Religion
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Circle Of Hope
$30.00Add to cartA Pulitzer Prize winner’s intimate portrait of a church, its radical mission, and its riveting crisis.
“The revolution I wanted to be part of was in the church.”
Americans have been leaving their churches. Some drift away. Some stay home. And some have been searching for?and finding?more authentic ways to find and follow Jesus.
This is the story of one such “radical outpost of Jesus followers” dedicated to service, the Sermon on the Mount, and working toward justice for all in this life, not just salvation for some in the next. Part of a little-known yet influential movement at the edge of American evangelicalism, Philadelphia’s Circle of Hope grew for forty years, planted four congregations, and then found itself in crisis.
The story that follows is an American allegory full of questions with urgent relevance for so many of us, not just the faithful: How do we commit to one another and our better selves in a fracturing world? Where does power live? Can it be shared? How do we make “the least of these” welcome?
Building on years of deep reporting, the Pulitzer Prize winner Eliza Griswold has crafted an intimate, immersive, tenderhearted portrait of a community, as well as a riveting chronicle of its transformation, bearing witness to the ways a deeply committed membership and their team of devoted pastors are striving toward change that might help their church survive. Through generational rifts, an increasingly politicized religious landscape, a pandemic that prevented gathering to worship, and a rise in foundation-shaking activism, Circle of Hope tells a propulsive, layered story of what we do to stay true to our beliefs. It is a soaring, searing examination of what it means for us to love, to grow, and to disagree.
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Shepherds For Sale
$32.99Add to cartHow deeply have leftist billionaires infiltrated America’s churches?
Liberal theology isn’t new. Pastors and theologians have drifted, slipped, or even plunged into doctrinal error for centuries. But in recent decades, Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham reveals, well-funded forces from outside the church have been sowing seeds of discord from behind the scenes.
In Shepherds for Sale, Basham documents how progressive powerbrokers –from George Soros, to the founder of eBay, to former members of the Obama administration– set out to change the American church. Secular foundations and think tanks have deliberately targeted Christian media, universities, megachurches, nonprofits, and even entire denominations, not to mention many high-profile pastors and influencers, with infiltration and astroturf campaigns. Their goal: to co-opt the church for political purposes. In exchange for toeing a left-wing line, many of those church leaders and institutions have received cash, career jumps, prestige, and praise.
Now, many evangelical leaders are pushing their members to “whisper” about sexual sins, reconsider the importance of abortion, lament the effects of climate change, and repent of “perpetuating systemic racism.” Meanwhile, America’s largest evangelical denominations are fraught with division over issues like critical race theory, and many ministries once known for publishing sound doctrine are now promoting social justice.
Through years of investigation, Basham uncovered compromise at the highest levels of evangelical leadership –from the revered Presbyterian theologian who furtively backed a rogue congregation rebelling against his own denomination, to the celebrity megachurch pastor who secretly encouraged a group of pastors to change their views on sexuality.
A rigorously reported expose, Shepherds for Sale serves as a warning of what can happen when a church forgets that true power lies not in the world’s wisdom, but in Scripture.
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Struggling With Evangelicalism
$17.99Add to cartWhen evangelicals make a mess, who cleans it up?
Many today are discarding the evangelical label, even if they still hold to the historic tenets of evangelicalism. But evangelicalism is a space, not just a brand, and living in that space is complicated. As a lifelong evangelical who happens to be a biracial Asian/white millennial, Dan Stringer has felt both included and alienated by the evangelical community and has wrestled with whether to stay or go. He sits as an uneasy evangelical insider with ties to many of evangelicalism’s historic organizations and institutions. Neither “everything’s fine” nor “burn it all down,” Stringer argues that we need four postures to grapple realistically and redemptively with evangelicalism. Without awareness, we don’t know our identity. Without appreciation, we risk succumbing to cynicism. Without repentance, we capitulate to idolatry. And without renewal, future generations will find this space even less inhabitable. This even-handed guide offers a thoughtful appreciation of evangelicalism’s history, identity, and strengths, and also lament at its blind spots, toxic brokenness, and complicity with injustice. From this complicated space, we can move forward with informed vision rather than resignation, and with hope for our future together.
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Public Intellectuals And The Common Good
$25.99Add to cartIn the midst of a divisive culture, public intellectuals speaking from an evangelical perspective have a critical role to play-within the church and beyond. Representing the church, higher education, journalism, and the nonprofit sector, these world-class scholars and practitioners cast a vision for intellectuals who promote human flourishing.
Evangelical Christians are active across all spheres of intellectual and public life today. But a disconnect remains: the work they produce too often fails to inform their broader communities. In the midst of a divisive culture and a related crisis within evangelicalism, public intellectuals speaking from an evangelical perspective have a critical role to play-within the church and beyond. What does it look like to embrace such a vocation out of a commitment to the common good? Public Intellectuals and the Common Good draws together world-class scholars and practitioners to cast a vision for intellectuals who promote human flourishing. Representing various roles in the church, higher education, journalism, and the nonprofit sector, contributors reflect theologically on their work and assess current challenges and opportunities. What historically well-defined qualities of public intellectuals should be adopted now? What qualities should be jettisoned or reimagined? Public intellectuals are mediators-understanding and then articulating truth amid the complex realities of our world. The conversations represented in this book celebrate and provide guidance for those who through careful thinking, writing, speaking, and innovation cultivate the good of their communities. Contributors:
*Miroslav Volf
*Amos Yong
*Linda A. Livingstone
*Heather Templeton Dill
*Katelyn Beaty
*Emmanuel Katongole
*John M. Perkins and David Wright -
Urban Ministry Reconsidered
$50.00Add to cartChristian ministries often struggle to account for urbanization’s growing force, complexities, and reach-and to formulate theologically and sociologically appropriate responses. Urban Ministry Reconsidered features a collection of original essays by leading scholars and practitioners that explores current issues and challenges in urban communities.
Together these articles consider how cultural and structural frameworks have led to new conceptualizations and configurations of urban ministry. In addition, they examine the degree to which the social, spiritual, and organizational priorities of urban ministries have been reconceived in response to these shifts.
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Philosophy Of The Christian Religion
$50.00Add to cartEach field of study comes with its own set of questions; each period of time refines and redirects those questions. The Christian religion as we find it in the twenty-first century presents a unique set of problems to be solved and questions to be answered. In this introduction to the philosophy of the Christian religion, eminent philosopher and theologian Nancey Murphy applies the tools of philosophical analysis to a set of core yet contemporary religious questions: what does our historical moment mean for the possibility of knowing God? Is faith still possible? Does God intervene in human history? Is there such a thing as universal knowledge of God? Written with the needs of students encountering the philosophy of religion for the first time in mind, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental questions inherent in Christian faith. Murphy also provides tools for how to answer those 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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Middle East On Fire In The 21st Century
$10.99Add to cartThe world events between the Christians and the Muslims that have been happening since December 1979 until now. One event and one war after another has led to the 10th crusade. Thinking this can’t be happening, well it is right in front of our eyes and in our lifetime.
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Approaching Philosophy Of Religion
$28.99Add to cartEncountering philosophy of religion for the first time, we are like explorers arriving on an uncharted coastline. There are inviting bays and beaches, but rocky reefs and pounding surf as well. And what tribes may inhabit the land is anyone’s guess.
But our cautious intrigue turns to confidence as Anthony Thiselton greets us as a native informant. Cheerfully imparting insider knowledge, mapping the major landmarks, and outlining the main figures and issues in its tribal debates, he teaches us the basics for gaining cultural fluency on these foreign shores.
Approaching Philosophy of Religion is divided into three parts:
Part I (Approaches) provides descriptions of the main entrance ramps to studying the subject, with lively case histories, working examples, and assessments of their lasting value.
Part II (Concepts and Issues) gives us brief introductions to the origins and development of ideas, and highlights their significance in the work of major thinkers.
Part III (Key Terms) supplies concise explanations of all the words and phrases that readers need to know in order to engage the subject.
For students and anyone else reading and engaging philosophy of religion for the first time, Approaching Philosophy of Religion is the essential companion.
