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The present volume is the fourth in a five-volume study of church doctrine. The multivolume set covers the major parts of church doctrine: Canon, God, Creation, Reconciliation, and Redemption. The first volume begins with an introduction to the entire project on why doctrine matters, which stresses the ecumenical, global, and above all biblical horizons of church doctrine as a primary expression of Christian witness. The purpose of this fourth volume is to celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ as the treasure of the church and the power of God for the reconciliation of the world. The gospel bears witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and calls for faith in him as the free gift of forgiveness and new life. The gospel is constantly in motion, tearing down every barrier of human bigotry and prejudice, not only forming a new society, but reforming the church itself. Church doctrine is not a luxury, but a necessity for the living community of faith, by which its witness in word and deed is tested against the one true measure of Christ the risen Lord.
Theology of My Life
This book is an autobiographical memoir. It tells the story of how God prepared me for the work of theology during childhood and during my schooling at Princeton, Westminster, and Yale. It focuses on those events that shaped my theological convictions and led me to develop my distinctive emphases in theology, apologetics, and philosophy. It seeks to honor God's providence in leading me from one point to another in my life as a son, husband, father, theologian, apologist, and churchman. My goal in the book is to show how one's theological convictions are products, not only of logic and reasoning, but also of the events of one's life and the people one interacts with.
Saying Yes to God
Saying Yes to God is written to help maturing Christians better recognize the voice of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. The book is a practical resource for those looking for fresh insight to break through barriers and personal limitations in their relationship with God. In effect, this book offers hope to all those who earnestly want to know God better and to live Christ-centered, Spirit-led lives. Readers will not feel judged or shamed, but will hear a gentle but firm and persistent call to believe that God truly is at work in their lives, calling and leading them. Not only can they learn to recognize the Spirit's voice better, but they can learn how to work with God in tremendously satisfying and fruitful ways. This book's particular contribution lies in its simple presentation of important spiritual concepts, use of illustrations drawn from the author's spiritual life coaching practice and global teaching ministry, and special emphasis on how to love others better as an outflow of one's faith and personal relationship with God.
How Children Read Biblical Narrative
How do children read the Bible? This book makes a major contribution to this underexplored area by analyzing how children interpret Bible stories, focused around an empirical investigation of one group of eleven- to fourteen-year-old children, and their readings of the Gospel of Luke. The first section of the study establishes the nature of the text and the readers in this project: exploring the Gospel of Luke as a narrative of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection, and then looking at the developmental traits of children as readers. The next section offers a model account of how biblical scholars can investigate empirical readings of Scripture, by describing the methods used to bring together one group of child readers and Luke. The third section then analyzes the resulting multitude of interpretations that the children offered in their reading of the book, concentrating on the key trends in their interpretive strategies. It critiques the children's readings of Luke, but it also points to some of the surprising and beneficial results of reading Luke using the interpretive strategies of a child.
Eugenics and Protestant Social Reform
The eugenics movement prior to the Second World War gave voice to the desire of many social reformers to promote good births and prevent bad births. Two sources of cultural authority in this period, science and religion, often found common cause in the promotion of eugenics. The rhetoric of biology and theology blended in strange ways through a common framework known as degeneration theory. Degeneration, a core concept of the eugenics movement, served as a key conceptual nexus between theological and scientific reflection on heredity among Protestant intellectuals and social reformers in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. Elite efforts at social control of the allegedly «unfit» took the form of negative eugenics. This included marriage restrictions and even sterilization for many who were identified as having a suspect heredity. Speculations on heredity were deployed in identifying the feeble-minded, hereditary criminals, hereditary alcoholics, and racial minorities as presumed hindrances to the progress of civilization. A few social reformers trained in biology, anthropology, criminology, and theology eventually raised objections to the eugenics movement. Still, many thousands of citizens on the margins were labeled as defectives and suffered human rights violations during this turbulent time of social change.
