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Description:If the church is more than just a building, what could it mean to live in it--to inhabit it as a way of life? From their location in new monastic communities, Otto, Stock, and Wilson-Hartgrove ask what the church can learn from St. Benedict's vows of conversion, obedience, and stability about how to live as the people of God in the world. In storytelling and serious engagement with Scripture, old wisdom breathes life into a new monasticism. But, like all monastic wisdom, these reflections are not just for monks. They speak directly to the challenge of being the church in America today and the good news Christ offers for the whole world.Endorsements:Conversations between contemporary Christian communities and Benedictine monasticism are among the most surprising and promising in the church today. Given that the roots of monasticism and of contemporary Protestantism lie in different parts of the Christian tradition, mutual engagement between contemporary Christians and monastics has been rare. Recently, however, the scene has shifted, and Inhabiting the Church represents the new eagerness to learn the art of living together faithfully from experienced and ancient practitioners. --Christine D. Pohl from the foreword""Protestants looking for a richer, thicker, more robust and enchanted way of living into the Christian story should not ignore this invitation into the rhythms and cadences of Benedictine spirituality. Indeed, only one kind of person should avoid this book: the reader who does not wish to be changed."" --Lauren F. Winner author of Girl Meets God and Real Sex ""This book is a timely intersection of the new and ancient, breathing fresh life into an aging body. An older generation will ¿nd this book a long-awaited reassurance that the Spirit is still stirring radical nonconformity on the margins of empires. And the contemporary renewal of new monastics and prophetic tricksters will ¿nd a cure for the pretension and sloppiness that can so often taint our vision or tempt us to pretend that there is 'something new under the sun.' With both courage and humility, we will all ¿nd ourselves invited to inhabit the incarnational body that makes God visible to the world . . . May it inspire all of us to become the church that God longs for."" --Shane Claiborne author of The Irresistible Revolution, founding member of The Simple Way, and recovering sinner""These folks are bringing things both old and new out of the great Christianstorehouse! The New Monasticism is discovering what is alwaysrediscovered--and always bears great life for the Gospel.""--Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M.Center for Action and ContemplationAlbuquerque, New MexicoAbout the Contributor(s):Jon Stock is a member of Church of the Servant King, publisher of Wipf and Stock, and proprietor of Windows Booksellers in Eugene, Oregon.Tim Otto serves as an Associate Pastor of the Church of the Sojourners in San Francisco. He is also a part-time nurse at the San Francisco county hospital, working with AIDS and cancer patients.Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a member of Rutba House in Durham, North Carolina. He is the author of To Baghdad and Beyond.

Apart from God alone, in what do Americans seek meaning, identity, self-worth, and justification? With devastating simplicity, this inquiry into contemporary idolatry probes a range of subjects: religion, race, work, money, status, patriotism, and even the church. All this in a concise, readable primer. In the end, William Stringfellow's biblical sensibility parts the curtain to expose the impostor behind the impostors, death itself.

In the five long letters which follow, her father--himself afflicted with the same disease--attempts to describe for his daughter the freedom he has found. It is a liberation, he explains, made possible not simply in spite of his illness, but to a significant extent just because of it. It is a liberation which is, in fact, the gift of affliction. Melvin Schoonover isn't trying to kid anyone, least of all his daughter. He knows first-hand the emotional and physical agony brought about by his handicap; confined to a wheelchair, he has experienced the limitations on his movements, the appalling insensitivity of which some of us are capable when exposed to a 'cripple.' And he tells her about those experiences, and the effect they had on his childhood, his education, his travel, his career. He knows, better than most of us, how bad it can be. Yet he is able to write In many ways I consider myself to be among the most privileged of men . . . . And he adds: That is why I have decided to write you these letters . . . to share some things with you that the end of the struggle is not despair, but hope and joy. It is hope and joy that emerge most forcefully in these 'Letters to Polly.' The bitterness is there, too, of course; and the anger, the impatience, the frustration. Schoonover is too honest to deny, or to attempt to disguise, the burdens of affliction. But neither his life nor his letters end on that note. They end, instead, in the joy and confidence he has found in Jesus of Nazareth. His final victory over evil and suffering and death, he tells Polly, gives me hope that we--and all men--can and shall reach the kingdom. There the physical burdens will be laid aside, and the walls of separation between human beings shall be torn down, and we shall all be free to love and live as we were always intended to do.

Examining each of the major sections of 1 Corinthians, Horsley probes the disagreement Paul had with those claiming special spiritual status. The conflicts over what constitute wisdom, knowledge, and spirituality cut to the core of what Paul was trying to accomplish in his communities. Horsley moves the debate from the history of religions background to the Hellenistic Jewish religiosity of the Wisdom of Solomon and Philo of Alexandria.

