Группа авторов
Список книг автора Группа авторовI Am Put Here for the Defense of the Gospel
Dr. Norman L. Geisler has been called the «father of evangelical Christian philosophy.» He has written more than one hundred books and taught at universities and top seminaries for some fifty-six years. He was the first president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and the founder and first president of the International Society of Christian Apologetics. He has spoken or debated in more than two dozen countries and held pastoral/pulpit ministries in four states. Many view him as a cross between Thomas Aquinas and Billy Graham. No one has done more to communicate the modern challenges of the Faith to the «average» Christian, to the church, and to the academy. This volume offers creative and constructive essays from twenty-three contributors, all notable in their own right, who preserve and propagate Dr. Geisler's ideas and express appreciation for his influence. Those who know him best say he is «true, faithful, and blessed by God!»
What’s So Liberal about the Liberal Arts?
FRAMEWORKS is a series dedicated to interdisciplinary studies on the integration of faith and learning. Given Jesus' command to «love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength,» the time is ripe for confessional scholarship and education across the disciplines. We implore God's Spirit to change us through the great works of history and literature alongside developments in science, psychology, and economics–and all of this–through intense engagement with the Scriptures. We want to celebrate God's work across the disciplines. We seek the likes of psychologists in conversation with philosophers, ethicists with historians, biblical scholars with rhetoricians, scientists with economists, environmentalists with neurologists. As these conversations continue across the disciplines, the «framework» from which to draw our individual and collective testimonies will only enlarge. We invite you to think, behave, preach, sing, pray, research and indeed to live this multi-faceted journey with us. If indeed our stories are never complete, we invite future contributors and readers to join us in pursuit of deeper personal and collective transformation.
Redeeming the Screens
How does the future look to us? Well, clearly we realize we now live in a world of screens, from the microcosmic universe of to smartphone . . . to the imposing vigil of the multiplex giants, looming over us in Imax and 3-D–more «real» than real–and to all the screens in between, from computers to iPads, to muted, high definition flat-screens pouring out images in homes, restaurants, banks, businesses, schools, doctors' offices, and hospitals, and on and on everywhere we turn. We cannot change this reality, so what these Christians, and so many like them are doing is trying to find ways to redeem what we put on these screens: what message we are sending out in word and image to the watching world. So, clearly, our task, whether we have been called to create or not, is to join these artists as «screen redeemers,» assisting the Holy Spirit in reconciling the world to God (2 Cor 5:18-19) through helping the pervasively influential means of the media adjust its goals to the mission of Jesus Christ.
Homiletical Theology in Action
Homiletics is taking a theological turn. But what does the preaching task look like if we think of it not so much as a mastery of technique, but an exercise in theological method? Homiletical Theology in Action: The Unfinished Theological Task of Preaching tries to envision the work of homiletics as theological in root and branch. By placing theological questions at the center of the process, the authors, some of the leading lights of the field of homiletics, try to show how their work as preachers and homileticians is a thoroughgoing theological activity. By beginning with troublesome texts and problematic doctrines, they seek to show how preachers and homileticians engage in theology, not as consumers, but as producers–and in the thick of the kinds of questions that preachers have to ask. Practitioners and theological educators alike will catch a glimpse of how they too are residential theologians in their own preaching praxis.
The Theology of Light and Sight
And God said: «Let there be light.» And there was light.
These words mark the first step in the creation of all life. The very genesis of light is tied to the nature and purpose of God–God as the author of light, as the pouring out of light, as light itself.
Believers in the three Abrahamic faiths have always understood God as light. The Hebrew scriptures celebrate this divine illumination: «Yahweh is my light and my salvation . . .» (Psalm 27). Christians, too, proclaim that «God is light, and in him is no darkness at all» (1 John 1.5). For Muslims, «Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth» (Sura 24.35). And theologians and mystics of all ages have explored the revelation and meaning of divine light.
This volume explores the theme of divine illumination in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Theologians, physicians, and philosophers share their wisdom and understanding of the uncreated light that God is, the created physical light of the world, and the relationship of enlightenment to human reason and ethics.
Contributors: Philip Amerson Jamal Badawi Kimberley Curnyn Mark A. Dennis, Jr. Souleymane Bachir Diagne Wendy Doniger Peter Knobel Larry Murphy William Murphy Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern Morton Schapiro Jan van Eys Kenneth L. Vaux Sara Anson Vaux Richard Vaux Julie Windsor Mitchell K.K. Yeo
Responding to Abuse in Christian Homes
Domestic abuse is a horror. It lurks beneath the surface of our collective existence, sometimes raising its ugly head where least expected-in the church or within families of faith.
