Outline : Learning how to live in today's new social and cultural environment will require examination, trial and error, and adaptation over time. But there are ways to live with integrity and follow Christ today, even in a negative world. Since a peak in church attendance in the mid-20th century, Christianity has been on a trajectory of decline in the United States. Once positive toward Christ…
Outline : Explore twelve key points in the growth of Christianity. Alice Ott tells the story of pivotal turning points in the expansion of Christianity, helping readers grasp the big picture of missional trends and critical developments.
Outline: "I think the rock on which I had the nearest made shipwreck of the faith was the writings of the mystics," wrote John Wesley to his brother in 1736, eighteen months before his evangelical conversion on Aldersgate Street. Mysticism, in essence, is the belief in a direct and intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation and love. The Mystic believes that one must partake of t…
Outline: "[A] concise and readable history of the rise of early Christianity" A noted New Testament scholar explores how the movement founded by Jesus transformed more in the first seventy-five years after his death than it has in the two thousand years since.
Outline : Written for students of worship and church history, Worship in the Early Church serves as a valuable guide to the historical developments that brought about Christian worship as we know it today. While other histories of Christian worship exist, Gonzalez and Gonzales focus on the formative period between the first and fifth centuries CE, when so many of the understandings and patterns…
Outline: Beginning as a marginal group in Galilee, the movement initiated by Jesus of Nazareth became a world religion within one hundred years. Why, among various religious movements, did Christianity succeed? This major work by internationally renowned scholar Udo Schnelle traces the historical, cultural, and theological influences and developments of the early years of the Christian movement…
Outline : What does it mean to be created in God's image? How has the fall affected this image? Who are the people of God? From Adam and Israel to the Church addresses these core questions about spiritual identity, From Adam and Israel to the Church examines the nature of the people of God from Genesis to Revelation through the lens of being created and formed in God's image. Benjamin Gladd arg…
Outline : While understanding history has always been an essential task for God's people, rapid changes within the past two generations of Christianity have challenged many of our assumptions and methods for studying the past. How should thoughtful Christians—and especially historians and missiologists—make sense of global Christianity as an unfolding historical movement? The master teacher…
Outline : In the late 1800s, Charles Spurgeon warned that the Church was drifting away from the purity of the Gospel. Instead of boldly proclaiming the truths of Scripture, Christians were candy-coating the Word, being careful not to offend anyone. As a result, Christianity's influence in nineteenth-century England was severely weakened. Now, 100 years later, John MacArthur is sounding the same…
Outline : This popular introduction to church history isolates fourteen key moments that provide a framework for understanding the history of Christianity. The fourth edition more thoroughly highlights the importance of women in Christian history and the impact of world Christianity. It also includes a new preface, updates throughout the book, revised "further readings" for each chapter, new si…
Outline: This fascinating story of the early Christians by the Church's first historian. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. A.D. 260 - 339) wrote ten books that preserve the early history of the brave martyrs, the dauntless defenders of the faith, and even those who renounced their faith in the face of persecution. For decades, however, his crucial work has been shackled to stilted and outdated translati…
Outline : Too often scholars impose on the past modern terms and theories. This is particularly evident concerning discussions of divine sovereignty and human responsibility, where libertarian and compatibilist notions of freedom obscure older understandings of concurrence. Providence, Freedom, and the Will is one historian’s attempt to help us interpret early modern documents in context with…
Outline : Church History is a fascinating guide that shows young readers (and even not-so-young readers) how God has preserved His church from AD 30 to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Travel through time and all over the world as you meet the people, learn about the ideas, and understand the challenges that have shaped the history of the church. Maps, time lines, and colorful picture…
Outline : How is it that a first-generation Jewish messianic movement undertook a mission to the pagan world and rapidly achieved a momentum that would have a lasting impact on world history? In this monumental study, Eckhard Schnabel provides a unified and detailed picture of the rise and growth of early Christian mission. He begins with a search for a missionary impulse in the Old Testament a…
Outline : How is it that a first-generation Jewish messianic movement undertook a mission to the pagan world and rapidly achieved a momentum that would have a lasting and significant impact on world history? This momentous question has surprisingly eluded the concentrated focus of historians and New Testament scholars. Perhaps it is because the story of early Christian mission encompasses so mu…
Outline : How we read the Bible has a profound impact on how we understand what mission is. This book encourages us to explore the Bible's grand narrative and to bring the whole counsel of God in Scripture to our understanding of who we are and what we must do as God's people.