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Invisible Worlds : Death Religion And The Supernatural In England 1500-1700
$28.99Add to cartHow did traditional beliefs about the supernatural change as a result of the Reformation, and what were the intellectual and cultural consequences? Following a masterly interpretative introduction, Peter Marshall traces the effects of the Reformers’ assaults on established beliefs about the afterlife. He shows how debates about purgatory and the nature of hellfire acted as unwitting agents of modernization. He then turns to popular beliefs about angels, ghosts and fairies, and considers how these were reimagined and reappropriated when cut from their medieval moorings. Contents PART 1: HEAVEN, HELL AND PURGATORY: HUMANS IN THE SPIRIT WORLD 1. After Purgatory: Death and Remembrance in the Reformation World 2. “The Map of God’s Word’: Geographies of the Afterlife in Tudor and Early Stuart England’ 3. Judgment and Repentance in Tudor Manchester: The Celestial Journey of Ellis Hall 4. The Reformation of Hell? Protestant and Catholic Infernalisms, c. 1560-1640 5. The Company of Heaven: Identity and Sociability in the English Protestant Afterlife PART 2: ANGELS, GHOSTS AND FAIRIES: SPIRITS IN THE HUMAN WORLD 6. Angels Around the Deathbed: Variations on a Theme in the English Art of Dying 7. The Guardian Angel in Protestant England 8. Deceptive Appearances: Ghosts and Reformers in Elizabethan and Jacobean England 9. Piety and Poisoning in Restoration Plymouth 10. Transformations of the Ghost Story in Post-Reformation England 11. Ann Jeffries and the Fairies: Folk Belief and the War on Scepticism
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Beyond The Modern Age
$35.99Add to cartThe modern age has produced global crises that modernity itself seems incapable of resolving-deregulated capitalism, consumerism, economic inequality, militarization, overworked laborers, environmental destruction, insufficient health care, and many other problems. The future of our world depends on moving beyond the modern age. Bob Goudzwaard and Craig G. Bartholomew have spent decades listening to their students and reflecting on modern thought and society. In Beyond the Modern Age they explore the complexities and challenges of our time. Modernity is not one thing but many, encompassing multiple worldviews that contain both the source of our problems and the potential resources for transcending our present situation. Through an archaeological investigation and critique of four modern worldviews, Goudzwaard and Bartholomew demonstrate the need for new ways of thinking and living that overcome the relentless drive of progress. They find guidance in the work of Rene Girard on desire, Abraham Kuyper on pluralism and poverty, and Philip Rieff on culture and religion. These and other thinkers point the way towards a solution to the crises that confront the world today. Beyond the Modern Age is a work of grand vision and profound insight. Goudzwaard and Bartholomew do not settle for simplistic analysis and easy answers but press for nuanced engagement with the ideologies and worldviews that shape the modern age. The problems we face today require an honest, interdisciplinary, and global dialogue. Beyond the Modern Age invites us to the table and points the way forward.
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Witness Of Religion In An Age Of Fear
$19.00Add to cartWe live in a world driven by fear. But should we allow fear to play such a large role in our lives? According to the religions of the world, the answer is no.
In this helpful and illuminating book, Michael Kinnamon challenges readers to consider why we find ourselves in this age of fear and what we can do about it. Drawing on support from a diversity of religious traditions and teachers, Kinnamon argues that religious faith is the best way to combat a culture of fear. He explores fear in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the American political scene, and he shares courageous examples of individuals from different religions working for peace.
Perfect for individuals or group study, this book helps readers understand the manipulative power of fear and how religious beliefs call us to reject fear at all costs. A study guide is included.
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Role Of Faith And Religion In The Life Of African Americans
$10.00Add to cartAfrican-Americans who are highly involved in religion have fewer family problems than those who are not involved. The youths in these families have better emotional control and greater involvement in positive, productive activities.
This book is a discussion of the history of African-Americans–through hundreds of years of cruelty and brutality in slavery, war, and segregation–and the role of Christian faith and churches in helping black people survive and overcome such enormous challenges. These facts offer powerful testament to the role of faith and religion in the lives of African-Americans.
Encouragement, hope, faith, and determination will help us receive what God has for us if we serve Him! Author Florence Van Liew Crain hopes and prays that those who think they cannot make it will be able to get up, brush themselves off, and move forward.
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Altars Where We Worship
$35.00Add to cartWhile a large percentage of Americans claim religious identity, the number of Americans attending traditional worship services has significantly declined in recent decades. Where, then, are Americans finding meaning in their lives, if not in the context of traditional religion? In this provocative study, the authors argue that the objects of our attention have become our god and fulfilling our desires has become our religion. They examine the religious dimensions of six specific aspects of American culture-body and sex, big business, entertainment, politics, sports, and science and technology-that function as “altars” where Americans gather to worship and produce meaning for their lives. The Altars Where We Worship shows how these secular altars provide resources for understanding the self, others, and the world itself. “For better or worse,” the authors write, “we are faced with the reality that human experiences before these altars contain religious characteristics in common with experiences before more traditional altars.” Readers will come away with a clearer understanding of what religion is after exploring the thoroughly religious aspects of popular culture in the United States.
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Challenge Of Evil
$30.00Add to cartBelief in God in the face of suffering is one of the most intractable problems of Christian theology. Many respond to the spiritual challenge of evil by ignoring it, blaming God, or insisting on the inherent meaninglessness of life. In this book, William Greenway contends that we don’t have to deny our moral selves by either ignoring evil or abandoning our moral sensibilities toward it. We can open our eyes fully to suffering and evil, and our own complicity in them. We can do so because it is only in this full acceptance of the world’s guilt and our own that we make ourselves fully open to agape, to being seized by love of others and God. Inspired by the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas and the Christian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Challenge of Evil lovingly explains how we can look squarely at the overwhelming suffering in the world and still, by grace, have faith in a good and loving God.
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Truth Of Who God Is
$19.00Add to cartThe Truth of Who God Is was written for one reason: the Bible insists that we speak and teach our faith.
2 Timothy 4:2-3 and 5: “Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. ….make full proof of thy ministry.”
2 Timothy 2:15: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Romans 8:14 and John 1:12 say that I, a sinner, bound for hell, was given by faith the power to become an adopted son of the one and only living God.
On July 30, 1972, C. Ray Sandefur was spiritually born again of the same eternal spirit that Grandfather Adam died from eternally (Romans 5:12). The power for this blessing of mercy and grace came from John 1:12, 3:3, 16, and 8:32. After being set free from the bondage of this world, he became a servant as his Savior Christ was. He, God in the flesh, washed him with the Word and cleaned up his sinful life. He, God, knelt down and washed His disciples’ dirty feet (John 13:5). He can wash your dirty heart.
Read this book to clearly see and understand the truth from the one and only God of all creation, to understand who he is and how man was made in his image and should therefore respect him.
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Occurence Of Revelation
$16.00Add to cart“The Occurrence of Revelation: A True Story of a Close Call Against the Secret Antichrist Organization and the Near Earth Flip” is an engaging and fascinating account of the author’s spiritual and supernatural experiences.
Tracing her faith back to her childhood, Karen Saylor Johnson offers the reader a deeply personal portrayal of the struggles she has faced, both personally and on behalf of others. Her story gradually widens from an intimate perspective to one of worldwide proportion as she explores the meaning of biblical prophecies and the events leading to the end times. Ms. Johnson asserts that she was personally called to service under God as the Second White Horseman of the Book of Revelation. In 2009, Jesus was reborn, and He asked Ms. Johnson to get the word out to the people of the world.
“The Occurrence of Revelation: A True Story of a Close Call Against the Secret Antichrist Organization and the Near Earth Flip,” Ms. Johnson presents a wide-ranging work intended to challenge and enlighten readers both spiritually and emotionally.
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World In The Trinity
$39.00Add to cartIntroduction
Part I
1. Language And Reality
2. The “Inside” And The “Outside” Of Everything
3. Philosophical/Scientific Models Of The God-World Relationship In The Current Religion And Science Debate
4. Theological Models Of The God-World Relationship In The Current Religion And Science Debate
5. Panentheism: Hierarchically Ordered Systems Of Existence And ActivityPart II
6. “Incarnation” As Key To The Argument For Panentheism
7. Divine And Human Personhood In A Systems-Oriented Approach To The Trinity
8. Tradition And Traditioning: Church As Both System And Institutional Entity?
9. Miracles And The Problem Of Evil
10. Resurrection And Eternal Life
ConclusionAdditional Info
Joseph A. Bracken argues that the failure of theology and science to generate cohesion is the lack of an integrated system of interpretation of the Christian faith that consciously accords with the insights and discoveries of contemporary science.In The World in the Trinity, Bracken utilizes the language and conceptual structures of systems theory as a philosophical and scientific grammar to show traditional Christian beliefs in a new light that is accessible and rationally plausible to a contemporary, scientifically influenced society. This account opens new possibilities for rethinking the God-world relationship, the Trinity, incarnation, creation, and eschatology within the context of a broader ecological and cosmological system. In re-describing these articles constitutive of Christian belief, the author is conscious of the vital importance of retaining the inherent power and meaning of these concepts. This volume freshly retrieves pivotal themes and concepts constitutive of the Christian tradition in a conscious rapprochement with current scientific understandings of nature.
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Secular Government Religious People
$30.99Add to cartThe field of church and state in America is stuck in an unproductive debate about competing rights. One side emphasizes the right to be free of government-sponsored religion, such as prayer at public ceremonies. In contrast, the other side emphasizes people’s right to express their religious character and beliefs, sometimes even through government.Secular Government, Religious People breaks free of this trap. Ira Lupu and Robert Tuttle present an original theory that makes the secular character of American government, rather than a set of individual rights, the centerpiece of religious liberty in the United States. Through a comprehensive treatment of relevant constitutional themes and through their attention to both historical concerns and contemporary controversies — including issues often in today’s news — Lupu and Tuttle define and defend the secular character of U.S. government.