Are we-individually or collectively-ready to respond? What can, or should, congregations and their pastoral leaders do? And, as we survey the Christian landscape across the United States and Canada, are we as the community of faith stepping up to the challenge presented by violence in the family?
There is no easy answer to the problems that surface when abuse impacts the Christian family. But each of the authors contributing to this volume believes fervently that it is imperative that followers of Jesus and their spiritual shepherds respond to the cries for help. To respond well necessitates both knowledge and a willingness to act.
This book is here to help. It represents a collective effort to bring all of us a step farther in our journey of walking with Christ over a sea of troubled waters. None of us know as much as we should, but all of us can learn from one another. Throughout the collection we provide an opportunity to examine a diversity of perspectives, with the hope that each will in some way advance our understanding of the complexity of domestic violence issues in our midst-within our churches and the communities where our churches minister.
But These Are Written . . .
Johannine Literature offers some of the most beautiful, majestic, and profound theology contained within the entire biblical text. Within its works can be found the highest Christology, the capstone of eschatology, and the heartbreaking struggles of a community committed to Christ. However, it does not always get the attention it deserves in New Testament studies. This book seeks to remedy that by drawing together some of the most respected biblical scholars to bring their expertise to bear on various aspects of Johannine studies that are contained within the Gospel, Epistles, and the Apocalypse. These contributions have been collected as a Festschrift in honor and celebration of the career of Benny C. Aker, a preeminent scholar, teacher, and mentor.
Signs of the Times
All ministry leaders concern themselves with the intersection of Jesus-centered ministry and contemporary culture. They ask themselves questions such as, "What do we need to change in order to keep up with a wired world?" "What should never change?" "What are the nonnegotiables of faith in Jesus?" Many have attempted to answer these questions. However, most of these leaders offer solutions that the everyday ministry leader simply cannot replicate. Signs of the Times is a unique offering to those who wrestle with the mash-up of ministry and culture. All of the contributors have found success within their ministries, and yet most do not minister to thousands on a weekly basis. Additionally, all of them have had the privilege of studying directly with Dr. Leonard I. Sweet. Despite having authored more than fifty books, Sweet can still be a bit of an enigma. Many of his readers have been deeply influenced by him, and yet they may still struggle to understand what his insights might mean for their ministry. Each of the contributors to this work thoughtfully engages with a key idea that they personally learned from Sweet and they translate it for ministry in the early twenty-first century.
Re-Introducing Christianity
"Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. . . . And those who preach faith, and enable and elevate it are intellectual slaveholders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction." – Bill Maher
Many seem unaware that contemporary critiques of Christianity are relevant mostly to its modern offshoots (whose followers have to some extent earned Bill Maher's unflattering caricatures). To its detriment, Christianity is increasingly identified in people's minds with these more recent expressions. As a result, a growing number of people are turning away from Christianity and, indeed, religious faith altogether.
Drawing from an eclectic group of theologians, clergy members, monastics, and lay scholars, this edited volume re-introduces Christianity to a modern audience. It presents a more authentic, experiential side of Christianity to the religious skeptic; a side that eschews blind faith, legalism, and judgment; a side that is rarely given a hearing in the ongoing debate with today's skeptics. Re-Introducing Christianity is also directed at modern Christians, and refutes their most frequently expressed criticisms of what the contributors boldly, but humbly, call the Apostolic Faith.
Vital Issues in the Inerrancy Debate
The inerrancy of God's Word has been attacked throughout church history. Today's assaults are unique since neo-evangelicals now surrender to post-modernistic ideas of history and historical-critical ideologies that assault this vital doctrine. They seek to redefine the orthodox meaning of inerrancy. Since the signing of the Chicago Statements, troubling signs have once again appeared in recent years among many who either did not fight the battles for the inerrancy of Scripture as did the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, or who do not remember the troubling times that caused their development. The nature and definition of «inerrancy» are now being changed to include ideas of fallibility. History is forgotten. The need arises for sounding the alarm for Vital Issues in Inerrancy. Evangelical schools and churches that broke away earlier to defend inerrancy surrender now to academic prestige and scholarly fads instead of faithfulness to God's inerrant Word. The contributors pray that the Lord will raise up a new generation with the spiritual fervency of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy to uphold the inerrancy of God's Word: Isaiah 40:8–"The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever."