Lamentations is a book that has never had a place of honor at the table of Christian spirituality. This is an unfortunate state of affairs because its challenging poetry has much to offer. This volume explores the how the biblical book of Lamentations may be engaged afresh so that it can function as Holy Scripture for the ekklesia. Four main chapters consider issues in hermeneutics, exegesis, the use of Lamentations in worship, and pastoral reflections. These chapters have been supplemented by seventeen reception history studies written by an international team of Jewish and Christian scholars. These studies introduce a wide range of interpretations and uses of the book of Lamentations from throughout the history of Judaism and Christianity. They include examinations of the use of Lamentations in Isaiah 40-55, the Targum, Rashi, and contemporary Jewish thought, the Patristic period, Calvin, Jewish and Christian worship, music, Rembrandt, and psychological and feminist interpretation. Appendices include new English translations of LXX Lamentations and Targum Lamentations.
Contrary to what many philosophers believe, Calvinism neither makes the problem of evil worse nor is it obviously refuted by the presence of evil and suffering in our world. Or so most of the authors in this book claim. While Calvinism has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years amongst theologians and laypersons, many philosophers have yet to follow suit. The reason seems fairly clear: Calvinism, many think, cannot handle the problem of evil with the same kind of plausibility as other more popular views of the nature of God and the nature of God's relationship with His creation. This book seeks to challenge that untested assumption. With clarity and rigor, this collection of essays seeks to fill a significant hole in the literature on the problem of evil.
This book offers two things in particular: first, these are papers that have been commented on and re-worked in the context of a set of lively sessions from (International) SBL conferences from 2012 to 2014 (Amsterdam, St. Andrews, Vienna). Second, they offer an insight into the origins of the discipline as one which became conscious of itself in the early modern era and the turn to history and the analysis of texts, to offer something exegetical and synthetic. The fresh wind that the enterprise received in the latter part of the twentieth century is the focus of the second part of the volume, which describes the recent activity up to the present «state of the question.» The third part takes a step further to anticipate the way forward for the discipline in an era where «canon»–but also «Scripture» and «theology»–seem to be alien terms, and where other ideologies are advanced in the name of neutrality. Biblical Theology will aim to be true to the evidence of the text: it will not always see clearly, but it will rely on the best of biblical criticism and theological discernment to help it. That is the spirit with which this present volume is imbued.
Should society care about Christian morality? Are Christians out of touch with complex moral decision-making? Christian Morality: An Interdisciplinary Framework for Thinking about Contemporary Moral Issues provides readers with a framework for identifying and applying Christian moral principles to divisive issues. First, readers learn of the theological and philosophical foundations of Christian ethics. Two additional chapters explain how personal and social factors influence our capacity to think critically and Christianly about morality. Second, readers will learn about forming Christian moral judgments by seeing how different thinkers address six contemporary moral issues: abortion, same-sex relationships, equal treatment of men and women in the workplace, sex education, and racial bias in incarceration polices.
In a world where almost all societies are multi-religious and multi-ethnic, we need to study how social cohesion can be achieved in different contexts. In some geographical areas, as in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, people of different religious belonging have, through the ages, lived side by side, sometimes in harmony and sometimes in dissonance. In other geographical regions, as in Scandinavia, societies have been quite religiously homogeneous but only recently challenged by immigration. The implication in both locations is that the relation between religious minority and majority is on the agenda.
In order to discuss the situation for Non-Muslims in Muslim majority societies, a consultation was convened with both Muslim and Christian participants from Pakistan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Sweden. Some of the participants work in academic settings, others in faith based organizations, some in jurisprudence and others with theological issues. This book is the result of that consultation; the articles are «works in progress,» and they remain tentative. The intention with this anthology is to trigger reflection and further thinking. It presents articles that discuss issues such as freedom of religion, minority rights, secular and religious legislation, and inter-religious dialogue in Muslim majority societies.
Contributors include: Kajsa Ahlstrand, Goran Gunner, Mustafa Abu Sway, Johan Garde, Yasmin Haider, Jan Hjarpe, M. Aslam Khaki, Bernard Sabella, Mehboob Sada, Guirguis Ibrahim Saleh, and Ahmad Salim
This book is the second volume in Church of Sweden Research Series.