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Answer To Bad Religion Is Not No Religion
$20.00Add to cartIf you think the only logical response to bad Christianity is to leave Christianity completely, this book is for you. In an effort to help those who’ve been hurt by or turned off by negative religion, Martin Thielen explains that there is an alternative to abandoning religion: good religion. Thielen uses personal stories to illustrate the dangers of religion that is judgmental, anti-intellectual, and legalistic. While addressing the growth of the new atheism movement and the “Nones” (people that have no religious affiliation), this book argues that leaving religion is not practical, not helpful, and not necessary. Thielen provides counterparts to the characteristics of bad religion, explaining that good religion is grace-filled, promotes love and forgiveness, and is inclusive and hope-filled. Perfect for individual, group, or congregational study, a Leader’s Guide and a Worship and Outreach Kit are also available to further the discussion and increase community involvement.
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Answer To Bad Religion Is Not No Religion Leaders Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$12.00Add to cartIf you think the only logical response to bad Christianity is to leave Christianity completely, this book is for you. In an effort to help those who’ve been hurt by or turned off by negative religion, Martin Thielen explains that there is an alternative to abandoning religion: good religion. Thielen uses personal stories to illustrate the dangers of religion that is judgmental, anti-intellectual, and legalistic. While addressing the growth of the new atheism movement and the “Nones” (people that have no religious affiliation), this book argues that leaving religion is not practical, not helpful, and not necessary. Thielen provides counterparts to the characteristics of bad religion, explaining that good religion is grace-filled, promotes love and forgiveness, and is inclusive and hope-filled. Perfect for group study, the leader’s guide provides everything needed to facilitate sessions and provide options based on the time and style of each group.
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Analogical Turn : Rethinking Modernity With Nicholas Of Cusa
$41.99Add to cartIn the face of the late modern crisis of Western science and culture, The Analogical Turn recovers Nicholas of Cusa’s alternative vision of modernity, and, in doing so, develops a fresh perspective on the challenges of our time.
In contrast to Cusa’s mainstream contemporaries, his appreciation of individuality, creativity, and scientific precision was deeply rooted in the analogical rationality of the Middle Ages. He revived and transformed the tradition of scientific realism in a manner which now, retrospectively, offers new insights into the completely ordinary chaos of postmodern everyday life.
Johannes Hoff offers a new vision of the history of modernity and the related secularization narrative, a deconstruction of the basic assumptions of postmodernism, and an unfolding of a liturgically grounded concept of common sense realism in this original book.
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Bonhoeffer The Assassin
$30.00Add to cartBonhoeffer appeals to us because of his uncompromising moral stand. It was not just any moral conviction, but a clear moral perspective that all of hope that we ourselves would emulate.
We have read his biography and we know he resisted the Third Reich. But are we clear about how Bonhoeffer resisted? In the 1920s he was a committed pacifist; this is well known. But scholars disagree about how the onset of Hitler’s atrocities affected Bonhoeffer’s thought and whether his posthumously published Ethics along with his personal letters reflect a shift in his convictions. Did Bonhoeffer come to believe that violence was acceptable in specific circumstances? And if so, did he, in fact, act on that new belief in his work for the German military intelligence organization known as the Abwehr?
Many argue that Bonhoeffer did leave behind his pacificst ethic. Yet, others disagree. In Bonhoeffer the Assassin? a team of scholars argue that Bonhoeffer did not abandon this core component of his discipleship and that both the historical evidence and the textual evidence corroborate their view. Mark Nation, Anthony Siegrist, and Daniel Umbel reexamine historical data from Bonhoeffer’s own life as well as pertinent sections of his Discipleship and Ethics and as they do so invite us to reconsider Bonhoeffer’s theology and his life.
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Psychology Of Religion
$40.00Add to cartThis book is written by a theologian, or to be more precise, by a theologian who is concerned professionally with religion and with pastoral psychology. The coming to terms with developments in the field of psycho-analysis has a twofold significance for the theologian. As a pastor I am often faced with the question of what actual view to take of psycho-analysis, and sometimes also how to regard the psycho-analyst as a therapist. (I am thinking for example of the problem of passing on a member of my congregation to a psychiatrist.) Among theologians there is often a kind of fear, as well as lack of knowledge; the theologian gets ‘cold feet’. Investigation could probably eliminate both ignorance and fear. On the other hand, through its theories psycho-analysis has become an important factor in our modern civilization, and one that theology must not ignore. Without analysis much modern ‘unbelief’ remains incomprehensible. Under this aspect too it is important for theology to be well informed about developments in psycho-analysis, and also to learn to istinguish more clearly than is generally the case between analysis as a therapeutic method (which rests on an objective and empirical investigation of the patient) and the theories which are and have been upheld by analysis; the latter reveal themselves as more evanescent than is oftern assumed.
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Religion Gone Astray
$18.99Add to cartVirtually everyone acknowledges difficulty with some aspect of their own religious tradition, even if they are wholly devoted to their faith identity. These vulnerabilities can inhibit meaningful personal engagement with a faith tradition but they can also feed misunderstanding between religious institutions and undermine any hope of authentic interfaith dialogue.
Expanding on the conversation started with their very successful first book, the Interfaith Amigos–a pastor, a rabbi and an imam–probe more deeply into the problem aspects of our religious institutions to provide a profound understanding of the nature of what divides us. They identify four common problem areas in the Abrahamic faiths–exclusivity, violence, inequality of men and women, and homophobia–and their origins. They explore the ways critics use these beliefs as divisive weapons. And they present the ways we can use these vulnerabilities to open the doors for more profound personal relationships, collaboration required to address our common issues, and true interfaith healing. -
Sociology Of Religion
$44.99Add to cartSociology of Religion is an increasingly popular component of courses in religious studies at undergraduate level. While most textbooks on the Sociology of Religion are written from a sociological background, this new student-friendly textbook aims to introduce the field and the subjects studied by sociologists of religion to students with a background in theology and religious studies.
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Last Priesthood : The Secrets Of Our English Alphabet A Revelation From Jes
$42.95Add to cartNearly 400 pages of Prophecy, Poetry, Scripture, and “New Knowledge”
Pertaining to Mankind’s Last Days…Some will label these writings as “False Prophecy”
Some will label it the workings of a “Cult”
Call it what you will, it is the “WORD of GOD”INFANCY
(from the apocrypha)
And when the master threatened to whip him,
the Lord Jesus explained to him
the meaning of the letters Aleph and Beth;
Also which were the straight figures of the letters,
which the oblique, and what letters had double figures; which had points,
and which had none; why one letter went before another;
and many other things he began to tell him, and explain,
of which the master had never heard, nor read in any book.Chapter XX 7-8
The English letters have evolved from as far back as the Hebrew and Greek Languages. Learn what these letters hold in store for you, and how God uses them to give to each of us our traits, rewards, and punishments! It is the belief of this author that we have opened the “FIRST SEAL” You are now about to begin reading it!
I must warn you however this book is not for the weak of heart.
It does become quite frightening for those that are unprepared.< LORD HAVE MERCY ON US ALL… -
Last Priesthood : The Secrets Of Our English Alphabet A Revelation From Jes
$27.95Add to cartNearly 400 pages of Prophecy, Poetry, Scripture, and “New Knowledge”
Pertaining to Mankind’s Last Days…Some will label these writings as “False Prophecy”
Some will label it the workings of a “Cult”
Call it what you will, it is the “WORD of GOD”INFANCY
(from the apocrypha)
And when the master threatened to whip him,
the Lord Jesus explained to him
the meaning of the letters Aleph and Beth;
Also which were the straight figures of the letters,
which the oblique, and what letters had double figures; which had points,
and which had none; why one letter went before another;
and many other things he began to tell him, and explain,
of which the master had never heard, nor read in any book.Chapter XX 7-8
The English letters have evolved from as far back as the Hebrew and Greek Languages. Learn what these letters hold in store for you, and how God uses them to give to each of us our traits, rewards, and punishments! It is the belief of this author that we have opened the “FIRST SEAL” You are now about to begin reading it!
I must warn you however this book is not for the weak of heart.
It does become quite frightening for those that are unprepared.< LORD HAVE MERCY ON US ALL… -
Questioning Assumptions : Rethinking The Philosophy Of Religion
$26.00Add to cartTom Christenson turns philosophy inside out in this remarkable new book. Starting with the ongoing public debate over God’s existence, he approaches traditional arguments in philosophy of religion and peels back their veneers to uncover the questionable assumptions underlying each. This brief, valuable book drives the reader to reconsider how to think about the most fundamental questions that surround matters of faith and religious belief.
