This collection explores the central theological notion of covenant. It has been produced in honor of Dr. R. Larry Shelton, respected scholar and beloved husband, father, colleague, and friend. Covenant–the unifying theme of this book–is a subject to which Dr. Shelton devoted considerable attention over his forty-five-year career as a scholar and teacher. His 2006 book, Cross and Covenant: Interpreting the Atonement for 21st Century Mission, stands as one of the most incisive treatments of the atonement from a covenantal perspective. The contributors of this volume consist of Shelton's current colleagues at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, those with whom he served in other institutions, and friends and former students whose vision of covenant Shelton inspired. These writers demonstrate that whether one considers such diverse subject matter as atonement theory, the church's mission, the discernment of (prophetic) spirits, non-western ontologies, soteriology, biblical interpretation, sanctification, theodicy, family life, or theology proper, one's understanding is deficient without giving due consideration to the role of covenant relationality.
Could we have imagined how much theological education would change in the new millennium? Shifting needs of students, classrooms, and churches have demanded constant revisions of the curriculum, course design, classroom technology, and pedagogical strategies.
Saint Paul School of Theology felt the tide of change within our own walls and designed a project called «Proleptic Pedagogy» to address three distinct pedagogical challenges for the future of theological education. First, instead of fitting new technologies into old pedagogies, how are teaching and learning transformed by shifting needs of students who are «digital natives,» «digital immigrants,» or distance learners? Second, instead of reactive strategies, what pedagogy proactively eliminates «accommodations» because courses are designed with flexibility and openness to diverse learning styles, disabilities, and needs? Third, instead of engaging student diversity with the tools of the 1960s, what new teaching and learning strategies anticipate future student racial and ethnic demographics and interracial educational experiences?
This volume of essays narrates our classroom stories, teases out pedagogical issues, examines pedagogical literature, reflects on theology of pedagogy, and constructs pedagogical proposals–with an open invitation for other theological educators to join our conversation about the future of theological education.
Ideas about education have consequences. This book, edited by Matthew Etherington, provides readers with ideas and insights drawn from fifteen international scholars in Christian thought within the fields of philosophy, theology, and education. Each author responds to the philosophical, historical, and sociological challenges that confront their particular line of educational inquiry. The authors offer a view of Christian education that promotes truth, human dignity, peace, love, diversity, and justice. The book critically analyzes public discourse on education, including the wisdom, actions, recommendations, and controversies of Christian education in the twenty-first century. This timely book will appeal to those concerned with Christian perspectives on education, Aboriginality, gender, history, evangelism, secularism, constructivism, purpose, hope, school choice, and community.
Fire in My Soul pays tribute to the life and legacy of Dr. Seyoon Kim, who has taught as Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary for almost two decades and is known internationally for his work on the origin of Paul's gospel. This collection of essays in his honor revisits classic issues in Pauline studies and offers fresh insights on Paul's use of righteousness language in his letters, the occasion and purpose of Romans, the problem of universal sinfulness, and justification by faith. It also presents several exegetical studies on the use of the Old Testament in the gospels. Scholars, students, and pastors interested in Pauline soteriology and gospel hermeneutics will find this volume helpful in their own research, teaching, and ministry.
A critical examination of political Zionism, a topic often considered taboo in the West, is long overdue. Moreover, the discussion of Christian Zionism is usually confined to Evangelical and fundamentalist settings. The present volume will break the silence currently reigning in many religious, political, and academic circles and, in so doing, will provoke and inspire a new, challenging conversation on theological and ethical issues arising from various aspects of Zionism–a conversation that is vital to the quest for a just peace in Israel and Palestine. The eight authors offer a rich diversity of religious faith, academic research, and practical experience, as they represent all three Abrahamic faiths and five different Christian traditions. Among the many themes that run through Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land is the contrast between exclusivist narratives, both biblical and political, and the more inclusive narratives of the prophetic Scriptures, which provide the theological foundation and the moral imperative for human liberation. Readers will be drawn into a compelling, readable, and stimulating series of essays that tackle many of the complex issues that still confound clergy, politicians, diplomats, and academic experts.
In honor of what would have been Clarence Jordan's one hundredth birthday and the seventieth anniversary of Koinonia Farm, the first Clarence Jordan Symposium convened in historic Sumter County, Georgia, in 2012, gathering theologians, historians, actors, and activists in civil rights, housing, agriculture, and fair-trade businesses to celebrate a remarkable individual and his continuing influence. Clarence Jordan (1912-1969), a farmer and New Testament Greek scholar, was the author of the Cotton Patch versions of the New Testament and the founder of Koinonia Farm, a small but influential religious community in southwest Georgia.
Roots in the Cotton Patch, Volume 1 contains Symposium presentations addressing Clarence's influence as a storyteller and contextual preacher and prophet, his pacifist witness in a violent and segregated South, and the contemporary meaning of his life's work in Christian community. Uniting these powerful essays is the obvious impact Jordan's life has had on so many. His life and work continue to inspire a new generation of activists, seminary students, and people in search of the meaning of Christian community.
As a global religion with growing numbers of expressions, Christianity calls for deepening relationships across traditions while also formulating collaborative visions. A thriving church will require Christians from various traditions and on varying trajectories to become familiar with one another, appreciate one another, and work in common service to God in Jesus Christ.
In this book, a group of thirteen distinguished scholars from around the world and representing a range of Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant perspectives demonstrate how theological reflection and broad-based ecumenical conversations may serve the church. Reflecting on numerous salient matters facing the global church, these scholars model what may be accomplished in ecumenical conversations that recognize the gifts that come with unity across diversity among those who seek to be faithful to Jesus Christ.
The Fifteen Confederates was published anonymously in the fall of 1521, shortly after Martin Luther's hearing at the Diet of Worms and subsequent disappearance. The fifteen pamphlets that make up the book address religious, social, economic, and political challenges facing the German people. Their author, Johann Eberlin von Gunzburg, subsequently became one of the most prolific and popular pamphleteers of the German Reformation. As an important contribution to the pamphlet war that accompanied the beginnings of the Reformation in Germany, The Fifteen Confederates provides us a valuable window on the aspirations and dreams that accompanied Luther's initial calls for reform of the church and society.
"In the world, but not of the world"–this has been the motto of the Free Church tradition. But to what extent can freedom and independence from «the world» be realized in modernity, and how have these churches fared so far? These are the questions with which this book wrestles. The particular focus is Sweden, where a state-facilitated hypermodernity has created what some call «the most modern nation in the world.» The Swedish free churches have in many ways succumbed to the pressure of the modern welfare state and as a consequence lost their distinctive voice. The argument of this book is that the rediscovery of practices left behind might be a way for these churches to recover a solid, particular, and deeply Christian identity. In dialogue with William T. Cavanaugh, the authors argue for a return to concrete, social practices: asceticism, table grace, written prayers, a turn to tradition, and the Eucharist. Here are lost treasures that might prove invaluable for the modern church at large, with her dual citizenship in the modern nation-state and the kingdom of heaven.
Theology is inherently theatrical, rooted in God's performance on the world stage and oriented toward faith seeking performative understanding in the theatre of everyday life. Following Hans Urs von Balthasar's magisterial, five-volume Theo-Drama, a growing number of theologians and pastors have been engaging more widely with theatre and drama, producing what has been recognized as a «theatrical turn» in theology. This volume includes thirteen essays from theologians and pastors who have contributed in distinct ways to this theatrical turn and who desire to deepen interdisciplinary dialogue between theology and theatre. The result is an unprecedented collection of essays that embodies and advances theatrical theology for the purpose of enriching theological reflection and edifying the church.