""By them we have been carried away out of our own land, as into a Babylonian captivity, and despoiled of all our precious possessions."" Martin Luther, 1520""Their goal is our deracination, which is 'detachment from one's background (as from homeland, customs, traditions).' Thus women and other Elemental creatures on this planet are rendered homeless, cut off from knowledge of our Race's customs and traditions."" Mary Daly, 1984What is this land, this world of which these two theologians are speaking? Why do the two statements above sound similar in the authors' longing for a true home, for our own land? And who is this ""them"" who carries us away and cuts us off? Could it be possible that Martin Luther and Mary Daly, different in almost every way, are saying something similar? Why do these key figures in the Christian theological tradition, who come from different times, places, and politics, engage in such a parallel task? How is this possible? This book examines a series of surprising parallels between two key reforming figures in the Christian theological tradition and suggests that the two are in fact engaged in the same task: political theology. Applying a new label to familiar theologians enables readers to see both of them as well as their reformations in a new light. The sixteenth-century Reformation and second wave feminism are viewed through the pioneering work of Luther and Daly here to further establish the political content and consequence of these theologians.

This is an exhaustive and perceptive analysis of the use of 'mishpat' and 'sdq' in the Hebrew Bible and in particular the Eight-Century Prophets. The author focuses on the social critique of these prophets and the role of 'mishpat' and 'sdq' in this development. Further, the book offers an insightful exploration of chosen texts and provides a daring platform for contemporary society to discern the intrinsic connection between worship and social justice.

Exploring the richness of American thought and experience in the mid-eighteenth century, Alan Heimert develops the intellectual and cultural significance of the religious divisions and debates engendered by one of the most critical episodes in American intellectual history, the Great Awakening of the 1740's. The author's concern throughout is to discover what were the essential issues in a dispute that was not so much a controversy between theologians as a vital competition for the ideological allegiance of the American people. This is not a standard history of any one area of ideas. Mr. Heimert's sources include nearly everything published in America from 1735. His study, in its range and conception, is an original contribution to an understanding of the relationship between colonial religious thought and the evolution of American history.

We live in that final time which offers humans the clearest choice in history: the kingdom or the holocaust, Jim Douglass writes. Either end is a lightning east to west: the nuclear holocaust a lightning fire, the kingdom of Reality a lightning spirit. We will choose lightning east to west today as either nuclear fire or the kingdom of God, as either despair and annihilation or transformation through nonviolence. If we look to Jesus and Gandhi, and what they point to, we can hope to choose the lightning fire of nonviolence.

Is the history of the early Church the story of a movement away from the religion of the New Testament into Hellenic speculation, institutionalism, and bare moralism? Many present issues are affected by the judgment made upon this matter, which the author seeks to illuminate in his Cambridge Dissertation. There is in St. Irenaeus a doctrine of Creation and Revelation by The Two Hands of God, and likewise Recapitulation, and exposition of the Saving Work of Christ. The claim is here advanced that of these doctrines the former is an expression of the Hebraic conception of the Living God, who is transcendent yet immediately active in Creation and Revelation. The latter is thoroughly Pauline, and is a statement of the Classic theology of the Atonement. Together with his necessary emphasis upon the Church and Episcopate, Irenaeus has preserved the Gospel of real redemption by personal faith in Christ.

This short volume is at once a survey of recent particular discoveries which bid to transform our knowledge of Judaism in the Hellenistic Era, and a synthesis of the history of Judaism . . . The richness and freshness of Professor Stone's understanding of Judaism in the Hellenistic Age stems not only from his mastery of new lore; it arises also from a broad and objective humanistic mind prepared to relinquish cherished but antiquated views and bold to make new constructions. --Frank Moore Cross, Jr. Hancock Professor of Oriental Languages Harvard University This work integrates the important finds of the past thirty years into a fresh picture of Second Temple (Intertestamental) Judaism--its varieties, its contacts with Gnosticism and Hellenism, the ancient roots of its apocalyptic--whose dynamic complexity was never before imagined; a book widely learned yet readily accessible to the common reader. --Moshe Greenberg Professor of Bible Hebrew University of Jerusalem Professor Michael Stone's Scriptures, Sects and Visions is not only an achievement in compactness, but a welcome elucidation of new discoveries and reinterpretations essential to the understanding of postbiblical Judaism and the beginnings of Christianity. --Judah Goldin Professor of Oriental Studies University of Pennsylvania

