here are essays by leading Stone-Campbell thinkers, drawing from their Restoration heritage and offering significant contributions to evangelical discussions of the theology of conversion and ecclesiology. Also included are responses from noted evangelicals, who assess how Stone-Campbell thought both corresponds with and diverges from evangelical perspectives.
Along with William R. Baker (editor) and Mark Noll (who wrote the Foreword), contributors include Tom Alexander, Jim Baird, Craig L. Blomberg, Jack Cottrell, Everett Ferguson, Stanley J. Grenz, John Mark Hicks, Gary Holloway, H. Wayne House, Robert C. Kurka, Robert Lowery, Edward P. Myers and Jon A. Weatherly.
For all concerned with Christian unity and the restoration of the church, Evangelicalism & the Stone-Campbell Movement offers a substantive starting point for dialogue and discussion.
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Jesus And The Rise Of Early Christianity
$45.99Add to cartGain new insight into first-century Christianity as you explore the world of Caesars and Herods, proconsuls and Pharisees, Sadducees and revolutionaries. Presenting a well-reasoned response to current revisionist views, Barnett argues that we can’t fully comprehend the growth of the Christian faith apart from understanding Jesus’ impact on his followers—and ultimately the world.
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Pocket History Of The Church
$14.99Add to cartThe story of Christianity is a fascinating tale. Here we find drama, vision and expansion along with failure, setbacks and tragedy. Yet during the past two thousand years the power of Jesus is felt throughout the interplay of human actors and the forces of world events.
How can you grasp the story played out on such a gigantic stage? This book is an ideal place to start. D. Jeffrey Bingham has skillfully selected the key people and episodes to tell a grand and humbling story. From Roman persecution to the early creeds, from the monastic movement to the Reformation, from the rise of liberalism to missionary expansion, he chronicles the ups and downs of a people and a faith.
This pocket history has been crafted for students, pastors and other busy people who want an informed, clear and concise presentation that feeds the mind and moves the heart. It is an account that nurtures the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love. For Bingham aims not only to uncover the treasures of the church’s past but also to show how history aids your own spiritual journey today.
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Hell Without Fire
$25.99Add to cartConversion is one of the most significant motifs in American Church History. From the First and Second Great Awakenings to early twentieth-century Pentecostal revivals and contemporary Evangelical movements, conversion in all its extravagant forms is important to the story of religion in America. Love Henry Whelchel, Jr. takes up this motif of conversion as it relates particularly to enslaved Africans and black Americans. He explains the role of conversion in the complex interaction between blacks and whites in America. Using the motif of Christian conversion as a unifying theme, Whelchel provides a basic introduction to the history and diversity of Christian religion among enslaved Africans and black Americans. Conversion serves to illuminate the complex relationships that developed between black and white religion in America from its founding until the period of Reconstruction. Whelchel concludes with the story of the founding of the C.M.E., illustrating the emergence of black Methodism from white control in the South following the Civil War.
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2000 Years Of Charismatic Christianity
$19.99Add to cartOverwhelming evidence reveals contemporary Christianity roots in Pentecost! The world is taking notice and realizing that the fastest-growing segment in Christianity has an undeniable history with a pattern and a rich, deep foundation dating back to the New Testament. Explore overwhelming evidence that reveals how the gifts of the Holy Spirit not only have existed in the centuries since the early apostles, but have also survived the Middle Ages, the politicized church of Europe, and have experienced a spectacular revival this century. 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity offers convincing evidence that the modern Pentecostal and Charismatic movements are rooted in the two-thousand-year history of the church. Those who identify with these movements will be affirmed in the experience of the Holy Spirit and will gain a new respect and appreciation for the movement of which they are a part. Those outside the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements will also benefit by reading this volume in that they will gain an understanding of this movement that Harvard professor Dr. Harvey Cox says is “reshaping religion in the 21st century.”
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Christians Cultural Interactions And Indias Religious Traditions
$41.50Add to cartChristianity has long been one of India’s religious traditions, but the extent to which the faith has influenced Indian society and culture has never been well documented. This important book is the first to do so.
A group of historians, missiologists, and religion scholars examines the fascinating but little known history of missionary Christianity in India, showing how it has played a significant role in the development of modern India at every level. Chapters deal with the interaction between Christianity and India’s “high culture,” with aspects of conversion among tribal people and outcasts beneath the hierarchy of Hindu society, and with the development of Indian churches and their relation to the wider culture.