For Christenson, three key assumptions need unpacking: that believing is the focal act of faith; that the basic religious question is about the existence of God; and that religious language actually refers to some thing, namely God. He interrogates each for its adequacy and implications for larger questions of faith and reason. By making these assumptions explicit, Christenson explores intriguing new ways of looking at the rationality of faith.
Augmenting his analysis and critique, Christenson concludes each chapter with important questions for reflection. These questions carry through the critical stance that he asks of himself and his readers, challenging all to rethink and re-imagine whether religious faith is rational.
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Ministers Of The Law
$34.99Add to cartIn Ministers of the Law Jean Porter articulates a theory of legal authority derived from the natural law tradition. As she points out, the legal authority of most traditions rests on their own internal structures, independent of extralegal considerations – legal houses built on sand, as it were. Natural law tradition, on the other hand, offers a basis for legal authority that goes beyond mere arbitrary commands or social conventions, offering some extralegal authority without compromising the independence and integrity of the law.
Yet Porter does more in this volume than simply discuss historical and theoretical realms of natural law. She carries the theory into application to contemporary legal issues, bringing objective normative structures to contemporary Western societies suspicious of such concepts.
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Good And Bad Ways To Think About Religion And Politics
$19.99Add to cartClear, useful guide to a subject too often characterized by confusion and loud rhetoric
“There is nothing greater than indignation to stimulate a writer to write, and my outrage has been stirred mightily by reading so many wrongheaded ‘takes’ on how religion and politics ought to be related,” says Robert Benne.
In this book Benne describes and analyzes the two main bad ways of relating religion and politics – “separationism” and “fusionism” – and offers a better way that he calls “critical engagement.” He first explains this approach in theoretical terms and then reflects on the practical ways in which such convictions reach the public sphere of policy. This better way derives in large part from the Lutheran tradition, with a few tweaks to adapt the tradition to deal with the new challenges of our present situation.
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If The Foundations Are Destroyed
$17.49Add to cart“Our dangers are of two kinds, those which affect our religion, and those which affect our government. They are, however, so closely allied that they cannot, with propriety, be separated. The foundations which support the interests of Christianity are also necessary to support a free and equal government like our own…. Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them must fall with them.”
-Rev. Jedidiah Morse, 1799
The author believes Rev. Morse’s warning is still applicable today. The basic Biblical principles upon which American civil government were founded are rapidly disappearing in our society. Yet he doesn’t simply point out the problem; he also explains how the reinstatement of specific Biblical principles into American society and government can reverse the damage.
The foundations can be rebuilt.
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This Bloodless Liberty
$16.49Add to cartGovernment is totally out of control…
Is there hope for America’s future?Darkness falls over America.
As ancient Rome, our Republic rots from within. Government corruption leads to citizen despair. It’s our right, even our citizen duty to enforce the Constitution – but how? Secession, petitions, demonstrations, nullification, and anarchy are proven failures. At this point, voting is futile, also; the rare statesman has no chance against the corrupt supermajority in Congress. What can we do?
This Bloodless Liberty presents an eye-opening glimpse at America’s predator and parasite class including careers you never imagined are feeding the corruption. Debunking 10 lies that government uses to transform its sovereigns into serfs, AmericaAgain! founder David Zuniga shows how you can leave politics and join history’s first neural network for self-government. We have lawful power to enforce our Constitution, if we will only have the wisdom to do so.
The Internet offers liberty today as the printing press did 575 years ago. Two million children no longer attend schools yet are more familiar with civics and history than are most adults. Millions have lawfully stopped filing tax returns thus are no longer financing a crime cartel. The Tea Party movement has caused millions to see that both political parties are corrupt. If the Tea Party movement is today’s Paul Revere, AmericaAgain! is Madison on a motorcycle.
We The People can seize this historic opportunity to stop today’s syndicate of politicians, financiers, bureaucrats, military-corporate moguls, and the massive parasite sector. Indeed there is hope. If we exercise courage and repentance, our best days may be ahead. If we fear God and not man, we can be AmericaAgain!
www.MyAmericaAgain.org
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Phenomenology And The Holy
$100.00Add to cartSCM Veritas engages in critical and original questions of pressing concern to both philosophers and theologians. The major concern of all books in this series is to display a rigorous theological critique of categories not often thought to be theological in character, such as phenomenology or metaphysics which are mainly considered as philosophical categories. All the books in this series aim to illustrate that without theology, something essential is lost in our accounts of such categories not only in the abstract but in the way in which we inhabit the world. Phenomenology and the Holy is a study of the holy which attempts to find this both in the ordinary and in the sublime, thus challenging the reduction of the holy to a discrete and separated field of experience. Phenomenology is a key area of twentieth-century philosophy in which there is a wide interest, not only among philosophers but also among theologians and religious studies scholars.
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No Rising Tide
$26.00Add to cart1. No Rising Tide: Religion, Economics, And Empire
2. The Logic Of Downturn: Class Matters In Religion And Economics
3. God And The Free-Market Economy
4. Consuming Desire Vs. Resisting Desire
5. Rethinking God And The Word
Conclusion: The Turning Of The Tide: Theology, Religion, And EconomicsAdditional Info
Even though economic downturns are still followed by upturns, fewer people benefit from them. As a result, economic crisis is an everyday reality that permanently affects all levels of our lives. The logic of downturn, developed in this book, helps make sense of what is going on, as the economy shapes us more deeply than we had ever realized, not only our finances and our work, but also our relationships, our thinking, and even our hopes and desires. Religion is one arena shaped by economics and thus part of the problem but, as Joerg Rieger shows, it might also hold one of the keys for providing alternatives, since it points to energies for transformation and justice. Rieger’s hopeful perspective unfolds in stark contrast to an economy and a religion that thrive on mounting inequality and differences of class. -
Nature Of Doctrine (Anniversary)
$35.00Add to cartThe Nature of Doctrine is one of the most influential works of academic theology of the past fifty years. Originally published in 1984, this book sets forth the central tenets of a post liberal approach to theology, emphasizing a cultural-linguistic approach to religion and a rule theory of doctrine. In addition to his account of the nature of religion, Lindbeck also addresses the resolution of historic doctrinal conflict among Christian communities, the relationship between Christianity and other religions, and the nature and task of theology itself. A programmatic work in what is now known as postilberal theology, The Nature of Doctrine has generated wide debate across the academy and the church and has influenced a generation of leading contemporary theologians and scholars of religion. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition includes an introduction by theologian Bruce D. Marshall, a new afterword by the author, and a complete bibliography of Lindbeck’s work.
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Ancient Israelite Religion
$35.00Add to cartAlthough the Hebrew Bible serves as the main source of knowledge of ancient Israelite religion, much additional information comes from the material and written remains uncovered in the archaeological investigations of the Ancient Near East. In this volume, internationally renowned scholars examine all of these sources in order to present the most impressive, comprehensive study of ancient Israelite religion yet to appear.
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Limits Of Liberal Democracy
$21.99Add to cartTable Of Contents
ContentsAcknowledgments
1. Introduction: The End Of Convenient Stereotypes
2. “The End Of Democracy?” The First Things Symposium And Its Critics
3. American Catholics To The Rescue? Michael Baxter And The Notre Dame Theology Department
4. Rival Versions Of Confessionalism: Neuhaus And Baxter
5. Gertrude Himmelfarb And The Priority Of Democracy To Philosophy
6. Sapere Aude! From Liberal Statecraft To Extraordinary Politics
7. Extraordinary Politics Beyond The Culture Of Convenience
8. Hospitality And The Culture Of LifeSubject Index
Additional Info
IVP Print On Demand TitleScott H. Moore offers a bracing critique of the limits of liberal democracy that calls for and points the way toward a more faithful engagement of Christians with public life–a participation that takes seriously the reality of the Christian church and both the private and public moral teachings of its Scriptures.
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Human Nature Human Evil And Religion
$54.99Add to cartPart I – Becker’s Early Anthropological Perspective
Chapter 1. The Human Situation And The Development Of The Individual Personality
Chapter 2. The Vagaries Of Human And Cultural Construction
Chapter 3. Human Evil And Religion
Part II – Becker’s Mature Anthropological Perspective
Chapter 4. The Human Situation And The Development Of The Individual Personality Revisited
Chapter 5. Successes And Failures In Individual And Cultural Formation
Chapter 6. Human Evil And Religion In Becker’s Mature Thought
Part III – Ernest Becker’s Anthropology And Christian Theology
Chapter 7. Classical Christian Perspectives On The Human Problem
Chapter 8. Contemporary Christian Perspectives On The Human Problem
Chapter 9. Christian Perspectives On The Solution To The Human Problem
Chapter 10. The Human Problem And Its Solution: Ernest Becker And Christian Theology
Additional Info
In this book, Jarvis Streeter details Ernest Becker’s anthropological theories and compares them with traditional and contemporary Christian thought on human nature, sin, and salvation in order to see how the two approaches compare and where Becker might have insights to offer contemporary Christian thinkers.Ernest Becker was a pioneer in the interdisciplinary study of human nature and motivation, drawing from the fields of evolutionary biology, psychology, psychiatry, cultural anthropology, sociology, philosophy and religion to create what he termed a Science of Man. His goal was to understand the most basic human motives, particularly those that led to evil behavior in order to ameliorate them and create a more humane world. He concluded, following the thought of Alfred Adler, Otto Rank and philosophical and religious existentialism, that the related urges to avoid death anxiety, gain self-esteem and symbolically deny death were the key human motives–ones which were also responsible for human evil–and that religion has had a complex role to play for both good and ill in human history.