These marvelous stories! This volume is a woman's canon presented with scholarship and wit. I thoroughly enjoyed it. - Susan B. Thistlethwaite In his treatment of Judith, LaCocque reflects on the paradox that Judith - more 'woman-oriented' than (the conceivably female-authored) Susanna - was probably written by a man. He concludes that this deserves to be celebrated: 'The best advocates for a cause are those who are not self-serving.' LaCocque appears to plead his own cause here, as he celebrates the underrepresented but bold interventions of women on behalf of God, for Israel and the world. As literature and as individuals, Susanna, Judith, Esther, and Ruth accomplish a peripeteia that allows God to convict, convert, and save. - Christopher R. Seitz

Stringfellow, in Dissenter in a Great Society, is not concerned with partisan politics but applies the standards of biblical prophetism to current attitudes to poverty and property, the continuing war between the races, protest movements, and the search for commitment. As Nat Hentoff said in The Nation, Stringfellow is no liberal. He is a radically relevant Christian - an extremely rare species. He argues that to be a Christian is to be truly human - radically involved in the conflicts and controversies of society. He advocates no naive social gospel, but dares to speak of the liturgy as a political event, and exposes the pietists, pharisees, and do-gooders who betray the idea of Christian involvement. Mary McCarthy has written, Stringfellow has been prompted by a spirit that is like the ghost of Simone Weil.

What is ministry? And how are we to understand the distinctive ecclesiastical office known as ordained ministry? With clarity and insight, this book takes the discussion behind the current impasse between functional and ontological definitions. The contributors provide a distinctively American and ecumenical proposal that is consistent with the confession of justification by faith alone.

The deterioration of our natural environment under the impact of a rampant technological society is one of the major crises of our time. For many analysts, a primary cause of this crisis is the influence on Western culture of the Judaeo-Christian concept of the human being as having dominion over the rest of creation. In this book, Douglas John Hall does not attempt to exonerate historical Christianity from that charge. But, he argues, confession alone is not enough. The crisis of nature forces us to rethink our whole understanding of the relation between humanity and nature - an understanding that is based on the concept that human beings are created in the image of God ('imago Dei'). Hall carefully examines the biblical, historical, and theological meanings of this term, which, more than any other biblical expression, became Christianity's symbolic way of designating the essence of the human. Hall argues that the image of God is not an endowment - it is not something that human beings have; rather, it is a quality that pertains to our relationship with God. We should think of 'imago' as a verb, not a noun, he says. The human vocation within the created order is to image the Creator. When this is applied in a consistent and serious way, the idea of human dominion over all of nature must be radically reinterpreted. Taking the Lordship of Jesus as an authentic model for understanding our human relation to the natural order means that dominion is expressed not as mastery but as service - sacrificial service of the others with and for whom one is responsible. Thus the concept of dominion as stewardship eschews any idea of ownership or superiority in relation to nature, yet assumes a special accountability for its welfare. A provocative and original work, Hall's book retains the biblical centrality of 'homo sapiens' while at the same time raising both nature and God to a new kind of prominence in the dialogue that is life.

In this timely and urgent work, Hans Kung reminds us: - Every minute, the nations of the world spend 1.8 million dollars on military armaments; - Every hour, 1500 children die of hunger-related causes; - Every week during the 1980s, more people were detained, tortured, assassinated, made refugee, or in other ways violated by acts of repressive regimes than at any other time in history; - Every month, the world's economic system adds over 7.5 billion dollars to the catastrophically unbearable debt burden of more than 1.5 trillion dollars now resting on the shoulders of Third World peoples; - Every year, an area of tropical forest three-quarters the size of Korea is destroyed and lost; - Every decade, if present global warming trends continue, the temperature of the earth's atmosphere could rise dramatically with a resultant rise in sea levels that would have disastrous consequences, particularly for coastal areas of all the earth's land masses. In 'Global Responsibility', the author offers important new approaches and concludes that: - There can be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. - There can be no peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions. - There can be no ongoing human society without a global ethic.

Bonnie Thurston examines the personalities, place, and power of women in the New Testament. She provides a cultural and religious context for them by briefly outlining the position of women in the Greco-Roman world. The aim is to reveal the ways in which early Christianity attempted to liberate people from oppression (particularly patriarchy), as well as to point out the places and ways in which the early Christian community compromised with the dominant society.

In 'Spiritual Gifts for Christians Today', Knofel Staton offers eight lessons which bring to light important issues concerning today's charismatic movement. He handles the issues with fairness and a sincere appeal to Scripture, including studies of the perfect of 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and the word tongues as used throughout the Bible, as well as a chapter devoted to the context of I Corinthians Chapter 14. This book is a unique exploration of Scripture and an important resource for Christians today, written by one who is well-known for his preaching and whose skill in writing is evident in this and numerous other published works.

