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Sophie Laws was educated at Oxford University, where she earned her BA, MA, and BLitt. She was a lecturer in theology at the University of Leeds from 1968 to 1969, and at King's College, University of London, from 1969 to 1982. Among her publications is A Commentary on the Epistle of James.

A fresh look at the Exodus story that opens our eyes to injustice in today's world.""A remarkable book of contextual biblical studies . . . Dykstra's subject is the story of Exodus, not as told by the slaves, but from the perspective of the Egyptian empire. There she finds a haunting mirror of North American culture, of its oppression, self-aggrandizement, and brutal racism. The result is a splendid work of public theology.""--Kathleen M. O'Connor, Columbia Theological Seminary""The late Robert McAfee Brown used to worry about how we North American Christians, with our vantage point from 'within Pharaoh's household,' might legitimately respond to Third World liberation theology's appropriation of the Exodus story. Now from the heart of the Catholic Worker movement comes just such a reading, and it is fresh, literate, and deeply engaged. A sophisticated and compelling project.""--Ched Myers, author, Binding the Strong Man""Prophetic, critical, and passionate. Never before has there been a volume that offers such a profound critical theological and social reflection on a biblical text, the world that shaped it, and the contemporary community who now reads it . . . This book is one of the best that I have read in a long, long time.""--Carol Dempsey, editor, Theology and Sacred ScriptureLaurel Dykstra is an Anglican priest, community-based activist, and scholar in Vancouver, BC. She is coeditor of Liberating Biblical Study (Cascade, 2011).

Over the past decade prominent philosophers and theologians have returned the virtues to a significant place in moral reflection. Transformed Judgment contributes to the growing literature by arguing that the most coherent account of moral judgment is one grounded in, and lived in the presence of, the Triune God. L. Gregory Jones suggests that while there has been considerable discussion of the virtues and the activity of moral judgment, the discussion has tended to neglect the importance of friendship and the ways in which people learn to acquire and exercise the virtues in making wise moral judgments.The Christian tradition''s claim that human beings are to live in relation to the mystery of the Triune God provides a distinctive understanding of friendship, the virtues, and moral judgment, claims Jones. Drawing on the thought of Thomas Aquinas, he develops his claim that the primary friendship a person should have is with the God who has befriended humanity in Jesus Christ; such friendship calls forth a life of transformative discipleship in friendship with others.Jones criticizes recent exponents of the virtues such as Martha Nussbaum, Edmund Pincoffs, and Stanley Hauerwas for failing to adequately recognize the difference theological claims make for ethics and moral judgment. He argues that an adequate understanding of how the virtues are acquired and character is formed reveals that theological claims about such matters as God, the world, and life and death make a decisive difference in moral judgment.Drawing on a wide range of literature from the philosophy of language and moral philosophy to theology and theological ethics, Jones establishes why it is crucial to attend to not only the formation of moral judgments, but also to transformation in moral judgment.L. Gregory Jones is Dean and Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC. He is an ordained United Methodist pastor, author of Embodying Forgiveness, and coauthor of Everyday Matters: Intersections of Life and Faith. Jones also contributes regularly to The Christian Century magazine. He and his wife, the Reverend Susan Pendleton Jones, have three children.