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Medici Et Medicamenta
$72.99Add to cartForeword By Daniel P. Sheridan
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part One: A Survey Of Modern Historiography Of Penance (ca. 1500-2000)
Penance As Construct In The Modern History Of Religions
From Dogmatic History To The History Of Dogma (ca. 1520-1920)
Convergences And New Directions (ca. 1920-2000)
Paradigms In The New Contemporary Historiography Of Penance
Part Two: A Survey Of The Literature Of Penance (ca. 1650 B.C.-A.D. 650)
Penance In Pre-Christian Antiquity
The Origins Of Ritual Penance In Christian Antiquity
The Transformation Of Penance In Late Antiquity
The Monasticization Of Penance (ca. 450-650)Additional Info
This book is a comprehensive historiographical survey on Christian penance and confession from the early sixteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. The author charts the change from medieval practices of penance to the modern rites of penance.The book’s title refers to the latin phrase medici et medicamenta, or, “spiritual doctors and medicines,” to indicate a unifying theme of this study.
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Tayloring Reformed Epistemology
$40.00Add to cartIn recent philosophical discourse, there has been a proliferation of work in the field of philosophy of religion, and in particular at the intersection between epistemology and philosophy of religion. Much of that interest has centred on the emergence of what has come to be known as ‘Reformed Epistemology’. The central claim of Reformed epistemologists is that belief in God is properly basic. The purpose of the arguments offered by Reformed epistemologists is to oppose what Plantinga calls the ‘de jure’ objection to theistic belief – the idea that it is somehow irrational, a dereliction of epistemic duty, or in some other sense epistemically unacceptable, to believe in God. This objection is distinct from what Plantinga labels the ‘de facto’ objection – the objection that, whatever the rational status of belief in God, it is, in fact, a false belief. The primary goal of Reformed epistemology, then, is to defend Christian belief against the de jure objection, thereby showing that everything really depends on the truth o
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What Americans Really Believe
$24.95Add to cartA shocking snapshot of the most current impulses in American religion. Rodney Stark reports the surprising findings of the 2007 Baylor Surveys of Religion, a follow up to the 2005 survey revealing most Americans believe in God or a higher power. This new volume highlights even more hot-button issues of religious life in our country. A must-read for anyone interested in Americans’ religious beliefs and practices.
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City Upon A Hill
$16.99Add to cartThe Puritan founder John Winthrop preached about “a city upon a hill,” Abraham Lincoln’s two greatest speeches have been called “sermons on the mount,” and Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” oration is nothing if not a sermon. Not only can the history of the United States be told through its reflection in the landmark sermons preached from its pulpits and in front of its memorials, but in fact it was often the sermon that inspired and helped define American history.
Between the colonization of America and the terrorist attacks of September 2001, the sermon has both shaped America’s self-understanding and reflected both sides of its most important social, political, military, and philosophical debates. That is the story of A City Upon a Hill: How the Sermon Made America, a narrative history of events, people, and ideas, showing us at our best–and sometimes at our worst. The book will cover American history from 1606 to 2001, building links between the pulpit and politics, between preachers and presidents, between sermons and historical events.
A City Upon a Hill will elaborate on two unifying themes. The first and central theme will be the idea of America as a “chosen” nation (raised as recently as the second inaugural of President Bush in 2005). A second underlying theme will be the perennial debate in America between liberty and order. In addition, the role of the sermon as the first mass media will be examined.
As a narrative history, A City Upon a Hillwill ask about, for example, the role of religion in the American Revolution and slavery, whether religious affiliation has grown or declined in various centuries, and how much ideas and beliefs affected policies, andvice versa. The sermon offers a uniquely compelling vehicle to tell the national story. The sermon shows that what America says and believes can often be better than what it does, serving as a national conscience amid centuries of triumphalist claims. The sermon gathers together four centuries of disparate strands and provides a solid grip for defining a nation.
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Jesus Made In America
$32.99Add to cartStephen Nichols traces the changing face of Jesus throughout the successive cultural eras in American history. Beginning with the Puritans and ending with the Religious Right, he demonstrates the influence of popular culture upon American Christian views of Jesus at every stage along the way.
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Lost Apostle : Searching For The Truth About Junia
$18.00Add to cartIn ” The Lost Apostle,” award-winning journalist Rena Pederson investigates a little-known subject in eary Christian history-the life and times of the female apostle Junia. Junia was an early convert and leading missionary whose story was “lost” when her name was masculinized to Junias in later centuries. “The Lost Apostle” unfolds like a well-written detective story, presenting Pederson’s lively search for the insight and information about a woman some say was the first female apostle.
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Why The Christian Right Is Wrong
$14.95Add to cartIntroduction: The 9/11 Effect.
Part One: The Speech Heard Round The World.Part Two: The Sin Of Hypocrisy: Line By Line.
1. Christians Don’t Start Wars, They Try To Stop Them.
2. Missing In Action: The Sermon On The Mount.
3. Rich Chicken Hawks For Jesus.
4. Terminal False Dichotomies.
5. The National Debt, Family Values, And Why They Hate Us.
6. Homosexuals And The Politics Of Death.
7. “Pro-Life” Should Include Mother Nature.
8. We Have Met The Enemy.
9. Cleansing The Temple Of U.S. Health Care.
10. Christian Fascism And The War On Reason.
Part Three: A Call To Nonvolent Resistance: How To Save The Country And The Church.
Notes.
The Author.
Additional Info
“I join the ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus but whose actions are anything but Christian.”
-Robin Meyers, from his “Speech Heard Round the World”
Millions of Americans are outraged at the Bush administration’s domestic and foreign policies and even angrier that the nation’s religious conservatives have touted these policies as representative of moral values. Why the Christian Right Is Wrong is a rousing manifesto that will ignite the collective conscience of all whose faith and values have been misrepresented by the Christian Right. -
Storms Over Genesis
$23.00Add to cartIn one of history’s discouraging ironies, just as the academic study of the Pentateuch revealed the multilayered composition of Genesis and separated it from scientific and dogmatic accounts of creation, Genesis became and remains a lightning rod of controversy in America’s century-long battle over Christian identity and commitments.
No words ever recorded have had as much influence upon human affairs as those of the first three chapters of Genesis. Nor caused as much mischief, argues William Jennings.
In his fascinating and informative account, Jennings shows how and why fundamentalists and modernists, Catholics and Protestants, feminists and the old guard all have been drawn to Genesis and wrestled with its meaning, legacy, and relevance today. Focusing on four key controversies – the critical account of the creation stories, the challenges from and to feminists, the critique of Genesis by environmentalists, and the claims of creationists – Jennings reveals not only the many facets of this archimedean text but also the unique light it continues to throw on American religious life.
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Reformed And Always Reforming
$30.00Add to cart1. The Postconservative Style Of Evangelical Theology
2. Christianity’s Essence: Transformation Over Information
3. The Word Made Fresh: Theology’s Revisioning Task
4. The Postmodern Impulse In Postconservative Evangelical Theology
5. Postconservative Revelation: Narrative Before Propositions
6. Tradition And Orthodoxy In Postconservative Evangelical Theology
7. New Horizons In Evangelical Thinking About GodAdditional Info
Introduces a postconservative evangelical theologyDescribes, explains, and mobilizes a movement
Theologians, pastors, seminarians, and serious thinkers will find many depths to plumb in this exhaustive survey of critics, advocates, and fellow travelers on the evangelical journey.
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Pierced For Our Transgressions
$29.00Add to cartThe belief that Jesus died for us, suffering the wrath of his own Father in our place, has been the wellspring of hope for countless Christians through the ages. However, with an increasing number of theologians, church leaders, and even popular Christian books and magazines questioning this doctrine, which naysayers have described as a form of “cosmic child abuse,” a fresh articulation and affirmation of penal substitution is needed. And Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach have responded here with clear exposition and analysis.
They make the case not only that the doctrine is clearly taught in Scripture, but that it has an impeccable pedigree and a central place in Christian theology, and that its neglect has serious consequences. The authors also systematically analyze over twenty specific objections that have been brought against penal substitution and charitably but firmly offer a defining declaration of the doctrine of the cross for any concerned reader.