Outline: Is your view of church biblical? Even Christians can hold misconceptions that are damaging to our individual and collective faith - and unfortunately, many do. So how do we recapture a vibrant, God-honoring view of this essential institution and our place in it? In The Local Church, Edward W. Klink III defines what the church is, why it exists, and how it functions, helping readers und…
Outline : VR TECHNOLOGY ISN'T JUST COMING... IT'S ALREADY HERE ARE YOU READY TO USE IT FOR CHRIST? When the printing press came along, Christians harnessed its power for the gospel. Then came radio. Television. The internet. Smartphones. All of these technologies have been used for good... but at what cost? Now it's virtual reality's turn. You might think VR and its related technologies are a…
Outline : As evangelicals, we desire to be biblical―we want our doctrine to be rooted in the Bible, our lives to be guided by the Bible, and our disagreements to be resolved by the Bible. And yet, conflicts within our church communities continue to appear and seemingly multiply with time. Interpretations of the Bible and deeply held convictions often put Christians at odds. Encouraging us tow…
Outline: "This is protestant theology at its very best" Protestants often view the doctrine of good works with suspicion. This book shows how biblical exegesis, systematic and historical theology, and practical theology can together contribute to the recovery of a robust account of good works.
Outline : Originally published in 1947, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism has since served as the manifesto of evangelical Christians serious about bringing the fundamentals of the Christian faith to bear In contemporary culture. In this classic book Carl F. H. Henry, the father of modern fundamentalism, pioneered a path for active Christian engagement with the world — a path a…
Outline: In this prize-winning book Nathan O. Hatch offers a provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic, arguing that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful actors on the religious scene. Hatch examines live distinct traditions or mass movements that emerged early in the nineteenth century - th…
Outline: John Anthony McGuckin, one of the world's leading scholars of ancient Christianity, has synthesized a lifetime of work to produce the most comprehensive and accessible history of the Christian movement during its first thousand years. The Path of Christianity takes readers on a journey from the period immediately after the composition of the Gospels, through the building of the earlies…
Outline: The voice of God is a heartbeat away. In Fearfully & Wonderfully Made, Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey revealed how God's voice is encoded in the very structure of our bodies. In His Image takes up where its predecessor left off, beckoning us once again inward and onward to fresh exploration and discovery. Brand and Yancey show how accurately and intricately the human body portrays th…
Outline: Counseling Men Effectively from God's All-Sufficient Word. Men Counseling Men is a strongly practical resource filled with the help and hope found in Scripture alone. The Bible's counsel is superior to that given by the world, addressing not just external symptoms but also the heart issues only God, our Creator, can remedy. The trusted contributors to this volume provide tested guidanc…
Outline : FOR YEARS, BIBLICAL COUNSELOR DARBY STRICKLAND has served women in oppressive marriages. Now she writes to anyone who wants to help, regardless of their level of experience. You will learn how to identify the toxic entitlement that drives abusive behavior and to better understand its impact on victims-including children who are raised in a home with domestic abuse. Ultimately, you wil…
Outline: Most Christians would agree that the Bible provides a basis for mission. But Christopher Wright boldly maintains that there is a missional basis for the Bible! The entire Bible is generated by and all about God's mission. In order to understand the Bible, we need a missional hermeneutic, an interpretive perspective in tune with this great missional theme. We need to see how the familia…
Among the many types of sources for the history of Byzantine monasticism, none are more important than the typika, or foundation documents, collected and translated in these volumes, which will make possible for the first time a comprehensive study of religious life and institutions in the Greek East and a comparison between Greek and Latin monasticism.1 Together, the typika throw light on almo…
Outline; Ministry training often emphasizes expanding on the work of existing ministries to the neglect of addressing the difficulties of planting new churches in North America and across the world. This volume provides a practical, thorough, biblical, and inspirational corrective. Incorporating relevant sociological, anthropological, and historical insights, Hesselgrave extrapolates ten phases…
Outline: This anthology invites Christians to find resources for faithful, creative thinking in the riches of the church's theological heritage and its worship traditions. Contributors include Robert Barron, Timothy George, Stanley Hauerwas, Alasdair MacIntyre, Mark Noll, and N.T. Wright, among others.