Description:From the first episode to the latest feature film, two main symbols provide the driving force for the iconic television series The X-Files: Fox Mulder's "I Want to Believe" poster and Dana Scully's cross necklace. Mulder's poster may feature a flying saucer, but the phrase "I want to believe" refers to more than simply the quest for the truth about aliens. The search for extraterrestrial life, the truth that is out there, is a metaphor for the search for God. The desire to believe in something greater than ourselves is part of human nature: we want to believe. Scully's cross represents this desire to believe, as well as the internal struggle between faith and what we can see and prove. The X-Files depicts this struggle by posing questions and exploring possible answers, both natural and supernatural. Why would God let the innocent suffer? Can God forgive even the most heinous criminal? What if God is giving us signs to point the way to the truth, but we're not paying attention? These are some of the questions raised by The X-Files. In the spirit of the show, this book uses the symbols and images presented throughout the series to pose such questions and explore some of the answers, particularly in the Christian tradition. With a focus on key themes of the series--faith, hope, love, and truth--along the way, this book journeys from the desire to believe to the message of the cross.Endorsements:"What a wonderful book. With grace and intelligence, Amy Donaldson explores the questions of faith and mystery that form the secret heart of the The X-Files. Skeptics and believers alike are bound to come away with new insights into the series--and life."--Frank SpotnitzExecutive Producer, The X-Files"Amy Donaldson has written the Bible for X-Files fans . . . Written in an easygoing style that is free of the postmodern jargon one finds in much of cultural criticism, Dr. Donaldson raises challenging questions that provoke an engaging conversation between science, faith, and theological reflection. This book is a must-read for Christians interested in fostering intelligent dialogue between contemporary popular culture and Christian faith."--Jeffrey L. StaleyDepartment of Theology and Religious StudiesSeattle University"Amy M. Donaldson's We Want To Believe takes The X Files to have been a prolonged, ever-deepening meditation on the modern crisis no less acute in its insights than, say, a critical study by Jacques Ellul or a novel by Hermann Hesse or a poem by T. S. Eliot. Donaldson indeed brings to bear on Carter's nine-season epic the same type of exegetical apparatus that the best scholars of literature and philosophy bring to the objects of their interest . . . We Want To Believe is an informative and enjoyable book that all fans of The X Files, and all serious students of religion and faith, should read."--Thomas F. Bertonneauco-author of The Truth Is Out There: Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction"Donaldson utilizes the synergy and convergence of Mulder and Scully's relationship and her impressively vast knowledge of the X-Files universe to uniquely argue that by not giving up on the truths of the heart--faith, hope, and love--one may thereby discover (and become renewed in) the 'truest truths' that are 'out there.'"--Dean A. Kowalskiauthor/editor of The Philosophy of The X-FilesAbout the Contributor(s):Amy M. Donaldson works as an Associate Editor at Baker Publishing Group. She received her PhD in New Testament and Early Christianity from the University of Notre Dame.

From the book:"" What is a conversion? The question is like asking, 'What is falling in love?' There is no standard procedure, no fixed time. No Damascus Road experience has been vouchsafed me; I have just stumbled on, like Bunyan's Pilgrim, falling into the Slough of Despond, locked up in Doubting Castle, terrified at passing through the Valley of the Shadow of Death; from time to time, by God's mercy, relieved of my burden of sin, but only, alas, soon to acquire it again.""""From my earliest years, there was something going on inside me other than vague aspirations to make a name for myself and a stir in the world: something that led me to feel myself a stranger among strangers in a strange land, whose true habitat was elsewhere, another destiny whose realization would swallow up time into Eternity, transform flesh into spirit, knowledge into faith, and reveal in transcendental terms what our earthly life truly signifies.""In November 1982, Malcolm Muggeridge was received into the Roman Catholic Church, an event which attracted much attention and curiosity. To Malcolm Muggeridge, it signified ""a sense of homecoming, of picking up the threads of a lost life.""Malcolm Muggeridge, well known around the world in the latter part of the twentieth century as a journalist, writer, and media figure, is still remembered as a vociferous unbeliever for a great part of his career. But always he had had an awareness that another dimension existed, that there was a destiny beyond the devices and desires of the ego, and that earthly life could not be the end.This book, first published in 1988 and the last of his writing to be published in his lifetime, is a personal statement of the history and development of his religious beliefs. An important section relates to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, latterly beatified, and with expectations to becoming a Saint. Her influence was perhaps the most powerful force leading this deeply thinking man to God and to the Roman Catholic Church. He describes also the effect upon him of meetings with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a man whom he considers to be one of the greatest prophets of our time, with a profound spiritual message for our turbulent world.This moving testimony is not about the mechanics of becoming a Roman Catholic. Rather, it is about a series of happenings, occasions of enlightenment, that led one spiritually troubled man to find God. It is a statement of belief which will fascinate all who are interested in the workings of the human mind, and will inspire all who seek the Truth.Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990) was a noted journalist, reporting for the 'Daily Telegraph' and, later, as an editor for 'Punch Magazine'. He also served as television host for two interview shows. Muggeridge was known for his outrageous wit and flair for satire. Later in his life, Muggeridge came to embrace Christianity, ultimately being received into the Catholic Church in 1992. He wrote many popular and critically acclaimed books, including 'Jesus Rediscovered' (1969), 'Jesus: The Man Who Lives' (1975), and 'Confessions of a 20th Century Pilgrim' (1988). His biography of Mother Teresa, 'Something Beautiful For God' (1971), essentially introduced the nun and her work with the poor in India to the West.