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Engaging Politics : The Tensions Of Christian Political Involvement
$29.99Add to cartThis world or the next? In the world but not of it? Prophetic vision or grubbyengagement with the world as it is? These are the tensions Nigel Oakley grapples withas he shows how Christians can, indeed must, engage with politics and with politicaldebate. He shows, in chapters on Augustine, Liberation theology, Dietrich Bonhoefferand Stanley Hauerwas, how these tensions exist in every strand of Christian politicalthinking, and then he applies those tensions to case studies varying from todays highlycharged debates on sexuality to the war on terrorism. In every case, he demonstratesthat noninvolvement is a nonoption. This book is both an intelligent introduction tothe difficult world of Christian political theology and to some of the key debates that areshaping our times.
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Language Of God
$18.99Add to cartThe head of the Human Genome Project and a former atheist, Collins makes a strong case for BioLogos—God-directed evolution—in comparison to atheistic evolution, Intelligent Design, and creationism. He offers an awe-inspiring tour of the complexities of biology, genetics, and DNA—and reveals a richly satisfying, harmonious melding of scientific and spiritual worldviews.
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Thomas : The Other Gospel
$32.00Add to cartSince its discovery in the mid-1940s, the Gospel of Thomas has aroused the interest of scholars and general readers alike. Thomas, the Other Gospel provides a clear, comprehensive, nontechnical guide through the scholarly maze of issues surrounding the Coptic text. In it, Nicholas Perrin argues that the Gospel derives not from the era of Jesus or even the apostles but from the late second century AD. Further, contrary to what many scholars believe, he maintains that the Gospel was originally written in Syriac rather than in Greek, and he concludes that the real value of the Gospel of Thomas lies not in what it might be thought to say about the “real Jesus” but in what it tells us about early Christianity.
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Less Than Two Dollars A Day
$23.99Add to cartChristian tradition demands basic sustenance for all as a human right. Yet contemporary capitalist economy makes no such demands, and the free market is not designed to provide basic sustenance. As Western Christians, how ought we to solve this conundrum? Kent Van Til maintains that the gulf between the two creates a need for an alternative system of distributive justice.
Van Til looks at the realities of life in a free market system, including illuminating examples from his own experience in Latin America. He considers how contemporary capitalist economy has become the process that guides the distribution of goods around the world, and he examines the incapability of such a system to meet basic human needs in either ethics or economics.
Once he exposes the problem, Van Til has no qualms about offering a solution. Drawing heavily on the ideas of political theorist Michael Walzer and nineteenth-century theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper, he proposes an alternative system of distributive justice, equalizing the claims to both burdens and benefits. Bridging biblical theology, political theory, economic history, and social theology, Less Than Two Dollars a Day issues a wake-up call to all who profess to “love their neighbor as themselves.”
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Is Religion Dangerous
$20.50Add to cartHoly wars, crusades, discrimination, hate – these by-products of religion are all many contemporary commentators can see. But is religion dangerous? Is it a force for evil, something to oppose as a corrupt system that leads to terrorism and violence? Is it something to disdain as irrational and out of step with modern society? Keith Ward here addresses these concerns intelligently and insightfully. Looking at the evidence from history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology, he focuses on the main question at issue: does religion do more harm than good? He begins with a clear definition of what religion actually is, examining the key area of religion and violence. Ward goes on to assess the allegations of irrationality and immorality before finally exploring the good religion has engendered over the centuries. Without religion, the human race would be considerably worse off with little hope for the future. In fact, he argues, religion is the best rational basis for morality. Thought-provoking and powerful, Is Religion Dangerous? is essential reading for anyone interested in the confluence of truth, freedom, and justice.
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Belief And Bloodshed
$52.00Add to cartIntended for students as well as scholars of religion and violence, Belief and Bloodshed discusses how the relationship between religion and violence is not unique to a post-9/11 world-it has existed throughout all of recorded history and culture. The book makes clear the complex interactions between religion, violence, and politics to show that religion as always innocent or always evil is misguided, and that rationalizations by religion for political power and violence are not new. Chronologically organized, the book shows religiously motivated violence across a variety of historical periods and cultures, moving from the ancient to medieval to the modern world, ending with an essay comparing the speeches of an ancient king to the speeches of the current U.S. President.
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Belief And Bloodshed
$140.00Add to cartIntended for students as well as scholars of religion and violence, Belief and Bloodshed discusses how the relationship between religion and violence is not unique to a post-9/11 world-it has existed throughout all of recorded history and culture. The book makes clear the complex interactions between religion, violence, and politics to show that religion as always innocent or always evil is misguided, and that rationalizations by religion for political power and violence are not new. Chronologically organized, the book shows religiously motivated violence across a variety of historical periods and cultures, moving from the ancient to medieval to the modern world, ending with an essay comparing the speeches of an ancient king to the speeches of the current U.S. President.
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What Jesus Meant
$24.00Add to cartIn what are billed as culture wars, people on the political right and the political left cite Jesus as endorsing their views. Garry Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program. He was far more radical than that. In a fresh reading of the Gospels, Wills explores the meaning of the reign of heaven Jesus not only promised for the future but brought with him into this life. This is a book that will challenge the assumptions of almost everyone who brings religion into politics-Christian socialists as well as biblical theocrats.
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Original 13 : A Documentary History Of Religion In Americas First Thirteen
$24.99Add to cart“The whole power over the subject of religion is left exclusively to the State governments, to be acted upon according to their State Constitutions,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story in his Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833. Joseph Story founded Harvard Law School and was appointed to the Supreme Court by President James Madison-the same James Madison who introduced the First Amendment in the first session of Congress. To understand the progression of religious freedom, one must review the Constitutions of the original thirteen States and the Colonial Charters that preceded them, i.e.: VIRGINIA CHARTER 1606″…propagating of Christian Religion to such People as yet live in Darkness…” DELAWARE CHARTER 1626″…further propagating of the Holy Gospel…” MASSACHUSETTS CONSTITUTION 1780,”Every denomination of Christians…shall be equally under the protection of the law and no subordination of any one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established…”
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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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God In Public
$50.00Add to cartIn this important study, Mark Toulouse maps the ambiguous landscape between American Christianity and American public life. Built on an extensive study of religious periodical literature since the mid-1950s and on an analysis of landmark events in American history, Toulouse develops an insightful typology for understanding how Americans have related their Christian faith to public life.
For Toulouse, the relationship between American Christianity and American public life exists in four styles of interaction: iconic faith, priestly faith, the public Christian, and the public church-with each model appearing in various forms across the terrain of American history. Carefully examined and accessibly written, this study is sure to generate discussion and bring clarity to the many ambiguities and diversities that continue to mark American Christianity.
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Pietists : Selected Writings
$12.99Add to cartThis HarperCollins Spiritual Classic collects the significant writings of the Pietists, whose influence continues to shape Christianity today.
“Perfection is nothing other than faith in the Lord Jesus and is not in us or ours but in Christ or of Christ for whose sake we are considered perfect before God and thus his perfection is ours by ascription.”–August Hermann Francke
Although the movement was relatively brief, the longstanding influence of Pietism reaches many aspects of our intellectual, political and religious culture today. Originating in late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century, Pietism spread to influence Lutheran, Reformed and Wesleyan churches throughout Europe and North America, forever changing the face of Christianity. Preaching, which had previously been dense theological discourse, suddenly became directed toward the moral and religious life of the people in the pew. For the first time, congregants desired to grow their spiritual lives and devotional writing was born. The Pietists’ emphasis on conversion through personal religious experience, heartfelt union with Christ, and the importance of Scripture as a guide in spiritual life, are still evident today in churches across the country. This classic collection of writings from the most prominent and important Pietists is essential to understanding our history as a religious people.
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Why Politics Needs Religion
$35.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
The charge is often repeated that religion should not be mixed with politics. Brendan Sweetman counters that charge, arguing that beliefs of some sort are unavoidable, even by nonreligious persons, in addressing our most contentious public debates. Certain religious beliefs (but not all), he contends, belong in the public square and for good reason. In fact, Sweetman goes so far as to suggest that a secularism that rules out religious belief has little promise of contributing to a civil society where we can allow for reasonable disagreements. Religion is no danger when it takes its proper place in political debate.
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Jesus And Utopia
$23.00Add to cartScholarship on the historical Jesus and, now, on the “Jesus movement” generally divides into separate camps around two sticky questions: was Jesus an apocalyptic prophet and was the movement around him political, that is nationalistic or revolutionary? Mary Ann Beavis moves the study of the historical Jesus in a dramatic new direction as she highlights the context of ancient utopian thought and utopian communities, drawing particularly on the Essene community and Philo’s discussion of the Therapeutae, and argues that only ancient utopian thought accounts for the lack of explicit political echoes in Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God.
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Sharing Food : Christian Practices For Enjoyment
$16.00Add to cartOur everyday personal, familial, and communal practices of eating, says Jung, have the potential for making us more attentive to our life purposes, more attuned to our communal identities, and even more mindful of the presence of God.