To understand the position of Christianity in China today, one must review and assess the long sweep of the history - over thirteen hundred years - of the Christian faith in China. Confucius, the Buddha, and Christ does that and addresses the essential question of why Christianity over all those centuries has remained foreign to the Chinese - why it has remained an outsider never able really to enter the warp and woof of Chinese life. Dr. Covell's book details and analyzes the history of Nestorians, Catholics, and Protestants, who, in various eras, have tried unsuccessfully to knit Christianity into the fabric of Chinese culture. He argues that Christianity's failure to become Chines has two roots: its foreign connections and its foreign message. Works have been written to address the history of one or another of the waves of missionary activity in China. This book is unique in that it puts together and assesses the core of Christianity - it's message and form - in its varied contexts over more than a millennium of Chinese history. What was preached? How? Why did it fail? Also studied here is the only major attempt to Christianize China from within - the Taiping Movement in the mid-nineteenth century. Confucius, the Buddha, and Christ is a thoroughly-documented, in-depth case study of contextualization - the most significant theme in contemporary world mission studies. It is deceptive, not prescriptive. Its historical perspective opens the door to the only way that other Christians can wisely relate to Chinese Christianity, whether in the People's Republic or in the worldwide Chinese diaspora.

The Christian baptismal ceremony was at first quite simple; by the beginning of the third century it included complex anti-demonic rites. Henry Ansgar Kelly here describes the evolution of the rites of baptism from New Testament times to the present day and explores the impact of demonological theories on Christian liturgy. Kelly begins by identifying the nature and origins of the evil spirits that are referred to in the New Testament, which proved to be major subjects of speculation and theological development by the Church Fathers. He then traces the history both of Christian demonology and of the initiation rituals, clearly illustrating their parallel evolution and their interaction. In his analysis, Kelly examines not only the direct expression of demonological theory in the original ceremonies but also the symbolic reinterpretation of theoretically untenable rituals into allegorical dramas. An astute and ambitious work, 'The Devil at Baptism' covers all the anti-demonic rites of the catechumenate and baptismal services and compares developments in East and West since the emergence of Christianity. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in the development of Christian liturgy in particular and in the history of religion in general.

In this fascinating study, Henry Ansgar Kelly examines the treatment of fifteenth-century English history - the period covered in Shakespeare's history plays, from Richard II to the accession of Henry VII - by contemporary chroniclers, by sixteenth-century historians, and by Elizabethan poets, notably Shakespeare. The author reveals the large role that political bias played in the contemporary accounts: favorite sons were endowed with divine support while cosmically base troubles were attributed to the opposition. He shows that instead of the 'Tudor myth' spoken of by present-day scholars there is a Lancaster myth, a York myth, and a somewhat different Tudor myth. Each is heralded by the partisans of these dynasties. The Lancaster myth regards Richard II's overthrow as providentially arranged and Henry IV's reign as a divine favor, continued under Henry V and Henry VI. The York myth considers Henry VI's loss of the reign as a providential restoration of the usurped throne to the lawful heir of Richard II, namely Edward IV. Kelly finds that the real Tudor myth differs importantly from the widely accepted version in that, far from accepting the Yorkist view that the Henries were punished by God, it accepts the legitimacy of the Lancastrian dynasty: it regards Henry VII, the closest surviving Lancastrian heir, as the providential instrument in the defeat of the wicked Yorkist Richard III and the divinely favored bringer of peace to England. The myth was formulated by the historians and poets who wrote immediately after Henry VII's accession to the throne in 1485. The later chroniclers (especially Polydore Vergil, Hall, and Holinshed) incorporated elements of all three myths - Lancaster, York, and Tudor - but for moralistic rather than for political purposes, often with contradictory results. Shakespeare's great contribution, Kelly asserts, was to sort out the partisan layers that had been blended in the recent compilations available to him and to distribute them to approporiate spokesmen - Lancastrian sentiments to Lancastrians, and so on. He thus eliminated all the purportedly objective providential judgments of his sources and presented such judgments as the opinions of the persons voicing them, thereby allowing each play to create its own ethos and mythos and offer its own hypotheses concerning the springs of human and cosmic action.

Mr. Ladd here presents a philosophical analysis of the nature and structure of a moral code. He exemplifies his general theory by providing the first systematic description of Navajo ethics, based on raw material gathered by intensive anthropological field work among the Navajo. The complete transcript of his field notes is contained in the Appendix to this book. Mr. Ladd shows how the codes of other societies can be described with scientific rigor and objectivity. Drawing upon recent developments in analytical ethics that emphasize the uses of discourse and the logic of imperatives, he develops a general theory of moral codes which holds considerable significance for moral philosophers and which presents for anthropologists a methodology for their investigations into the ethical systems of non-literate cultures.