The notion that the Bible is inerrant in everything it teaches is something those with conservative upbringings are conditioned to take for granted. However, after being exposed to scholarship in biblical studies and other disciplines, some draw the unexpected conclusion that inerrancy as a doctrine is in dire need of serious revamping. Unfortunately, inerrantist politics and culture are making the constructive, restorative process impossible to intitiate. In Rehabilitating Inerrancy in a Culture of Fear, Carlos Bovell offers a synoptic overview of the issues to be addressed if inerrancy is to survive as a viable bibliological option.

With the onslaught of books on how to do worship, Dr. David Adams' conversational book, Lifestyle Worship, is a breath of fresh air. Highlighting the current concept of worship, Dr. Adams explains the contrast and similarities of biblical worship within our contemporary definition of worship. Sprinkled with humor, Lifestyle Worship gets to the heart of what true worship is and offers practical suggestions to deepen your walk with God. With years of research behind him, Dr. Adams is quickly garnering attention as one of the leading authorities on worship and cultural theology.

Reading Revelation Responsibly is for those who are confused by, afraid of, and/or preoccupied with the book of Revelation. In rescuing the Apocalypse from those who either completely misinterpret it or completely ignore it, Michael Gorman has given us both a guide to reading Revelation in a responsible way and a theological engagement with the text itself. He takes interpreting the book as a serious and sacred responsibility, believing how one reads, teaches, and preaches Revelation can have a powerful impact on one's own--and other people's--well-being. Gorman pays careful attention to the book's original historical and literary contexts, its connections to the rest of Scripture, its relationship to Christian doctrine and practice, and its potential to help or harm people in their life of faith. Rather than a script for the end times, Gorman demonstrates how Revelation is a script for Christian worship, witness, and mission that runs counter to culturally embedded civil religion.

This book is a commentary on the Acts of the Apostles for the nonspecialist, based on lecture notes accumulated over many years of Professor Mel Storm's introductory course on Acts. Originally written to supplement students' reading of the story of the church in Acts, Living Lord, Empowering Spirit, Testifying People provides readers with important historical information and theological insights. The book opens with an introduction to Acts that gives special attention to the question of the authorship and date of the book, as well as to the theological themes that shape the narrative. Storm offers large sections of in-depth commentary instead of verse-by-verse analysis and concludes each chapter with important vocabulary and insightful questions that can be used as a springboard for class discussion, small writing assignments, or personal reflection in both academic circles and church settings. Living Lord, Empowering Spirit, Testifying People guides students to understand Acts as a theologically shaped narrative that conveys important themes for disciples of Jesus.

Arthur F. Marotti has produced the first systematic study of John Donne's poetry as coterie literature, offering fresh interpretations of the poems in their biographical and sociohistorical contexts. It will be of interest and value to students and scholars of English Renaissance literature, to critics interested in the application of revisionist history to literary study, and to those concerned with the processes by which literature became institutionalized in the early modern period.Donne treated poetry as an avocation, restricting his verse to carefully chosed readers: friends, acquaintances, patrons, and the woman he later married. This study employs socio-historical and psychoanalytic methods to examine this poetry as work designed for readers to respond in knowledgeable ways to a complex interplay of literary text and social context. Marotti argues that it is necessary to relate literary language to the languages of social, economic, and political transactions and to define the social and ideological affiliations of literary genres and modes.After setting Donne's practice in the framework of the sixteenth-century systems of manuscript literary transmission, Marotti treats the verse chronologically and according to audience, paying particular attention to the rhetorical enactment of the author's relationships to peers and superiors through the conflicting styles of egalitarian assertion, social iconoclasm, and deferential politeness. Marotti relates the poetry to Donne's contemporary prose, discussing the author's choice of various literary forms in the context of his sociopolitical life as well in terms of the shift from Elizabethan to Jacobean rule, the latter change resulting in a realignment of genres within the culture's literary system. He reads Donne's formal satires, humanist verse letters, erotic elegies, and commentary epistles aware of the social coordinates of those particular genres, and defines the markedly different circumstances to which Donne's libertine, courtly, satiric, sentimental, complimentary, and religious lyrics individually belonged. Marotti deals also with Donne's inventive mixing of genres in both shorter and longer poems. Marotti's groundbreaking work offers new models of historical interpretation of Donne's poetry, complementing previous formalist, intellectual-historical, and literary-historical readings. It particularly highlights the importance of attending to the socioliterary conditions of literature designed for manuscript transmission rather than for publication, work that includes, for example, much of the lyric poetry of Renaissance England.""Marotti recreates the conditions of coterie writing convincingly, and the poetry gives up more of its secrets as a result.""--Graham Parry, London Times Higher Education Supplement "". . . a study which no serious student of Donne can ignore.""--Cedric C. Brown, Review of English Studies "". . . a thought-provoking and lucid volume that illuminates both the poetry and the social and autobiographical forces behind it. "". . . [Marotti] frees Donne form the constraining boxes in which many other critics have crammed his work and in so doing offers a significant new reading of his entire poetic canon.""--Heather Dubrow, Renaissance Quarterly ""This is a powerful testament to Donne's poetic achievement and as an account of a poetic career in an unsettled, manuscript culture, it is a definitive statement of the man, the occasions, and the work.""--Arthur F. Kinney, The Centennial ReviewArthur F. Marotti, Professor of English at Wayne State University, has written three books on Early Modern English literature and culture, most recently Religious Ideology and Cultural Fantasy: Catholic and Anti-Catholic Discourse in Early Modern England (2005).