Juxtaposing practices with values, Jung explores how food and eating function culturally today. He explores the larger dimensions of personal and group eating, the great resonance that feasting and food and fasting have within the Christian tradition, and how all this figures very practically in Christian lifestyle. His work culminates in a chapter on the Lord’s Supper as a model for eating and the Eucharist as an occasion for sharing with the worldwide family of God.
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Gods Politics
$14.95Add to cartSince when did believing in God and having moral values make you pro-war, pro-rich, and pro-Republican? And since when did promoting and pursuing a progressive social agenda with a concern for economic security, health care, and educational opportunity mean you had to put faith in God aside?
While the Right in America has hijacked the language of faith to prop up its political agenda-an agenda not all people of faith support-the Left hasn’t done much better, largely ignoring faith and continually separating moral discourse and personal ethics from public policy. While the Right argues that God’s way is their way, the Left pursues an unrealistic separation of religious values from morally grounded political leadership. The consequence is a false choice between ideological religion and soulless politics.
The effect of this dilemma was made clear in the 2004 presidential election. The Democrats’ miscalculations have left them despairing and searching for a way forward. It has become clear that someone must challenge the Republicans’ claim that they speak for God, or that they hold a monopoly on moral values in the nation’s public life. Wallis argues that America’s separation of church and state does not require banishing moral and religious values from the public square. In fact, the very survival of America’s social fabric depends on such values and vision to shape our politics-a dependence the nation’s founders recognized.
God’s Politics offers a clarion call to make both our religious communities and our government more accountable to key values of the prophetic religious tradition-that is, make them pro-justice, pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-equality, pro-consistent ethic of life (beyond single issue voting), and pro-family (without making scapegoats of single mothers or gays and lesbians). Our biblical faith and religious traditions simply do not allow us as a nation to continue to ignore the poor and marginalized, deny racial justice, tolerate the ravages of war, or turn away from the human rights of those made in the image of God. These are the values of love and justice, reconciliation, and community that Jesus taught and that are at the core of what many of us believe, Christian or not. In the tradition of prophets such as Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, and Desmond Tutu, Wallis inspires us to hold our political leaders and policies accountable by integrating our deepest moral convictions into our nation’s public life.
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10 Dumbest Things Christians Do
$18.99Add to cartAuthor and pastor Mark Atteberry takes a fresh look at why believers’ efforts to serve God are often woefully ineffective. These dumb things explain why the world has a hard time taking us seriously, and worst of all, they provide Satan with a never ending supply of opportunities to make the people of God look foolish.
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Jew Among The Evangelicals
$23.00Add to cartIn this insightful and accessible book, religion journalist Mark Pinsky takes the curious reader on a tour of the fascinating world of Sunbelt evangelicalism. Pinsky, religion reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, uses his unique position as a Jew covering evangelical Christianity to help nonevangelicals understand the hopes, fears, and motivations of this growing subculture and breaks down some of the stereotypes that nonevangelicals have of evangelicals.
“I hope you’ll find laughter, perhaps puzzlement, and heartfelt interest in how people just like you wrestle with feelings, values, and beliefs that touch the core of their beings. And I hope you’ll catch a glimpse of someone learning to understand and get along with folks whose convictions differ from his own,” Pinsky writes in the introduction.
This book will appeal to Jews, mainline and liberal Christians, and curious blue-staters, as well as evangelicals who want to read an outsider’s perspective on their culture. As the country takes to the polls for midterm congressional elections, this book will shed light on how and why evangelical culture is becoming increasingly entwined in American politics.
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Athanasius : The Life Of Antony
$14.99Add to cartA beautiful portrait of the radical devotion of St. Antony and his call to holy living.
“It was truly amazing that being alone in such a desert Antony was niether distracted by the demons who confronted him, nor was he frightened of their ferocity when so many four-legged beasts and reptiles were there. But truly he was one who, as Scripture says, having trusted in the Lord, was like Mount Zion, keeping his mind unshaken and unruffled; so instead the demons fled and the wild beasts, as it is written, made peace with him.”–from The Life of Antony
Athanasius (c. 295-373) was an Alexandrian whose life was committed at an early age to the Christian community growing there. He became a controversial bishop and one of the most vivid and forceful personalities in political and religious affairs. His famous account, The Life of Antony, inaugurated the genre of the lives of the saints and established the frame of Christian hagiography, quickly attaining the status of a classic and becoming one of the most influential writings in Christian history. It tells the spiritual story of St. Antony, the founder of Christian monasticism. A pioneer in spiritual experience, he marked a new epoch in the Christian experience and set the terms for the Church’s ideal of the life of devotion. He transferred the center of monastic life from the periphery of established communities to the barren and isolated setting of a hermitage, away from civilization, in a location of solitude and serenity. The Life of Antony is a beautiful portrait of what a life committed to God demands and promises.
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Big Christianity : Whats Right With The Religious Left
$21.00Add to cartIn recent years, argues the author, religious and political dialogue in the United States has been hijacked by the so-called religious right, a coalition of conservative Christian leaders who purport to speak for all Christians but whose politicized brand of Christianity excludes many and falls short of the true gospel message. Jan Linn argues for a bigger Christianity, one big enough to embrace all of God’s people with a message of inclusion and acceptance.
In his passionate argument, Linn recovers the prophetic voice of a faith that cannot be reduced to a single nation, race, or class and echoes a call for justice, integrity, and deep faithfulness in the political landscape of contemporary America.
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Gods Life In Trinity
$32.00Add to cartProbes new ways of understanding the triune character of God.
Jurgen Moltmann’s distinctive insights in trinitarian theology – especially about the relations within God and God’s presence in creation – are revolutionary for theology and set the stage for these further explorations. The esteemed group of contributors in this volume probes new ways of understanding the triune character of God.
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Beyond Prisons : A New Interfaith Paradigm For Our Failed Prison System
$19.00Add to cartTraces the history and features of our penal system, offers strong ethical and moral assessment of it, and lays out a whole new paradigm of criminal justice based on restorative justice and reconciliation. Puts forward a 12-point plan for immediate changes.
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Bonhoeffer Legacy : Post Holocaust Perspectives
$23.00Add to cartSequel to The Bonhoffer Phenomenon
Analyzes the historical record and Bonhoeffer’s maturing theology and shows how Bonhoeffer’s self-critical theology relates to the later advent of post-Holocaust theologies, with their sharply posed challenges to traditional Christian supersessionism. -
Touched By Grace
$13.95Add to cartAnn Showalter invites readers along on a roller coaster ride called AIDS. Showalter began her fide the Saturday afternoon her husband Ray said, “I have AIDS.” After the first shock, Ray’s revelation became a breath of fresh air for the couple. This is their story. Seven weeks after diagnosis, Ray was discharged to go home to die. People from their congregation, even though aware of the diagnosis, embraced Ray and Ann by assisting with his care around the clock until his death. Ann’s grief was pervasive and complicated by the circumstances surrounding Ray’s death. She wrote her prayers because her mind was too distracted for verbal prayer. Her journal became a trusted friend in which she vented her anger, and wrestled through inner conflicts. She facilitated a bereavement support group of gay men whose loved ones had died. Together these varied activities moved her toward her own healing.
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Her Story : Women In Christian Tradition (Reprinted)
$49.00Add to cartRevised and updated text and readings
History and primary readings are combined and augmented with helpful pedagogical books.Supported by a dedicated Web site that includes chapter summaries, questions for discussion and Web links that vividly bring the stories of women to life in portraits, artifacts, and other primary materials.
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Resurrection Of Jesus
$24.00Add to cartTwo of today’s most important and popular New Testament scholars, John Dominic Crossan and N. T. Wright, here air their very different understandings of the historical reality and theological meaning of Jesus’ Resurrection. The book highlights points of agreement and disagreement between them and explores the many attendant issues.
This book brings two leading lights in Jesus studies together for a long-overdue conversation with one another and with significant scholars from other disciplines. -
Christians And A Land Called Holy
$15.00Add to cartA clear account of the Israile-Palestinian situation and a compelling plea for Christian involvement in the area.
Reveals the strong forces at work in the conflict and lays out the driving biblical notions of election and covenanat, the historical causes of the bitter and divisive clashes of the last 50 years, the complex demographic and political issues today, and how, finally, Christians must engage the future of justice and peace. -
Christian Beliefs
$17.99Add to cartA basic guide to twenty Christian beliefs that is solid, yet readable, and not intimidating for new believers and Christians in general. Includes chapter review questions.
About the Author
Elliot Grudem holds a degree from Reformed Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Kacey, live in New Orleans with their daughter. -
Slaves In The New Testament
$34.00Add to cartIn this exciting new analysis of slaves and slavery in the New Testament, Harrill breaks new ground with his extensive use of Greco-Roman evidence, discussion of hermeneutics, and treatment of the use of the New Testament in antebellum U.S. slavery debates. He examines in detail Philemon, 1 Corinthians, Romans, Luke-Acts, and the household codes.