'Once-Born, Twice-Born Zen' is a fresh treatment of the two major Zen schools of Japan. Its biographical and comparative approach is both original and very readable. The use of William James' typology, along with other phenomenological categories, provides the reader with helpful handles for distinguishing the schools, as well as similar tendencies in other religious traditions. The book should make an excellent text for introductory and middle-level courses in which one is trying to get students to develop categories for understanding religious experience and behavior. Readers will see something of themselves in the range of biographical examples given, and will detect their own tendencies through the use of this method. -- Bardwell Smith

This book has been highly acclaimed both as an imaginative way of introducing the Zen tradition to Western readers, and as an important contribution to understanding the fullness of the Zen perspective and way of life.

Biblical prophecy comprises one of the most rewarding topics of Bible study. Difficulty of subject matter and unfamiliarity with the literary forms, however, deter many students. 'Back Toward the Future' removes these obstacles and invites exploration of this exciting subject. The author, a respected expert in the field, presents an introductory guide to the issues and methods of interpreting prophetic literature. The principles he formulates, coupled with his mature insights, will help students avoid many exegetical pitfalls. Part I helps the reader to discern conditional and unconditional prophecies, comprehend apocalyptic symbols, and understand future events in expressions of the past. Part 2 provides specific steps for interpreting prophetic passages. And Part 3 discourages Bible students from finding double meanings in prophetic statements and encourages them to embrace the author's single-truth intention. A Scripture index concludes 'Back Toward the Future'.

There are some new voices emerging in Christian theological conversation these days. They do not speak with American or Western European accents, but reflect their settings in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Since they come from many places, the theological questions they ask are not ones we are used to in the West. They are as likely to speak of ancestor worship or political oppression as they are of church growth or evangelism. One thing is clear: we cannot listen to their cries of hope (or despair) without being deeply moved. This book gives an opportunity to listen in to important conversations going on in different parts of the world. These Christian theologians do not respond to a common set of questions, but are setting their own agendas of theological discussion. With some general introductory comments, these pieces are meant to stimulate an appetite for further exploration. There seems little doubt that the major voices in theology in the next generation will share these non-western accents.

A highly readable guide for lay Bible teachers to learn how to study, plan, and motivate, using solid yet innovative teaching methods.

Though books on Paul's life and writing abound, very few works have examined the apostle's teaching techniques. In this companion to 'Teaching as Jesus Taught, ' Roy Zuck probes Paul's pedagogy to discover principles for effective teaching today. According to Zuck, the apostle Paul stands as a master teacher. Analyzing and following Paul's educational goals and strategies, Zuck writes, can help us become better teachers of God's Word. Examining his pedagogy can acquaint us with a number of important principles and procedures in teaching. 'Teaching as Paul Taught' explores the many New Testament references to Paul's teaching as well as the historical and cultural context in which the apostle taught. Zuck carefully organizes this extensive material around fifteen key questions regarding the teaching ministry of Paul. Over twenty tables and questions for reflection at the end of each chapter aid readers in following Paul's example. The result is a comprehensive and practical handbook for everyone involved in a teaching ministry

'With Willful Intent: A Theology of Sin' is a full orbed examination of sin and the human Fall. Its intention is to provide the reader/student with both the materials and methodology to formulate his or her own biblically based theology of sin. The book is arranged in four sequential sections to guide the reader through the process of theological development. The first section, A Historical Theology of Sin, furnishes a detailed outline of Christian thought on sin from the time of the early church to the present day. These chapters will help the reader to understand why so many differing views of sin and the Fall exist. The second section, A Biblical Theology of Sin, is the keystone of theological formulation. It apprises the student of the biblical teaching on the human Fall and its subsequent ramifications. Because believers hold the Bible to be the fully inspired, all-sufficient Word of God, what it says about sin must be determinative in one's development of a theology of sin. The third section, A Systematic Theology of Sin, seeks to synthesize the teaching of the Bible while drawing on the insights of history, science, and the social sciences. Topics covered include the nature of sin, its universality, its transmission, its relationship to Satan and the demonic, and its conquest through Jesus Christ. Any theology is worthless if it cannot be related to daily living. The conclusion, A Practical Theology of Sin, demonstrates how the theology which has been formulated may be applied to the individual life of the believer and to the church's ministry.

Reflecting with Solomon gathers some of the best scholarship on Ecclesiastes. The result is a solid introduction to Old Testament Wisdom Literature and more detail for study, preaching, and teaching than found in most commentaries.