Harry Emerson Fosdick's classic volume entitled 'The Modern Use of the Bible' enabled readers in the first part of this century to make the pilgrimage into the 'modern' era and to understand the Bible in an idiom informed by critical and historical assumptions and approaches. The exchange of the historical context for the dogmatic transformed biblical study into an exciting discipline both spiritually and intellectually. The critical distancing of the text in the historical approach, however, has gradually trnasformed biblical writings into museum pieces without contemporary relevance. For contemporary readers, a satisfying approach cannot be uncritical, but it must move beyond the critical. 'Postmodern Use of the Bible' encourages a continual pilgrimage. In this book, readers are provided resources to enable them to make sense for themselves, in the light of challenges to major critical assumptions and strategies of 'The Modern Use of the Bible.' The same goal is in mind--to allow the Bible to speak in a contemporary idiom. --from the IntroductionContents Introduction 1. How Have We Made Sense of the Bible? 2. Toward the Postmodern 3. Literary Perspectives and Resources for Postmodern Use: Structures, Codes, and the Readers 4. The Role of the Reader: Imaging the Sacred 5. The Role of the Reader: Actualizing of Biblical Discourse ConclusionEdgar V. McKnight is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of Religion at Furman University. He is the author of 'What Is Form Criticism?,' 'Meaning in Texts,' 'The Bible and the Reader,' 'Reading the Bible Today,' and 'Jesus Christ in History and Scripture.'

The Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt represents the largest Christian community in the Middle East today, but few works have appeared that discuss the situation of the contemporary Church.The Coptic Church has preserved ancient Christian traditions in a unique way. Not only has it survived centuries of living in a predominantly Muslim environment, but it has also managed to renew itself continuously during its long history.This book covers, for the first time, the most important aspects of the contemporary Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt and in the diaspora, bringing together new knowledge which would otherwise remain largely inaccessible except to a small number of specialists.

From a thoroughly biblical viewpoint Eduard Thurneysen probes deeply into the nature and practice of pastoral care. His rich understanding of men, his experience in counseling, and his grasp of theological thought infuse his approach with vitality and truth. As he considers the basis of pastoral care, Thurneysen puts forward the thesis that the purpose of counseling is to communicate the Word of God to individuals. Pastoral care is a ministry along with those of sermon and sacrament; its aim is to lead the counselee back to sermon and sacrament in the worship of the church. Although he does little more than hint at rules and techniques for pastoral care, Thurneysen is greatly concerned with its practical aspects. It is his belief that the care of souls occurs through conversation--confident, open-minded conversation which is founded on the Word of God, informed by prayer, and manifested in active listening to, and acceptance of, the counselee. Thurneysen demonstrates the importance of a knowledge of psychology and the principles of psychotherapy. Depth psychology and psychotherapy deeply enrich our understanding of human nature and serve to communicate the message of forgiveness all the more powerfully. This book provides a critical theological study of the whole field of pastoral care. As a work in practical theology, it will be stimulating and useful to professors of counseling as well as to students in the field. Counselors and pastors will find it helpful because it throws light on the fundamental issues involved in problems which they face in their ministries. Eduard Thurneysen (1888-1974) was a pastor in a Swiss town near where Barth was pastor, and they worked out dialectical theology together. He was later Professor of Theology at Zurich.

