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Sociologist Anthony Blasi analyzes early Christianity using multiple social scientific theories, including those of Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Max Scheler, Alfred Schutz, and contemporary theorists. He investigates the canonical New Testament books as representative of early Christianity, a sample based on usage, and he takes the books in the chronological order in which they were written. The result is a series of ""stills"" that depict the movement at different stages in its development. His approaches, often neglected in New Testament studies, include such sociological subfields as sect theory, the routinization of charisma, conflict, stratification theory, stigma, the sociology of knowledge, new religions, the sociology of secrecy, marginality, liminality, syncretism, the social role of intellectuals, the poor person as a type, the sick role, degradation ceremonies, populism, the sociology of migration, the sociology of time, mergers, the sociology of law, and the sociology of written communication. Needing to treat the New Testament text as social data, Blasi uses his background in biblical studies and a review of a vast literature to establish the chronology of the compositions of the New Testament books and to present the ""data"" in a new translation that is accessible to non-specialists.

ELLICOTT''S COMMENTARY ON THE WHOLE BIBLE is a practical and ideal commentary for Sunday school teachers, Christian workers, Bible students, libraries, and ministers. Each of the durably bound volumes in this handsome set is designed with an eye to the convenience of the user. The large, double-column pages are distinctive and easy-to-read. The helpful running commentary is always on the same page with the actual Bible text, making it simple for the user to locate the information he or she seeks. The comments in every case are crisply written and wonderfully practical and up-to-date. You, the user, will not have to read pages of extraneous material to get the important information.If you ever need help for:Sunday sermonsPrayer Meeting talksMessages for Young People''s Groups, etc.Sunday school lessonsPersonal Bible studyMessages for special occasionsyou will find it in ELLICOTT''S COMMENTARY ON THE WHOLE BIBLE.C. J. Ellicott (1819-1905) was Bishop of Gloucester and an Honorary Fellow of St. John''s College, Cambridge University. He is the author of Foundations of Sacred Study, Christus Comprobator, and Historical Lectures on the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

ELLICOTT''S COMMENTARY ON THE WHOLE BIBLE is a practical and ideal commentary for Sunday school teachers, Christian workers, Bible students, libraries, and ministers. Each of the durably bound volumes in this handsome set is designed with an eye to the convenience of the user. The large, double-column pages are distinctive and easy-to-read. The helpful running commentary is always on the same page with the actual Bible text, making it simple for the user to locate the information he or she seeks. The comments in every case are crisply written and wonderfully practical and up-to-date. You, the user, will not have to read pages of extraneous material to get the important information.If you ever need help for:Sunday sermonsPrayer Meeting talksMessages for Young People''s Groups, etc.Sunday school lessonsPersonal Bible studyMessages for special occasionsyou will find it in ELLICOTT''S COMMENTARY ON THE WHOLE BIBLE.C. J. Ellicott (1819-1905) was Bishop of Gloucester and an Honorary Fellow of St. John''s College, Cambridge University. He is the author of Foundations of Sacred Study, Christus Comprobator, and Historical Lectures on the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

American Theological Inquiry (ATI) reaches thousands of Christian scholars, clergy, and other interested parties, primarily in the U.S. and U.K. The journal was formed in 2007 by Gannon Murphy (PhD Theology, Univ. Wales, Lampeter; Presbyterian/Reformed) and Stephen Patrick (PhD Philosophy, Univ. Illinois; Eastern Orthodox) to open up space for Christian scholars who affirm the Ecumenical Creeds to contribute research throughout the broader Christian scholarly community in America and the West.The purpose of ATI is to provide an inter-tradition forum for scholars who affirm the historic Ecumenical Creeds of Christendom to constructively communicate contemporary theologies, developments, ideas, commentaries, and insights pertaining to theology, culture, and history toward reforming and elevating Western Christianity. ATI seeks a critical function as much or more so as a quasi-ecumenical one. The purpose is not to erase or weaken the distinctives of the various ecclesial traditions, but to widen the dialogue and increase inter-tradition understanding while mutually affirming Christ's power to transform culture and the importance of strengthening Western Christianity with special reference to Her historic, creedal roots.""Theologians, would-be theologians, and the theologically attentive will want to check out American Theological Inquiry.""~ Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009), First Things