Seeking the Lord of Middle Earth
J. R. R. Tolkien, the beloved author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, brings to his work a great treasure–his Christian faith. Tolkien's literary works are so popular in part because, in some sense, they pertain to the real world. This present volume is an attempt to understand better the deep Christian influences on his work but also to explore the relevance of Tolkien's work for theology today. After examining Tolkien's fiction in order better to appreciate Christian influences, this volume takes a closer look at Tolkien's theology of fantasy, his response to the more skeptical origins of religion research, and applies his work to contemporary questions about method in biblical studies. Tolkien's Christianity informed all he wrote. Moreover, his own theology of fantasy holds great promise for contemporary theology.
Freelance Christianity
"How can you be a Christian and a philosopher at the same time?" This question has haunted Vance Morgan ever since it was posed by a good friend almost thirty years ago. Freelance Christianity is rooted in Morgan's conviction that, far from being fundamentally opposed, truly philosophical energies and a commitment to a vibrant, lived faith are complementary, mutually supporting, and marks of a healthy quest for the divine. This book brings together his training as a philosopher and experience as a person of faith in an investigation of how the life of faith can be lived with a rigorous commitment to the pursuit of knowledge in real time.
Radical Lutherans/Lutheran Radicals
Can a Lutheran be sociopolitically radical? Can a radical be theologically and faithfully Lutheran? This book answers yes. Written by teacher-scholars from five ELCA colleges, Radical Lutherans/Lutheran Radicals follows Martin Luther, Soren Kierkegaard, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothee Soelle, and others as they sink deep roots in the Lutheran Christian tradition while simultaneously resisting the status quo with their words, their deeds, and sometimes their very lives. Each chapter shows how the Lutheran theologian returns to the roots of Luther's life and writing and puts them toward radical social and political ends, including critiques of cultured Christianity; resistance to state or market; preferential options for the poor and suffering; deep commitments to peace, justice, and ecological sustainability; and direct nonviolent resistance. The book highlights theological themes popularized by Luther (justification by grace, two-kingdoms thinking, theology of the cross, and vocation) and then shows how these theological staples–when deeply and creatively retrieved–can inform political protest, intentional living, and other countercultural movements. The compelling claim throughout is that Luther's theology at its root has resources for radical political participation and social transformation, as exemplified by the writings and lives of these radical Lutherans/Lutheran radicals.
Postcolonial Voices from Downunder
How do indigenous matters inform, irritate and advance postcolonial theologies and postcolonial biblical criticisms? What options emerge from confronting readings of religious, customary, scriptural, political and cultural texts, traditions, leanings, bodies and anxieties? These two questions epitomize the concerns that the contributors address in this collection. The postcolonial voices that come together between the covers of this book show that indigenous subjects and heritages do matter in the theological and hermeneutical business, for we all have something to learn from First Peoples, and that theologians and biblical critics have much to gain from (and offer to) confronting and troubling traditional views and fears. Together in this book, the postcolonial voices from Downunder (geographically: Oceania, Pasifika; ideologically: marginalized, minoritized) confront political and religious bodies, including Christian churches, on account of their participation in and justification of the occupation and poaching of native lands, wisdom, wealth, and titles. This book is for First Peoples and Second Peoples, whether they are down under or up yonder, who are curious about possible advents of postcolonial theologies and postcolonial biblical criticisms in the future.
Mariology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium
Since the Second Vatican Council the place of Mary in theology and generally in the life of the Church has been at times muted. This is perhaps understandable given the debates concerning Mary's «place» in the documents of Vatican II. In an ecumenical age, it was argued, the church needed a less triumphalist Mariology and piety with a greater focus on Mary as model disciple. In certain respects this has led to a dichotomy between the continued Marian piety of many faithful (and, truth be told, the piety of the post-conciliar popes) and a theological timidity concerning Mary. This collection of chapters seeks to address the current situation of Mariology. Taken as a whole these chapters represent a welcome call for renewal and reawakening in Mariology. The collection is also delightfully eclectic, both in terms of topics covered and in terms of the denominational and academic backgrounds of the authors.