Bøker av Gerald McDermott

"Deep" means the root vision of traditional Anglicanism. It means digging down to see how the greatest Anglican minds and hearts saw the Trinitarian God, and the ways they saw this God come to his people through the Church of Jesus Christ. It means starting in the first centuries of Christianity in the British Isles and not simply the sixteenth century. It means exploring the wealth of Anglican spirituality in the 14th and 17th centuries. It means appreciating the liturgical genius of Thomas Cranmer but also the extension and revision of that liturgy by the bishops of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which for most of the last 350 years has been the only official version in the Anglican Communion. It means figuring out not only what distinguishes Canterbury from Rome and Geneva but also from Wittenberg. More recently, it means discerning why the orthodox center of Anglicanism has moved to the Global South and away from Canterbury. In short, it means plumbing the depths of orthodoxy, liturgy, and sacraments, while traveling on the pilgrim road and living a life of adoration in pursuit of the Beatific Vision.

A 1973 Caldecott Honor Book.Anansi the Spider is one of the great folk heroes of the world. He is a rogue, a mischief maker, and a wise, lovable creature who triumphs over larger foes.In this traditional Ashanti tale, Anansi sets out on a long, difficult journey. Threatened by Fish and Falcon, he is saved from terrible fates by his sons. But which of his sons should Anansi reward? Calling upon Nyame, the God of All Things, Anansi solves his predicament in a touching and highly resourceful fashion.In adapting this popular folktale, Gerald McDermott merges the old with the new, combining bold, rich color with traditional African design motifs and authentic Ashanti language rhythms.

How Jewish is Christianity? The question of how Jesus' followers relate to Judaism has been a matter of debate since Jesus first sparred with the Pharisees. The controversy has not abated, taking many forms over the centuries. In the decades following the Holocaust, scholars and theologians reconsidered the Jewish origins and character of Christianity, finding points of continuity. Understanding the Jewish Roots of Christianity advances this discussion by freshly reassessing the issues. Did Jesus intend to form a new religion? Did Paul abrogate the Jewish law? Does the New Testament condemn Judaism? How and when did Christianity split from Judaism? How should Jewish believers in Jesus relate to a largely gentile church? What meaning do the Jewish origins of Christianity have for theology and practice today? In this volume, a variety of leading scholars and theologians explore the relationship of Judaism and Christianity through biblical, historical, theological, and ecclesiological angles. This cutting-edge scholarship will enrich readers' understanding of this centuries-old debate.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) was arguably this country''s greatest theologian and its finest philosopher before the nineteenth century. His school if disciples (the "New Divinity") exerted enormous influence on the religious and political cultures of late colonial and early republican America. Hence any study of religion and politics in early America must take account of this theologian and his legacy.Yet historians still regard Edward''s social theory as either nonexistent or underdeveloped. Gerald McDermott demonstrates, to the contrary, that Edwards was very interested in the social and political affairs of his day, and commented upon them at length in his unpublished sermons and private notebooks. McDermott shows that Edwards thought deeply about New England''s status under God, America''s role in the millennium, the nature and usefulness of patriotism, the duties of a good magistrate, and what it means to be a good citizen. In fact, his sociopolitical theory was at least as fully developed as that of his better-known contemporaries and more progressive in its attitude toward citizens'' rights.Using unpublished manuscripts that have previously been largely ignored, McDermott also convincingly challenges generations of scholarly opinion about Edwards. The Edwards who emerges from this nook is both less provincial and more this-worldly than the persona he is commonly given.Gerald R. McDermott is Assistant Professor of Religion at Roanoke College.

The reputed trickster Jabuti gets his comeuppance when a jealous Vulture offers to fly the tortoise and his flute to the King of Heaven's festival of song, and wickedly drops his passenger down from the skies. The King of Heaven chastises the vulture and the birds who put Jabuti's smooth shell back together again gain new feathers as their reward.