On the whole, the disappearance of Hell was a great relief, though it brought new problems.
Nature was always important in Thomas Merton’s life—from his infancy in Prades, France, when he learned words like chrysanthemum, hollyhock, foxglove, chickadee, and kingfi sher from his mother’s careful coaching, to long hours in the fresh air watching his artist father create landscapes, to his fi nal years of solitude in the hermitage at Our Lady of Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery i…
Some might call us spoiled. We live in an era of significant and substantial resources for Christians on living the Christian life. We have ready access to books, DVD series, online material, seminars—all in the interest of encouraging us in our daily walk with Christ. The laity, the people in the pew, have access to more information than scholars dreamed of having in previous centuries.
Westminster Theological Seminary has played a major role in the history of orthodox Reformed theology in America. Upon its founding in 1929, its original faculty affirmed that the seminary would continue the historic position of “old Princeton Seminary.” Princeton had for many decades represented the theology of Calvin and the Westminster Confession of Faith, as opposed to the liberal theol…
A chronicle of the evangelical life, witten by a born-again Christian and former "60 Minutes" producer, seeks to bridge the gaps between believers and non-believers.
Thoroughly exploring the history of the conflict between Christians and Jews from medieval to modern times, this wide-ranging volume includes newly uncovered material from the recently opened post-Soviet archives. Anna Sapir Abulafia delineates controversial issues of inter-faith confrontation, and a number of eminent scholars from around the globe discuss openly and objectively the dynamics of…
This book argues from Scripture that godly fear is the opposite of being afraid of God or his punishment as if he were a tyrant. Instead, it is the intensity of the saints' love for, delight in, and enjoyment of all that God is.
Long recognized for the quality of its translations, introductions, explanatory notes, and indexes, the Library of Christian Classics provides scholars and students with modern English translations of some of the most significant Christian theological texts in history. Through these works{u2014}each written prior to the end of the sixteenth century{u2014}contemporary readers are able to engage …
Book covers and dust jackets frequently include endorsements by individuals who have read an advance copy of a volume. Often an endorsement will say to potential purchasers of the book that if they are able to read only one book on the subject with which the book is concerned, this is the book they should read. I was asked to write this foreword before I had received an advance copy of J. Harol…
An exploration of the relationship between the rise and development of a mystical element in Islam, known as Sufism, and the mysticism that was already to be found within the Christian Church of the Near and Middle East.
Christians are taught in their churches and schools that prayer is the most powerful way to experience God. But few receive instruction or guidance in how to make prayer genuinely meaningful. In Prayer, renowned pastor Timothy Keller delves into the many facest of this everyday act
An important new book on how we can still believe in a God of love and confront the problem of evil in the world. Probably the most important book on the subject since John Hick's book Evil and the God of Love.̀ & ; Evil is a strong word that people now employ fairly rarely. Many people believe these days that God is omnipotent, omniscient and good and that what we deem to be bad or evil in th…
The papers in this volume, written by specialists in several disciplines, explore the parameters and significance of magic in Byzantine society, from the fourth century to after the empire's fall. The authors address a wide variety of questions, some of which are common to all historical research into magic, and some of which are peculiar to the Byzantine context." "Among the topics discussed a…
Demonstrates how God calls all individuals to express meaning and purpose through a career, sharing spiritual insights into finding relevance in cutthroat professional environments and staying true to Christian values in spite of competition.
A central figure in the reconception of early Christian history over the last three decades, Wayne A. Meeks offers here a selection of his most influential writings on the New Testament and early Christianity. His essays illustrate recent changes in our thinking about the early Christian movement and pose provocative questions regarding the history of this period.Meeks explores a fascinating ra…
This expanded anniversary edition includes updates and expansions of existing tactics, as well as the addition of an all-new tactic and a chapter on Mini Tactics filled with simple maneuvers to aid in discussions. In a world increasingly indifferent to Christian truth, followers of Christ need to be equipped to communicate with those who do not speak their language or accept their source of aut…
This volume includes selections from the works of Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa. Through these works and those of other early Christian thinkers, this book surveys the development of early church theology. Long recognized for the quality of its translations, introductions, explanatory notes, and indexes, the Library of...