Since the rise of the ""New Homiletic"" a generation ago, it has been recognized that sermons not only say something to listeners, they also do something. A truly expository sermon will seek not merely to say what the biblical text said, but also to do what the biblical text did in the lives of its original audience. In Preaching the New Testament as Rhetoric, MacBride looks how at the discipline of rhetorical criticism can help preachers discern the function of a New Testament text in its original setting as a means of crafting a sermon that can function similarly in contemporary contexts. Focusing on the letters of Paul, he shows how understanding them in light of Greco-Roman speech conventions can suggest ways by which preachers can communicate not just the content of the letters, but also their function. In this way, the power of the text itself can be harnessed, leading to sermons that inform and, most importantly, transform.

We confront failure in all levels of our humanity. There is failure in the use of the gifts of the earth, the unlimited exercise of intelligence, the enjoyment of freedom, and in the acceptance of the call of an infinite God. The failure to achieve fulfillment at any one of these levels may contribute to a particular frustration that may destroy the wholesome harmony necessary for happiness.In a period of utopian ideologies and theologies, this book may serve as a reminder that we do fail and that our faith does not promise that we shall not fail. Yet, precisely because we experience failures, we find cause for hope and deliverance outside ourselves. This is the theology of the cross--triumph through failure.

The subject of "women in ministry" has attracted considerable attention in the past half-century of Western Christianity. While much of the debate has centered around ordination and female pastors, few works have focused specifically on female deacons. A Case for Female Deacons challenges reformed and evangelical Christians to accept the legitimacy of female deacons without getting distracted by the more controversial debate about female pastors. The heart of the book contains a thorough exegesis of key passages and a fascinating look at what the church believed about deacons in centuries past. As a graduate thesis, readers will find a cohesive, logical argument supported by a wealth of scholarly research. As a contemporary work in theology, many complementarians and traditionalists will be challenged to revise their position. The end result is a compelling biblical, theological, and historical case for female deacons.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Edward Irving ""a minister of Christ, after the order of Paul."" Edward Irving was a great preacher, probably the best in Georgian Britain. He was also a profound theologian and a caring pastor. Yet, it is a strange fact of history that this Paul-like ""minister of Christ"" was eventually removed from the church he had made famous, unfairly expelled from his denomination for heresy, and at the end of his brief life, was demoted in the sect that emerged from his ministry.Towards the end of Irving's life, charismatic gifts emerged in his church amidst great controversy. He had already developed a theological rationale for such gifting, and his extensive teaching on spiritual gifts is still widely consulted today.Edward Irving was and is a controversial figure. It is time that his life, ministry, and teaching were reconsidered. Who was Edward Irving? How did he live? What made him outstanding? What made him so controversial? What is his legacy? These are the questions answered in Edward Irving Reconsidered. It is a compelling story, as sad as it is powerful.

C. S. Lewis once remarked that his debt to George MacDonald's writings was ""almost as great as one man can owe to another . . . I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself."" Born in Scotland in 1824, MacDonald was educated at King's College in Aberdeen and Highbury Seminary in London. As a Christian minister, he indulged early his fondness--and skill--in the writing of poetry, then fantasy and fiction, as well as sermons. Quickly becoming known for his literary skills, he became a popular writer and lecturer, counting among his friends and fans Lady Byron, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Mark Twain, John Ruskin, Matthew Arnold, and Lewis Carroll (who only published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at the urging of the MacDonald family). At the time of his death in 1905, he left behind a large volume of work that has had a profound influence on many writers, including G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle, and Frederick Buechner. This seminal biography is based upon a careful researching of thousands of letters written to and by MacDonald as well as personal papers and documents collected in museums and libraries in America and Europe. A noted MacDonald scholar, Rolland Hein spent over a decade reading and researching these documents with a view to exploring those aspects of the life and experiences of this great author and saint that have so profoundly influenced many of the seminal authors of the twentieth century.

Father Hinnebusch received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford where he studied prior to his assignment as professor of history at Providence College. He subsequently spent three years doing research at the Historical Institute of the Dominican Order in Rome where he published The Early English Friars Preachers. For many years he taught Church History at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. A contributor to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the Catholic Youth Encyclopedia and the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Fr. Hinnebusch was also the author of Renewal in the Spirit of St. Dominic (1968).