The Gospels portray Jesus as one who often sought solitude, whether for himself or in quietude before his Father. To do so he had to withdraw from both his disciples and others. Such moments enabled him to renew his inner strength, to find God's consolation for himself, as well as to imbue him with insight and courage for the inimitable journey that God had selected him to travel. We too need those same personal moments with God, those quiet occasions for withdrawal and reflection. If you have ever hungered for such, Fairest Lord Jesus, filled with simple, direct, and uncomplicated meditations, will speak to you. Within its pages, you will journey with Jesus across the Gospels to his Cross, hear his voice of solace and commission, while resting with him in village after village as he pauses to mend the hearts of the contrite and the lonely and heal the broken, dispirited, and ill; and, finally, on that Morning of mornings, stand with him in that Sacred Garden of the soul, where he fills all hearts with the joy of his presence and his eternal love.In addition, enriching the collection are numerous vignettes, drawn from Farley's years of teaching philosophy and religion courses, along with poignant stories of the passage of time.

How indigenous was the Evangelical Free Church movement in Tsarist Russia? Was it simply a foreign import? To what extent did it threaten the political stability of the nation and encroach upon the existing Russian and German churches? On the Edge examines the efforts of the regimes to suppress the movement and how the movement not only survived but also expanded. To what extent did the movement bring upon itself unnecessary opposition because of aggressiveness and tactics? Albert Wardin describes the contributions the movement made to the religious life of Russia and examines its numerical success.

In God and Man at Work Udo Middelmann argues that our ideas about daily activities are linked directly to our conception of the world. It is acquired by habit from the surrounding community as well as by reflection and personal preference. A person's attitude about the world explains the reason for most choices they make in work, love, and life. The biblical view of reality clarifies such empirical observations and frees them from sentimental assent.Communal faith may be colorful, but is mostly light in answers and repetitive in form. It lacks the substance to convince and to encourage. Religious cultural habits bind people through poetry and symbols. Many pastors, development workers, and business leaders are often long on devotional fervor but short on holistic connections to the whole of Scripture and rarely address intellectual fear and human suffering. God and Man at Work counters that with an appeal to the Bible's uniquely reasoned discourse and practical encouragement for people in the ""imago Dei"" to argue with nature and culture, and do well by doing good in every manual and intellectual endeavor. That moral effort will free them from religious enslavement and nature's indifference towards social and material improvement.

This book provides a thorough study of the sole biblical foundation of marriage as given in the short description of Genesis 2:24: ""For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh."" All the other biblical texts dealing with marriage are traced back to this basis that was declared as the original ideal by Jesus even in the times of the New Testament and the emerging Christian church. Thoughts about crucial questions concerning marriage, divorce, remarriage, and even what we might expect of marriage in the world to come are thus presented in the light shining forth from the first pages of the Scriptures. The intriguing connections to the biblical plan of redemption, conversion, and baptism are also investigated, developing a deeper understanding of the human-divine covenant that is exemplified by this beautiful Edenic marriage pattern.

The Holy Spirit's ministry of illumination is a commonly misunderstood doctrine, both pragmatically and theologically. As a result, this divine activity is often neglected, but it should be recognized that it is indispensable for the hermeneutical endeavor. This distinctive work seeks to take an apparently abstract concept and make it concrete by establishing proper categories and definitions for the doctrine of illumination while reemphasizing the cooperation of Word and Spirit. In doing so, this book treats issues such as the relationship between illumination and other hermeneutical doctrines, the accessibility of the Spirit's illumination when interpreting the Scriptures, and the question of unregenerate biblical interpretation.Accordingly, Illumination and Interpretation presents a biblical-theological evaluation of the Spirit's work of illumination for the transformative purpose of understanding how to appropriate this vital hermeneutical doctrine into one's faith and practice.

A growing number of Christians feel drawn to relational theology. The God of the Bible seems thoroughly relational, and we are increasingly aware of our own interrelatedness with others. Contributors to this volume tease out some implications of relational theology in light of a host of issues, doctrines, and agendas. The result is a must-read collection of essays with proposals sure to be the center of conversations for decades to come!

