Whitehead had a place for God in his comprehensive cosmological vision, and his theism has long attracted interest from some Christian theologians. But Whitehead's ideas have much wider use. Some Buddhists have found help in articulating their nontheistic vision and relating it to the current world of thought and action. In this book religious writers in seven different traditions articulate how they can benefit from Whitehead's work. So this volume demonstrates that various features of his thought can contribute to many communities.
According to his followers, Whitehead shows that the deepest convictions and commitments of the major religious communities can be complementary rather than in conflict. Readers of this book will see how that plays out in some detail. A Whiteheadian Hindu can recognize the truth in a Whiteheadian Judaism, and both can appreciate the insights of Chinese Whiteheadians committed to their classical thinking. Perhaps a new day in interreligious understanding has come.
The Radical Orthodoxy Annual Review examines emerging agendas in contemporary theology and philosophy. Today, in an era of biotechnology and a growing ecological consciousness, it is rapidly becoming clear that the key question for our times is how to make sense of the nature and significance of life. In this, the inaugural edition of the Review, some of today's most influential and important thinkers address this issue through wide-ranging discussion of the way in which life is currently being redefined in the work of orthodox theologians and philosophers. In so doing, they show the extent to which contemporary theology and philosophy are helping us to make better of sense of the natural world, the human body, contemporary techno-science, as well as the possibility of a living transcendence–allowing us to see why theology and philosophy remain absolutely crucial to any attempt to understand the current state of the modern world and its likely future development.
Nurturing the Prophetic Imagination searches through biblical scholarship, theology, economics, sociology, politics, ecology, and history to discern the strands of God's justice and reconciliation at work in the contemporary world. Nurturing the Prophetic Imagination challenges Christians to engage the most troubling social problems of our time by first drinking deeply from the well of the historic prophetic traditions. Nurturing the Prophetic Imagination witnesses to a God that raises up prophets to speak at critical moments in every time, and to what it might look like for the Church to nurture the soil from which such prophetic voices spring. Rarely do such a wide variety of authors from such different backgrounds and vocations get together to name what the prophetic work of God looks like in our midst. The radical justice and reconciliation of God can be found in every corner of life, if we know where to look for it; Nurturing the Prophetic Imagination provides some guidance in this direction.
Nurturing the Prophetic Imagination celebrates and seeks to build upon the legacy of eminent biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann's seminal work The Prophetic Imagination, first published in 1978, by assessing the core insights and themes he develops through a number of different lenses. These include contemporary biblical scholarship, theology, economics, sociology, politics, ecology, and church history. Nurturing the Prophetic Imagination also discusses the extent to which the Christian prophetic tradition continues to speak meaningfully within the contemporary world and thereby seeks to be a source for inspiring future generations of Christian prophets to do likewise.
From a historical perspective, similarities among the Lutheran churches in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are easily understood. But these previously homogeneous northern societies, built on a Lutheran tradition with close ties between church and state, are now considered to be among the most secular in the world, as well as being impacted by a growing presence of other religions. These changes present a major challenge to the churches concerning how to relate to the state and how to be a «folk church.»
The goal of this volume is to explore how Lutheran identity presently shapes churches in the north. What are the burning issues engaging these churches at the beginning of the third millennium? Are there signs that they are affected by the global emergence of a theology and practice commonly known as Neo-Pentecostal or Charismatic? What is the situation for women in these churches embedded in societies ranked among the world's most egalitarian? In what ways does their Lutheran heritage influence how these churches shape themselves today?
The point of departure for this study is not a predetermined, normative understanding of what a Lutheran church is or should be, but the fact that the churches presented here represent what «Lutheranism» is today in this part of the world.
Contributors include Anne-Louise Eriksson, Steinunn Arnthrudur Bjornsdottir, Solveig Anna Boasdottir, Niclas Blader, Carl Reinhold Brakenhielm, Thomas Ekstrand, Arnfriður Guðmundsdottir, Goran Gunner, Harald Hegstad, Hjalti Hugason, Roger Jensen, Halvard Johannessen, Peter Lodberg, Benedicte Hammer Præstholm, Karin Sarja, Ulrika Svalfors, Merete Thomassen, Marie Thomsen, Marie Vejrup Nielsen, and Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen.
What is the purpose of animals? Didn't God give humans dominion over other creatures? Didn't Jesus eat lamb? These are the kinds of questions that Christians who advocate compassion toward other animals regularly face. Yet Christians who have a faith-based commitment to care for other animals through what they eat, what they wear, and how they live with other creatures are often unsure how to address these biblically and theologically based challenges. In A Faith Embracing All Creatures, authors from various denominational, national, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds wrestle with the text, theology, and tradition to explain the roots of their desire to live peaceably with their nonhuman kin. Together, they show that there are no easy answers on «what the Bible says about animals.» Instead, there are nuances and complexities, which even those asking these questions may be unaware of. Editors Andy Alexis-Baker and Tripp York have gathered a collection of essays that wrestle with these nuances and tensions in Scripture around nonhuman animals. In so doing, they expand the discussion of nonviolence, peacemaking, and reconciliation to include the oft-forgotten other members of God's good creation.