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Divine Image : Envisioning The Invisible God
$29.00Add to cart1.The Image Of God As A Theological Problem
2.The Ambiguity Of Images
3.The Image Of God In Christ
4.The Image Of God In Human Beings: Developing Protocols Of Discernment
5.Discernment As Communal Discipline: The Protocols Of Service
6.Discernment As Personal Discipline: The Protocols Of Chastity
7.Discernment In Ecclesial Formation: The Sacraments As Protocols
8.Seeing The Divine ImageAdditional Info
Theologian Ian McFarland claims that Christians have mainly misappropriated the “image of God” language for 2000 years and thereby missed a rich resource for our knowledge of God.Rather than referring to some germinal divine element in humans, such as reason, McFarland claims that the image of God in us tells us something about God and how we know God. It tells us that God, though not identical with us, communicates Godself to us in creative love, in a way that offers precious clues about God’s transcendence, immanence, triune life, self-disclosure, incarnation, and intentions for human life. McFarland’s careful and exacting work builds from this kernel a powerful Christian vision of God’s life and our own destiny in Christ.
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Womans Place : House Churches In Earliest Christianity
$31.00Add to cartAcknowledgments
1.Introduction
2.Dutiful And Less Than Dutiful Wives Giving Birth: Labor, Nursing, And Care Of Infants In House-Church Communities
3.Growing Up In House-Church Communities
4.Female Slaves: Twice Vulnerable
5.Ephesians 5 And The Politics Of Marriage
6.Women Leaders Of Households And Christian Assemblies
7.Women Leaders In Family Funerary Banquets By Janet H. Tulloch
8.Women Patrons In The Life Of House Churches
9.Women As Agents Of Expansion
10.Conclusion: Discovering A Woman’s PlaceAbbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index Of Ancient Sources
Index Of Modern Authors
Index Of SubjectsAdditional Info
This focused look at women in the household context discusses the importance of issues of space and visibility in shaping the lives of early Christian women. Several aspects of women’s everyday existence are investigated, including the lives of wives, widows, women with children, female slaves, women as patrons, household leaders, and teachers. In addition, several key themes emerge: hospitality, dining practices, and the extent of female segregation. -
Religion Politics And The Christian Right
$17.00Add to cartIntroduction: Faith, American Empire, And Spirit
1.Evil In Public Life Today
2.The 9/11 Moment
3.The Specter Of American Romanticism
4.The Specter Of Contractual Liberalism
5.The Specter Of Prophetic Spirit
6.Revolutionary Belonging
7.Revolutionary ExpectationEpilogue: Christian Faith And Counter Imperial Practice
Additional Info
Princeton theologian Mark Taylor analyzes right-wing Christian movements in the United States amid the powers of religion, politics, empire, and corporate classes in post-9/11 USA.The real gift of Taylor’s book is his argument that this militant Christian faith must be viewed against a backdrop of the American political romanticism and corporatist liberalism of U.S. past and present. Taylor uses the best of cultural and historical studies, while deftly drawing lessons for American readers from theologian Paul Tillich’s analysis of power and religion during the rise of fascism and nationalism in Germany of the 1930s.
The result is an innovative framework for interpreting how Christian nationalists, Pentagon war planners and corporate institutions today are forging alliances in the U.S. that have dramatic and destructive global impact. Moving beyond lament, Taylor also leaves readers with a new romance of revolutionary traditions and a new more radical liberalism, revitalizing American visions of spirit that are both prophetic and public for U.S. residents today.
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Junia : The First Woman Apostle
$24.00Add to cartThe name “Junia” appears in Romans 16:7, and Paul identifies her (along with Andronicus) as “prominent among the apostles.” In this important work, Epp investigates the mysterious disappearance of Junia from the traditions of the church. Because later theologians and scribes could not believe (or wanted to suppress) that Paul had numbered a woman among the earliest churches’ apostles, Junia’s name was changed in Romans to a masculine form. Despite the fact that the earliest churches met in homes and that other women were clearly leaders in the churches (e.g., Prisca and Lydia), calling Junia an apostle seemed too much for the tradition. Epp tracks how this happened in New Testament manuscripts, scribal traditions, and translations of the Bible. In this thoroughgoing study, Epp restores Junia to her rightful place.
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Daring Trusting Spirit
$21.00Add to cartIntroduction
1.Only A Country Boy
Called To Be A Pastor
A Decisive Turn
2.Beginnings Of A Friendship
Finkenwalde
The House Of Brethren
3.Entering A New World
A Growing Intimacy
The Collective Pastorates
4.Sharing A Double Life
First Steps Into Resistance
The Gossner Mission And Military Intelligence
5.A ‘Singular Friendship’
Friendship, Romance And Marriage
Letters From Prison
6.A Soldier In Italy
Growing Disgust
The ‘Theological Letters’
7.Amidst The Ruins
Imprisonment And Escape
Pastor To The Desolate
8.Post-War Reconstruction
The Future Of The Church?
Recovering The Truth
9.Retrieving A Legacy
First Steps In Publishing
Abroad And At Home
10.Interpreting Bonhoeffer
Giving Structure To The Task
Going Beyond Bonhoeffer?
11.The Rengsdorf Years
Teacher, Traveller, Host
The Biography
12.The Church Struggle Revisited
A Confessing Church In South Africa?
Confession And Resistance
13.Remembering The Past Rightly
Mediator Of Resistance Memories
Bethge, Bonhoeffer And The Holocaust
14.A Remarkably Fulfilled Life
Senior Colleague
‘Church Father’
Faithful Friend
MenschPhotographs
IndexAdditional Info
How did Bonhoeffer’s fame and influence happen? Much of the credit goes to Bonhoeffer’s close friendship with his student and colleague Eberhard Bethge, says theologian John de Gruchy. In this important and fascinating work, de Gruchy narrates the course of that friendship, building on interviews and newly available primary sources. -
Does Human Rights Need God
$43.99Add to cartWhen the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted in 1945, French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain observed, “We agree on these rights, providing we are not asked why. With the ‘why,’ the dispute begins.” The world since then has continued to agree to disagree, fearing that an open discussion of the divergent rationales for human rights would undermine the consensus of the Declaration. Is it possible, however, that current failures to protect human rights may stem from this tacit agreement to avoid addressing the underpinnings of human rights?
This consequential volume presents leading scholars, activists, and officials from four continents who dare to discuss the “why” behind human rights. Appraising the current situation from diverse religious perspectives – Jewish, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Confucian, and secular humanist – the contributors openly address the question whether God is a necessary part of human rights. Despite their widely varying commitments and approaches, the authors affirm that an investigation into the “why” of human rights need not devolve into irreconcilable conflict.
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Being Human : Race Culture And Religion
$29.00Add to cartIntroduction: Who Are We?
1.Contemporary Models Of Theological Anthropology
2.Culture: Labor, Aesthetic, And Spirit
3.Selves And The Self: I Am Because We Are
4.Race: Nature And Nurture
5.Conclusion As IntroductionAdditional Info
Dwight Hopkins, whose important work in Black Theology has mediated class theological concerns through the prism of African American culture, here offers a fresh take on theological anthropology. Rather than defined “the human” as one eternal or inviolable essence, however, Hopkins looks to the multiple and conflicting notions of the human in contemporary thought, and particularly three key variables: culture, self, and race. Hopkins’ critical reframing of these concepts firmly locates human endeavor, development, transcendence, and liberation in the particular messiness of struggle and strife. -
Creation And Double Chaos
$22.00Add to cart1.The Science-theology Dialogue: How?
2.The Scientific Worldview
3.The Theological Worldview: Creation Stories
4.Creation Out Of Nothing: Origin And Problems
5.Contemporary Creation Theologies
6.Chaos Theology: An Alternative Creation Theology
7.Chaos Theory And Chaos Events
8.The Problem Of Evil
9.God’s Action In The World
10.The Cosmic Christ: Person And Work
11.Human Ambivalence: Genetic Modification
12.Disease: Punishment For Sin Or Chaos Event?
13.Are We Alone?: Theological Implications Of Possible Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life
14.Future And Destiny: Eschatology And Chaos TheologyAdditional Info
Scientist and theologian Sjoerd Bonting offers a new overarching framework for thinking about issues in religion and science. He looks at the creation controversy itself, including biblical perspectives, traditional doctrines, and the particular potential contribution of chaos theory. Finally, Bonting extends this perspective, a combination of chaos theory and chaos theology he calls “double-chaos,” into a framework that addresses traditional questions about evil, divine agency, soteriology, the understanding of disease, possible extraterrestrial life, and the future. -
Moral Creed For All Christians
$29.00Add to cartWidely heralded for his bold and prophetic ethical thought,Maguire urges that Christianity’s real relevance for the renewal of American public life lies not in the myopic morality of the Christian Right nor in any particular program of the Left but in the enduring relevance of Jesus and biblical Christianity. His new work builds on his earlier volume, The Moral Core of Judaism and Christianity, with the benefit of a new generation of social studies of the New Testament and a keen appreciation for the radically changed situation Christians confront today.