What were Henry VIII's grounds for attempting to put aside his marriage to Catherine of Aragon? Were they no more than flimsy excuses to gratify his passion for Anne Boleyn? Or were there substantial reasons to lead him to believe that he had been living in sin for two decades? Making use of hitherto unknown or unexploited documentary evidence, the author sets out the intricacies of canon law regarding impediments to marriage and carefully explores the arguments and precedents Henry and his lawyers invoked in justifying his actions in public, in the ecclesiastical courts of England and Rome, and in the privacy of his own conscience. The effect of this reexamination forces substantial alterations in the traditional accounts not only of his first marriage and annulment, but also of the later ones to Anne Boleyn and Anne of Cleves, for the religious and legal principles involved were anything but flimsy and remained for Henry matters of lasting concern. Particularly noteworthy is the author's reconstruction of the legatine trial at Blackfriars in 1529, in which he brings to light the complete court record for the first time in 260 years. This reprinting (2004) of the 1976 edition contains a new Foreword.

This practical textbook is the most exhaustive single work in our language on the history of the interpretation of the Scriptures. So affirms Dr. Wilbur M. Smith, well-known Bible scholar. Milton S. Terry's book on 'Biblical Hermeneutics' (the science of interpretation) is conveniently divided into three main areas: Part I -- Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics Part II -- Principles of Biblical Hermeneutics Part III -- History of Biblical Interpretation This ideal standard textbook abstains from dogmatism and adheres strictly to the method of scientific and conscientious inquiry. It ranks as a classic in its field. Adapted to meet the practical needs of most students studying the Word of God, 'Biblical Hermeneutics' is a model text for interpreting the Bible.

C. I. Scofield was the man most responsible for the popularization of dispensational premillennialism. Influenced by the dispensationalism of J. N. Darby, Scofield was a regular on the Bible conference circuit and established a correspondence course that enrolled several thousand students. His book, 'Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth', is still in print and his dispensational charts appeared in fundamentalist churches throughout the twentieth century. Scofield's crowning achievement was the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. Trumbull's biography is the only book-length look at the life of the man who had one of the greatest impacts on twentieth-century American fundamentalism.

This commentary is the first major work on the book of Revelation in many years that expounds the historicist interpretation. The historicist school of interpretation was the dominant approach from Reformation times through most of the nineteenth century. The reasons for the current disaffection are too complex to address in a few words, but it is the author's conviction that from the standpoint of sound principles of biblical hermeneutics, the historicist inerpretation is still the most creditable approach for an accurate understanding of this, the last book of the Bible and the final prophecy of Jesus.

To become and be a mature human being, to be alive, in the midst of such a drama in which all people do in truth live, describes a radical participation. To be alive means, as Father Berrigan puts it, enduring the crisis of grace. The fruit of the gift of Christ to this world is an unequivocal and utterly vulnerable immersion in the world as it is. . . . It means living in such a way that life is welcomed as the extraordinary gift which life is and, then, honoring that gift by extravagance: by giving one's own life away. They call us dead men, and we live, wrote St. Paul. Berrigan's immersion into Pauline theology has allowed him to present his deepest concerns for the Church's role in the world. Knowing that the Church can not live in retreat from life, he illuminates the implications of the Triple Revolution-race, peace, and technology- for committed Christians who wish to see true renewal within ecclesial life. --From the Introduction by William Stringfellow

Brennan R. Hill expertly reveals Jesus the person to us in this new book that collects together his Millennium Monthly articles and four new articles. He discusses Jesus as the center of Christianity; the historical Jesus; Jesus as faithful Jew; Jesus the teacher and prophet; Jesus calling us to discipleship; Jesus and women; Jesus, man of prayer; Jesus and service to the world; Jesus, man of the earth; Jesus the liberator; the baptism of Jesus; Jesus and Eucharist; Jesus and the Spirit; and Jesus and his Church.""The true center of Christianity is not a set of doctrines, a code of laws, a number of sacraments and rituals, church officials or such controversies as who should be ordained or which parishes should be closed. The center of Christianity is a person, Jesus Christ. Without him, his life, his teachings and risen presence among us, the other aspects of church life are without meaning and purpose. All discussion of the Christian faith must begin and end with Jesus the Son of God.""--from the introductionBrennan R. Hill is Professor of Theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati. He also the author of Jesus, the Christ: Contemporary Perspectives.

An increase in secularization throughout the Western world has resulted in Christian communities finding themselves in a new context: emerging as a minority group. What does this changing landscape mean for existing Christian communities? Are there biblical or historical precedents for this situation? What should we expect in the future? These were the issues taken up by the speakers at the 2016 conference, ""The Emerging Christian Minority,"" sponsored by the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology.""The Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology has once again gathered a splendid spectrum of voices (Jewish and Christian, Orthodox and Catholic and Protestant) to address a timely topic for all: How are Christians to live hopefully as a Christian minority? . . . . An excellent resource for pastors, congregations, and theologians alike to discuss the foreseeable future of Christ''s people.""--James Buckley, Loyola College of Arts and Sciences, Loyola University Maryland""Some tend to view our culture''s increasing secularization as a threat to religious life in the United States. In contrast, the essays in The Emerging Christian Minority embrace this secularization as a potentially liberating moment rich with possibility for increased vitality of religious communities. . . . This volume will enrich all, from academic theologians to pastors, priests, and rabbis. It may also point us beyond our limp ''interfaith dialogue'' towards truly vital interfaith work.""--Kathryn Greene-McCreight, author of Darkness is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental IllnessVICTOR LEE AUSTIN, the Program Director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology, is Theologian-in-residence of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas and Church of the Incarnation, Dallas.JOEL C. DANIELS is an Episcopal priest at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City and postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Mind and Culture.

The essays in this volume explore the persistent struggle of language to overcome its own limitations. Given their scope--from Dante''s confrontation with the divine All to Samuel Beckett''s obsessive need to speak in the face of Nothing--they expand our notion of the extent to which all speech is an assault on silence, an attempt to articulate what lies beyond the grasp of words. The collection offers the reader, in roughly chronological order, diverse conceptions of the ineffable as either superfluity or absence of reality. It also exposes language in the act of extending its own boundaries, drawing attention to those literary tactics by which speech attempts to suggest what cannot be said. While largely a study of poetry, from medieval to modern, the volume also touches upon drama and a variety of prose, combining close textual readings with broader thematic discussions.Peter S. Hawkins is Professor of Religion and Literature at Yale Divinity School. His work has centered on Dante, but he has also written widely on the history of biblical reception and on contemporary fiction. He is the author of numerous books, including Dante''s Testaments: Essays on Scriptural Imagination, Dante: A Brief History, and Undiscovered Country: Imagining the World to Come.

Dr. George Regas led the congregation of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, for nearly three decades. The witness of this remarkable church has brought transformation to the lives of communities and individuals across the land. Hearts on Fire is the story of this amazing priest and his parish. With its rich tradition and cutting edge social ministry, All Saints is one of the premier parishes in the United States. The story of All Saints is especially relevant because it shines as a bright light across the bleak landscape of urban America. Where can we find a witness to the good news of personal and social redemption in the midst of the moral confusion and spiritual crisis of our age? This book will fill the reader with hope for the dawn of a new age of morality, justice, and faith. All Saints Church is still growing, looking forward to a new rector in the person of Ed Bacon, and eager to empower its members and transform its community.""All Saints is the very best that Christianity has to offer. I have a great love for the church, for the people of All Saints, and for their generosity of spirit. They have helped me in my quest to find a loving connection with all of God''s children and to develop a conscience that has no sectarian boundaries.""-- Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman, Founding rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple and All Saints'' rabbi-in-residence""All Saints is a congregation which acts, not just talks; a congregation which fights for what is right and good, not one which only discusses these issues.""--Tom Johnson, Former publisher, Los Angeles TimesBill Lane Doulos retired from the Union Station ministry (which still flourishes today under the leadership of Rabbi Marvin Gross) in 1990. Bill continues to pioneer new avenues of compassion, serving parish neighborhoods as a deacon of the Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel. For the past twelve years he has been the director of Jubilee Homes, a set of four facilities that offer supportive housing to adult men and women in recovery from addiction.

A Journey of Compassion grew out of the heart and passion of Bill Lane Doulos, who began his work with the street people of Pasadena in 1974. Over the following fifteen years, Bill served a diverse group of the poor through a ministry started by Sister Alice Callaghan and All Saints Episcopal Church. The ministry was called Union Station, and it brought to the doorstep of the church a multitude of people and their unique stories.In his ""Letters from a Street Minister,"" Bill captures the trauma of these lives with humor and pathos. These vignettes give us valuable insights into the hopes and dreams, the successes and the failures, of neighbors in need. Drawing upon a legion of volunteers, the support of the interfaith community, the participation of government and business, and thousands of individual donors, Union Station became a model of how a community can address the social-service needs of the poor.""This book of letters--capturing my thoughts as a participant in ministry to the poorest of society''s poor, reflecting my journey to Skid Row where I presently live, embodying my hope that the ingenuity and faithfulness of God''s people can transform my own life, and life as it passes by my window--is offered to help you on our own faithful journey.""-- Bill Lane Doulos, from the IntroductionBill Lane Doulos retired from the Union Station ministry in 1990 (which still flourishes today under the leadership of Rabbi Marvin Gross). Bill continues to pioneer new avenues of compassion, serving parish neighborhoods as a deacon of the Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel. For the past twelve years he has been the director of Jubilee Homes, a set of four facilities that offer supportive housing to adult men and women in recovery from addiction.