In November 2010, Republican Scott Walker was elected Governor of Wisconsin. In something of a Tea Party sweep, the iconic Russ Feingold lost his seat in the U.S. Senate and the Wisconsin legislature became Republican in both chambers. In early 2011, Governor Walker announced a «budget repair bill» that, among other things, gutted collective bargaining rights for most public sector unions. Outraged citizens occupied the state capitol for weeks in an outpouring of opposition, the likes of which had not been seen in Wisconsin since the protests against the war in Vietnam in the 1960s. Various recall elections were held in the summer of 2011 (all in regard to the state senate), with another set of elections in June 2012; among them the governor's recall was paramount. Democrats regained control of the senate, but Scott Walker defeated Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett and kept the governor's mansion. Many Democrats were stunned by the failed recall. These essays probe that failure. Every contributor has a unique perspective, but lurking near the core of that probing are two key issues: the extent to which corporations have taken over government and whether ecological crises are revealing conventional politics as complicit in disaster.
In 1958, American historian of religion Morton Smith made an astounding discovery in the Mar Saba monastery in Jerusalem. Copied into the back of a seventeenth-century book was a lost letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215 CE) that contained excerpts from a longer version of the Gospel of Mark written by Mark himself and circulating in Alexandria, Egypt. More than fifty years after its discovery, the origins of this Secret Gospel of Mark remain contentious. Some consider it an authentic witness to an early form of Mark, perhaps even predating canonical Mark. Some claim it is a medieval or premodern forgery created by a monastic scribe. And others argue it is a forgery created by Morton Smith himself. All these positions are addressed in the papers contained in this volume. Nine North American scholars, internationally recognized for their contributions to the study of Secret Mark, met at York University in Toronto, Canada, in April 2011 to examine recent developments in scholarship on the gospel and the letter in which it is found. Their results represent a substantial step forward in determining the origins of this mysterious and controversial text.
List of Contributors: Scott G. Brown Tony Burke Stephen C. Carlson Bruce Chilton Craig A. Evans Paul Foster Charles W. Hedrick Peter Jeffery Allan J. Pantuck Marvin Meyer Hershel Shanks
All over Canada, from coast to coast, there is new life in the Christian church. In spite of declining numbers, every Christian tradition has stories to tell of new ministries, fledgling Christian communities, and fresh expressions of church springing up, sometimes in unlikely places. Here, seventeen authors with experience in areas such as church revitalization, innovative ministry, evangelism, and church planting, reflect on what they are seeing and how the lessons they have learned can guide us into ways of health and vitality. They tell us about immigrant churches and indigenous ministries, about youth research and environmental concerns, about churches in the city and churches in the country, about leadership and spirituality. Scattered throughout the book are ten exciting stories of new ministries and new churches, from different traditions and different parts of the country, all seeking to engage their communities with the Gospel. Does the church in Canada have a future? The answer these authors give is a resounding yes–green shoots can grow out of dry ground–if we are prepared to rise to the challenge and follow where the Spirit of God leads. This book is timely, comprehensive, challenging, and deeply encouraging.
What is the task of theology in a complex religious and secular world? What are theologians called to contribute to society, the churches, and the academy? Can theology be both fully faithful to Christian tradition and Scripture, and fully open to the challenges of the twenty-first century? In this book, an international team of contributors, including some of the best-known names in the field, respond to these questions in programmatic essays that set the direction for future debates about the vocation of theology. David Ford, in whose honor the collection is produced, has been for many years a key figure in articulating and shaping the role of contemporary theology. The contributors are his colleagues, collaborators, and former students, and their essays engage in dialogue with his work. The main unifying feature of this exciting collection is not Ford's work per se, however, but a shared engagement with the pressing question of theology's vocation today.
Every individual has a story–painful or happy–and the story will only be complete and meaningful when shared with others willing to listen to it. These are the stories of several people who embarked on a journey toward healing from abortion, adoption, abuse (sexual and spousal), anger, bullying, cutting, infertility, divorce, grief, people pleasing, and fear, as well as people struggling to break the chains of psychological colonialism/neocolonialism and to survive as orphans. This book contains a wealth of knowledge on how transformation of life can take place using Narrative Counseling. Most of the stories shared in this book are personal to many of the authors. Some share their journey of struggling with hopeless situations to where they regained hope through counseling using the Narrative approach. Others, such as the orphaned children, found relief in just having someone sit with them to listen to their daily struggles of living an orphaned life. In this book you will find a place where these stories will somehow intersect with your own story. Take a chance, read, and you will find a glimmer of hope in these stories.