Christian Counseling: A Comprehensive Guide was prepared to assist Christian leaders in their day-to-day counseling ministry. The first four chapters of Christian Counseling are designed to give an overview of counseling and may be read consecutively. The remaining twenty-seven chapters deal with specific problems, and since each chapter stands alone, they can be read in any order. Each chapter…
There are few things I love more than watching my children or students on the edges of their seats, listening to Bible stories with wide-eyed excitement. God’s Word is powerful and active for an audience of any age! Creating a craft that depicts a scene, character, or object from a Bible passage reinforces that story by prompting kids to retain and retell it as they show off their craft.
Can it be justifiable to commit oneself 'by faith' to a religious claim when its truth lacks adequate support from one's total available evidence? In Believing by Faith, John Bishop defends a version of fideism inspired by William James's 1896 lecture 'The Will to Believe'. By critiquing both 'isolationist' (Wittgensteinian) and Reformed epistemologies of religious belief, Bishop argues that an…
This book aspires to answer a relatively simple question: How did we get from John F. Kennedy’s eloquent speech at the Rice Hotel in Houston on September 12, 1960, in which he urged voters effectively to bracket a candidate’s faith out of their considerations when they entered the voting booth, to George W. Bush’s declaration on the eve of the 2000 Iowa precinct caucuses that Jesus was hi…
As Europe wrangles over questions of national identity, nativism and immigration, Olivier Roy interrogates the place of Christianity, foundation of Western identity. Do secularism and Islam really pose threats to the continent's 'Christian values'? What will be the fate of Christianity in Europe? Rather than repeating the familiar narrative of decline, Roy challenges the significance of secular…
This volume explores the legacy of the Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper for contemporary Christian ecotheology. A crucial problem in ecotheology is how to do justice to both creation and salvation as acts of God, given the impact of the environmental crisis and the concern for creation (as creatura). Can Kuyper help one in this regard, given his controversial legasy, especially in …
Richard Swinburne analyses the purposes of practising a religion, and argues that religious faith requires belief that a particular creed provides the rationale for supposing that these purposes will be achieved.
The Christian Church possesses in its literature an abundant and incomparable treasure. But it is an inheritance that must be reclaimed by each generation. THE LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN CLASSICS is designed to present in the English language, and in twenty-six volumes of convenient size, a selection of the most indispensable Christian treatises written prior to the end of the sixteenth century.
This robust volume explores life's big questions related to God, human existence, meaning, and knowledge, sketching a distinctly Christian approach to philosophical inquiry that is founded on the Bible and informed by Christian theology.
Is the Christian church in Europe doomed to collapse under the weight of globalization, Western secularism, and a flood of Muslim immigrants? Is Europe on the brink of becoming "Eurabia"?Though many pundits are predicting just such a scenario, God's Continent reveals the flaws in these arguments and offers a much more measured assessment of Europe's religious future. While frankly acknowledging…
In this wide-ranging book that moves from Greek drama to modern poetry, David Brown explores the ways in which the poetry and drama of the past were rooted in religious questions. He posits that their creative potential needs to be rediscovered to bring present-day worship and experience of God alive.
Karl Barth was, without doubt, one of the most significant religious thinkers of modern times. His radical affirmation of the revealed truth of Christianity changed the course of Christian theology in the twentieth century and is a source of inspiration for countless believers. Pope Pius XII declared that there had been nothing like Karl Barth's later thought since Thomas Aquinas. God Here and …
"In this masterful, stylish, and authoritative book, Michael Burleigh gives us an epic history of the battles over religion in modern Europe, examining the complex and often lethal ways in which politics and religion have interacted and influenced each other over the last two centuries. From the French Revolution to the totalitarian movements of the twentieth century, Earthly Powers is a unique…
In their pursuit of social welfare, sociologists and everyday citizens alike have adopted a worldview that fails to account for both the nature of God and the depravity of humankind. Ignoring God and sin has resulted in misguided analysis and ineffective solutions to societal issues. The time has come to rethink the study of sociology as those faulty assumptions have clearly affected the discip…
Describes how most forms of early Christianity, and the sacred writings they adhered to, came to be suppressed, proscribed, destroyed - in one way or another lost. This work also tells the story of how the canon of the New Testament became the official, orthodox and sacred text for Christianity.
In Christian Origins and Greco-Roman Culture, Stanley Porter and Andrew Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through the use of Greco-Roman materials and literary forms.