The Anglican Communion must address a central issue: that of the postmodern worldview growing in its midst and the corresponding development of a One World Religion. It is an issue of theological meaning and interpretation, of right doctrine and right practice. It is an issue of Christian identity. The crisis has only just begun. Anglicans are the canary in the coal mine, gasping for air while worldwide Christianity looks on to see how much oxygen is left.The One World Religion is actively coming into being. Many Christian churches are grappling with forces and pressures from within and without to yield, to change, or to embrace this phenomenon, which can be oh-so-appealing. The time has come for all who would call themselves Christians to decide which set of beliefs and practices will be adhered to and taught in the church, and which vision will be offered to the world as the Christian faith.Anglican Manifesto seeks to ignite a reformation of Anglicanism in order to set the stage for a global reunification and revival of Christian churches worldwide.

In Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: Feminist Reconstruction of Biography and Text, Yugar invites you to accompany Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a seventeenth-century protofeminist and ecofeminist, on her lifelong journey within three communities of women in the Americas. Sor Juana's goal was to reconcile inequalities between men and women in central Mexico and between the Spaniards and the indigenous Nahua population of New Spain. Yugar reconstructs a her-story narrative through analysis of two primary texts Sor Juana wrote en sus propias palabras (in her own words), El Sueno (The Dream) and La Respuesta (The Answer). Yugar creates a historically-based narrative in which Sor Juana's sueno of a more just world becomes a living nightmare haunted by misogyny in the form of the church, the Spanish Tribunal, Jesuits, and more--all seeking her destruction. In the process, Sor Juana "hoists [them] with their own petard." In seventeenth-century colonial Mexico, just as her Latina sisters in the Americas are doing today, Sor Juana used her pluma (pen) to create counternarratives in which the wisdom of women and the Nahua inform her sueno of a more just world for all.

This book explores the notion that the Roman Catholic Church risks imploding from within as a result of its inflexibility towards movements in favor of reasonable change and modernization. Attendance at Sunday Mass has dramatically decreased; the loss of the youth in these churches is a case in point. At the same time, the lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life is at crisis proportions as is further evidenced by the closing of parishes and the curtailing of religious services including the rising phenomenon of ""priest-less Parishes."" Young men today--even if they aspire to the priesthood--experience both unrest and rejection at the continued demand of the Church's leadership that priests commit themselves to the lifelong discipline of celibacy.Back to the Future of the Roman Catholic Church addresses the root causes of the various developments that have provoked discontent with Church policies and defections from parish life on the part of those who appear to have lost faith in their hierarchical leaders at the highest levels of Church governance. Finally, this book probes the ways in which the Church can emerge from its crises to become, once again, faithful to its origins as founded by Jesus Christ.

This book discusses the question that the author regards as central in the present ecumenical debate: the nature of the Church itself. He thus describes the plan of the book: The First chapter sketches the present context of the discussion and touches on the Biblical meaning of the word ""Church."" The next three chapters examine the three answers to the central question, which may be roughly categorized as Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal. The last two chapters argue that the Church is only to be understood in a perspective that is at once eschatological and missionary, the perspective of the ends of the earth.Bishop Newbigin's evaluations are provacative, scholarly, and filled with profound passion and insight. He is concerned with the searching questions men today are asking: Is there in truth a family of God on earth to which I can belong, a place where all men can be truly at home? If so, where is it to be found and how is it that those who claim to be spokesmen of that holy fellowship are themselves at war with one another as to the fundamentals of its nature? I think there is no more urgent theological task than to try to give plain and simple answers. This he does, drawing deeply upon biblical sources.

Catechesis is a unique form of teaching that intends not merely to pass along facts but to hand on the faith received from Christ, the apostles, and the living magesterium of the Church.The Mystery We Proclaim, Second Edition, is an invitation to all involved in this God-ordained work to reflect and examine the importance of their ministry in light of the revealed mystery of faith we all profess.Reflecting both the spirit and the content of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well as the vision of the General Directory for Catechesis, The Mystery We Proclaim, Second Edition, uses the riches of these resources to guide catechists into the third millennium with greater clarity, confidence, and effectiveness. Today is, as Monsignor Kelly points out, ""a promising and exciting time in which the 'new evangelization' offers many rich possibilities for catechesis.""Divided into five parts that analyze and evaluate the catechetical movement of the past as well as providing direction for the future, The Mystery We Proclaim, Second Edition, helps consolidate and highlight themes of both the Catechism and the General Directory. Its five major sections are as follows: Catechesis in the New Context, The Heritage and Challenge of Catechesis, The Goals of Catechesis, The Content of Catechesis, and A Methodology for Catechesis.Everyone from pastors to DREs, to religion teachers, catechists, and principals--in fact, anyone involved in religious education--will find The Mystery We Proclaim, Second Edition, an encouragement to continued vigor and renewed enthusiasm for transmitting the living faith from one generation to the next.

""[This book] represents an experiment in understanding Paul from the perspective of Jewish eschatology--an experiment, it must be said, which many believe has already been weighed and found wanting. I attempt to argue, below, however, that the failure of this method in the hands of Montefiore, Schweitzer, and others was due to an underestimation of the complex nature of first-century Judaism. When the Judaisms of late antiquity are allowed a voice in the debate on Paul, Paul appears as less a renegade than a reformer. . . .""The argument below must not be taken to conclude that there was no discontinuity between Paul and Judaism. It is only an attempt to show that in his basic attitude toward the law Paul stands in continuity with parts of the Hebrew scriptures and with many Jewish contemporaries.""--from the PrefaceFrank Thielman is professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School of Samford University where he has taught New Testament for nearly twenty years. He is the author, among other books, of Paul and the Law: A Contextual Approach, The Law and the New Testament: The Question of Continuity, and Theology of the New Testament: A Canonical and Synthetic Approach.

If the New Testament represents the crown jewels of Christianity, the Gospel of John is its ""pearl of great price,"" the most beloved, most read, most quoted, most distinctive, most memorable, most debated book in its canon. Truth Revealed is ideal for individual and group study. It divides the Gospel of John into twelve units, providing helpful introductory features, summaries, learning objectives, and questions for each unit, and concludes by offering perspective on a specific topic that arises as one follows the narrative, always with an eye on the big picture, namely, guidance for daily living.Few sayings attributed to Jesus are better known or more widely quoted than the words ""You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"" (John 8:32). At his trial before Pilate, Jesus declared that his purpose in life was to witness to the truth. Pilate responds with the Gospel's most memorable question: ""What is truth?"" The answer is explored in Truth Revealed, a commentary that provides literary, theological, historical, and textual guidelines for understanding the message of this ancient work in a way that is accessible and applicable to twenty-first century readers.""Robert Vande Kappelle does it again. Truth Revealed is masterfully organized and serves as a guide to the Gospel of John for scholars, laity, and novices of the Bible. With depth of information and an inquisitive style, Bob provides a tool for our own search for spiritual truth.""--Daniel A. Stinson, Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, PA""Since the first century, the gospels have occasionally been read and interpreted anti-semitically. In his commentary on John, Vande Kappelle demonstrates the Jewishness of Jesus and of his original followers. Written in a clear and lively style, Truth Revealed examines John's gospel historically, theologically, and literarily, in an ecumenically engaging manner. This book can help Christians rediscover the first-century setting of their faith and can be used profitably in current Jewish-Christian dialogue.""--Rabbi David Novitsky, Beth Israel Synagogue, Washington, PA""Truth Revealed is a fitting coda from a long-time teacher and lifelong student of Scripture. Robert Vande Kappelle's clearly ecumenical approach draws insight from a vast array of scholarship and across the theological spectrum. This book can be used with profit by scholars, students, and general readers who sense there is yet greater truth to be discovered in John's good news.""--Walter C. Weaver, Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, PARobert P. Vande Kappelle is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA. He is the author of eight books; his most recent titles are Beyond Belief (2012), Iron Sharpens Iron (2013), and Hope Revealed (2013), a commentary on the book of Revelation. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

We live in a world with many religious traditions. People in these traditions believe that their religious view of life embodies what is important, true, and real. Their religious views of life, however, differ significantly. They can't all capture equally what is important, true, and real. This book seeks to unravel this dilemma. It rejects two approaches to address the problem: First, the view that one religious view of life is the absolute, unique product of revelation, and second, the view that the foundation of all religious views of life is the same--that they are all the product of religious experiences of the same religious ultimate. This ultimate is sometimes called Being-Itself, sometimes the One. Under the second view, the differences between them are considered cultural.Making Sense of Religion shows us that religious views of life are often radically different, and these differences are not just cultural, but substantive. This book explores the hidden logic beneath the surface of religious views of life that holds them together and helps explain their differences. What follows is a way presenting, comparing, defending, and criticizing religious views of life. This is a type of theology.