I started with the conviction that we cannot attain a full view of the New Testament doctrine on the subject, except in a biblico-historical way; and have abstained from the artificial construction to which systematic theology has recourse, as well as from merely subjective combinations. The work is rather biblical than formally dogmatic or polemical, and intended to embody positive truth according to the setting in which the doctrine is placed in the apostolic documents.--From the Preface.

This volume of Smeaton on the Holy Spirit Dr. Macleod declares to be invaluable within its own range, and adds of him that next to Principal William Cunningham he stood as our foremost student of the history of Reformed theology. Smeaton had a thorough grasp of the historical development of the great Christian doctrines, such as the doctrine of the Atonement and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. In this field, as Dr. Macleod informs us, he did very fine work indeed.--From the Foreword.

""The facts concerning habit are a commonplace of our every-day existence. All our ordinary actions, like walking, eating, speaking, and the others, are attributable, in part at least, to acquired habits. Our social conventions and our moral behaviour reveal the effect of habits. Success in business, art and the professions is due in great measure to this same force.These observable facts leave little room for discussion. The problem of habit is not whether there is such a thing, but rather how to explain it. What is the basis of habit, that is the question.""--From the introduction.

""Ideas, good and bad, are productive, and a teacher of ideas can have a vast influence in the propagating of good and bad ideas. We have only to review the influence of German Idealism upon German and English Romanticism to see this realized. Similarly, today, in the United States, we are reaping the fruit, good and bad, of ideas that have been sown during the past several decades. Some of them we accept, some we reject. All of them deserve our investigation, insofar as it is within our power to investigate them in order that, as followers of truth, we may sift the good from the bad.""--From the preface.

""Being and non-being are infinitely separated, Saint Thomas tells us. And it is precisely somewhere between the extremes of these two notions that we must seek the antecedents of being [ . . . ] Being in all its latitude is a vast field for investigation and on worthy of the many works written on the subject of metaphysics, that science which has for its object ens qua ens. The limits of a doctoral dissertation are necessarily restricted to the solution of a specific problem with its entanglement of implications and applications. This dissertation is no exception, and its specific problem is to determine the antecedents of being.""--From the introduction

God''s favor towards some serves God''s plan for the larger world.The Bible''s affirmation of Israel''s divine election is often ignored or even repudiated by contemporary Christians and Jews who are scandalized by the possibility that God might favor one person or group over another. Beginning with the stories of family rivalry in Genesis and in working through a host of other biblical texts, Joel Kaminsky explores the dynamics of election. Why does God favor certain people? How do the chosen and non-chosen interact? And what might these texts teach us about God''s intention for the world?""In recent decades, the various advances reached in the dialogue between Jews and Christians have often been compromised by the inability to appreciate the biblical grounding of the doctrine of election . . . This learned, groundbreaking book fills an urgent lacuna and, as a result, is certain to become an indispensable aid for those Jewish and Christian thinkers committed to interreligious dialogue.""Gary A. Anderson, University of Notre Dame""This marvelous book is the best presentation there is of the most misunderstood--and most maligned--teaching in the Hebrew Bible, the chosenness of Israel. It is also one of the best works of biblical theology to come out in recent years. In clear prose, unencumbered by technical jargon yet informed by wide learning and careful thinking, Professor Kaminsky analyzes this exceedingly subtle and easily misunderstood topic and uncovers major aspects of the Hebrew Bible that will surprise and enrich scholars and laypersons, Jewish, Christian, and secular alike. I recommend it highly!""Jon D. Levenson, Harvard University""Election is a powerful biblical theme that has played a significant role in theological reflection through the centuries . . . In Hebrew Bible studies, however, election has been too often assumed and too little explored. So Joel Kaminsky''s insightful and careful study is welcome indeed. Especially to be commended are his careful analysis of texts, his balanced assessment of the evidence, and his theological alertness.""Terrence E. Fretheim, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MinnesotaJoel S. Kaminsky is the Morningstar Professor of Jewish Studies and a Professor of Bible in the Religion Department at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.