When I was a boy growing up in Greenville, South Carolina, my father was away from home about two-thirds of every year. And while he preached across the country, we prayed--my mother and my older sister and I. What I learned in those days was that my mother was omni-competent.
When the Greek soldiers burst into the city of Troy, Cassandra—who had prophesied it all, who knew what fate awaited her and all the Trojan women—fled to the temple of Athena.
Augustine’s Hippo Regius5 was the center of the universe for some who lived there and the back of beyond for many who visited. A port city on the Mediterranean coast of Africa, where the river Seybouse came down from the mountains to the sea, it stood a distant second to Carthage in commerce and prestige. Augustine hadn’t lived there all his life.
We are approaching the day when advances in biotechnology will allow parents to "design" a baby with the traits they want. The continuing debate over possibilities of genetic engineering has ben spirited, but so far largely confined to the realms of bioethics and public policy. Design and Destiny approaches the question in religious terms, discussing human germline modification (the generic mod…
Like any other discipline, apologetics lacks a uniform definition. The standard that’s largely been adopted is “the defense of the faith,” but overlapping definitions abound. Apologetics has been defined as “that branch of Christian theology which seeks to provide a rational justification for the truth claims of the Christian faith,” “developing one’s authentic self so as to prese…
Beginning with an account of how Christian theology is called upon to read the signs of the time, Cities of God traces the shift in urban culture in North America and Western Europe that took place in the 1970s. The modern sites of eternal aspiration and hope became the postmodern cities of eternal desires. The old, modern theological responses to the city become unbelievable and inadequate, ne…
Now in its fourth revised edition, The Christian Writer's Manual of Style provides answers to writers', editors', and proofreaders' most pressing questions about language, style, and usage, focusing on the particular issues involved in religious writing.
Presents an exploration of how a sense of being 'a Christian', or of 'Christian identity', was shaped within the setting of the Jewish and Graeco-Roman world. This book shows that there were similarities and differences in the ways Jews and others were thinking about themselves, and asks what made early Christianity distinctive.
This volume includes three classic works by John Owen on sin, temptation, and repentance in the Christian life. Editors Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic have made this difficult-to-read Puritan accessible for the modern reader without sacrificing the wonderful content of Owen's work.
God is Infinite, but language finite; thus speech would seem to condemn him to finitude. In speaking of God, would the theologian violate divine transcendence by reducing God to immanence, or choose, rather, to remain silent? At stake in this argument is a core problem of the conditions of divine revelation. How, in terms of language and the limitations of human understanding, can transcendence…
Before we can define “Judaism” for the purpose of our study of the New Testament, we had best say what we mean by any religion, the genus of which Judaism forms a species (and, we shall argue, with earliest Christianity as a subspecies of that same species of religion). Defining religion comes before defining a particular religion, just as defining a particular religion takes priority over …
Christians should use and develop their minds. The mental faculties of the human mind—the power to think, to discover, to wonder, and to imagine—are precious gifts of God. The Christian who pursues knowledge, seeks education, and explores even the most “secular” subjects is fulfilling a Christian vocation that is pleasing to God and of great importance to the Church. The Bible, by prece…
Does God play games with his kids? Of course, He does! I totally believe this and that is why the volume switch is on His end and not yours! Up and down the volume level goes. Real time experience goes something like this: real loud to deafening soft. And seemingly not much between! Zooming in and out with His telescopic lens, the Holy Spirit creates close encounters and yes, far away ones. He …
What has theology to do with economics? They are both sciences of human action but have traditionally been treated as very separate and isolated disciplines. Divine Economy is the first book to directly address the need for an active dialogue between the two.
The works translated here deal with two major themes in the thinking of St Augustine (354-430): free will and divine grace. On the one hand, free will enables human beings to make their own choices; on the other hand, God's grace is required for these choices to be efficacious. 'On the Free Choice of the Will', 'On Grace and Free Choice', 'On Reprimand and Grace' and 'On the Gift of Perseveranc…
By championing the ideals of independence, evangelism, and conservatism, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has grown into the largest Protestant denomination in the country. The Convention's mass democratic form of church government, its influential annual meetings, and its sheer size have made it a barometer for Southern political and cultural shift. Its most recent shift has been starboar…