This book–an edited compilation of twenty-nine essays–focuses on the difference(s) that a Christian worldview makes for the disciplines or subject areas normally taught in liberal arts colleges and universities. Three initial chapters of introductory material are followed by twenty-six essays, each dealing with the essential elements or issues in the academic discipline involved. These individual essays on each discipline are a unique element of this book. These essays also treat some of the specific differences in perspective or procedure that a biblically informed, Christian perspective brings to each discipline. Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines is intended principally as an introductory textbook in Christian worldview courses for Christian college or university students. This volume will also be of interest to Christian students in secular post-secondary institutions, who may be encountering challenges to their faith–both implicit and explicit–from peers or professors who assume that holding a strong Christian faith and pursuing a rigorous college or university education are essentially incompatible. This book should also be helpful for college and university professors who embrace the Christian faith but whose post-secondary academic background–because of its secular orientation–has left them inadequately prepared to intelligently apply the implications of their faith to their particular academic specialty. Such specialists, be they professors or upper-level graduate students, will find the extensive bibliographies of recent scholarship at the end of the individual chapters particularly helpful.
The greatest challenge that faces the evangelical movement is the biblical admonition to preserve the unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:3). The first part of Preserving Evangelical Unity: Welcoming Diversity in Non-Essentials will (1) help you to understand why the movement is fraught with divisions over doctrinal differences; (2) guide you through the necessary steps to overcome disunity; (3) attempt to maintain a balance between truth and unity. The second part of the book is formatted in the same style of a «multiple views» book. Here various evangelical scholars from around the globe discuss selected theological issues that have previously led to disunity within the movement, such as predestination and free will, the mode of baptism, and the miraculous gifts of the Spirit.
Struggles for Shalom is a collection of essays by biblical scholars about peace, justice, and violence in ancient Jewish and Christian texts, written to honor the life work of Mennonite scholars Perry B. Yoder and Willard M. Swartley. In this volume, twenty-three authors–colleagues, former students, friends, and others influenced by Yoder's and Swartley's scholarship–add to the honorees' work in appreciation for their shared focus on biblical texts' lessons of peace. Specific texts and topics include Eccl 3:1-9 and time for war, Ezek 14:12-23 and God's retribution, Luke 22:31-61 and Peter's sword, the temple cleansing episodes in John 2 and Mark 11, sectarianism and violence in manuscripts from the Dead Sea, violence in creation in the Hebrew Bible, Chronicles as utopian literature, peace and violence in Paul's writings, and globalization in biblical studies. This collection is diverse and ambitious. For church and academy, and for anyone curious about what Scripture has to say about peace and violence, this book delivers focused study of peace and violence across the Testaments.
Contributors Include: Wilma Ann Bailey Jo-Ann A. Brant Laura L. Brenneman Jacob W. Elias Reta Halteman Finger Michael J. Gorman Nancy R. Heisey Paul Keim Christopher Marshall Safwat Marzouk Douglas B. Miller Ben C. Ollenburger Dorothy M. Peters David Rensberger Andrea Dalton Saner Brad D. Schantz Mary H. Schertz Steven Schweitzer Willard M. Swartley Jackie Wyse-Rhodes Joshua Yoder Perry B. Yoder Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld Paul Yokota Gordon Zerbe
In his fifty-three years, Michael W. Casey made an indelible impact upon all his academic friends in the United States, Great Britain, and elsewhere in the world. His thirty some years of research and publications were multinational. Mike was especially adept at looking into archival details on the numerous subjects that interested him in communication, Scripture, and history, especially as they focused upon Churches of Christ and the Stone-Campbell Movement. If a scholar ever believed that the grandest project depends on the accuracy of the smallest component, it was Mike Casey. He believed that words were enfleshed in concrete persons. All his studies recognized the persuasive powers of committed humans. The title for this volume, therefore, is And the Word Became Flesh. The essays in this volume are divided into three sections. Those in the first section are on Restoration History. The second section is on communication studies. And the final section contains essays on a specialty of Casey's, conscientious objection, just war, and Christian peacemaking.
This collection of studies by friends, colleagues, students, and associates of Thorwald Lorenzen centers on his pivotal research interests–the theological and ethical implications of a relational understanding of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In two major works on the resurrection, Lorenzen demonstrated the radical ramifications for Christian discipleship of affirming a relational perspective on the resurrection, especially with regard to social justice, human rights, ecumenical dialogue, and holistic spirituality. The purpose of this book is to honor the theological work of Thorwald Lorenzen by examining anew and pressing ahead with certain aspects of his own research interests, whether in historical and systematic theology, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, or social ethics and spirituality.