Outline: Understanding the doctrines of grace provides a clearer picture of God's sovereignty, mercy, and majesty. From the lawgiver Moses to the Apostle John, and from the early church fathers to modern defenders of the faith, there are marched onto the stage of human history a long line of godly men, a triumphant parade of spiritual stalwarts who have upheld the doctrines of grace. In this bo…
Outline : Paul Helm breaks fertile ground in this survey of theological anthropology in the Reformed tradition. Acknowledging the rich patristic and medieval heritage available to Reformed theologians, Helm works through a representative range of authors and materials during the period 1550 to 1750 in order to identify certain ways of thinking as well as elements of development and change. Addr…
Outline: This book draws together a collection of thirteen published and unpublished articles which together constitute a new reading of the character and development of Latin Trinitarian theology in the fourth and fifth centuries. The focus of the essays is on Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE), but Augustine is treated here as an inheritor of earlier Latin tradition. Many of the figures of that …
Outline: The Roman Catholic papacy has long been a thorny issue dividing the ecumenical church. In this book several outstanding Lutheran and Catholic theologians, known collectively as the Group of Farfa Sabina, present the results of their five-year dialogue, showing how the papal (Petrine) ministry might actually serve to unify the worldwide communion of churches. Offering biblical, historic…
Outline: Many American Christians today are not sure what spiritual maturity is or how to get there. Thomas Bergler has written this accessible guide to help both individuals and whole faith communities to grow spiritually. Bergler claims that spiritual maturity - which he defines as basic competence in the Christian life - is not only desirable but attainable, and he identifies its character f…
Outline: Modern Protestant debates about spousal relations and the meaning of marriage began in a forgotten international dispute some 300 years ago. The Lutheran Pietist ideal of marriage as friendship and mutual pursuit of holiness battled with the idea that submission defined spousal roles. Exploiting material culture artifacts, broadsides, hymns, sermons, private correspondence, and legal c…
Outline: This accessible text by James P. Ware provides both a concise guide to Paul's theology and a general introduction to the key issues and debates in the contemporary study of Paul. Examining Paul's message in the context of the ancient world, Ware identifies what would have struck Paul's original audience as startling or unique. By comparing Paul's teaching to the other religions and phi…
Outline: This original work of scholarship clarifies how, in light of Matthew's Gospel, the first Christians understood and claimed Israel's messianic mission to people of every ethnic group immediately after Jesus' death and resurrection. In Part 1 James LaGrand examines the Hebrew Bible and other ancient documents to uncover the meaning in Matthew's time of the terms 'Israel' and 'the nations…
Outline: The church needs good theology that engages the Head, Heart, and Hands. This four-volume work combines rigorous historical and theological scholarship with application and practically - characterized by an accessible, Reformed, and experiential approach. In this volume, Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley examine the Holy Spirit (pneumatology) and salvation (soteriology), exploring the L…
Outline : The voice of John Zizioulas may turn out to be the fresh voice for which theology and especially ecclesiology have long been waiting. In the context of a complete theology, which includes extended consideration of the major theological topics-the Trinity, Christology eschatology, ministry and sacrament, but above all, the eucharist-the author propounds a fresh understanding, based in …
Outline: WHAT IS A CHURCH? This can be a difficult question to answer, and Christians have offered a variety of perspectives. Gregg Allison explores and synthesizes all that Scripture affirms about the new covenant people of God, capturing a full picture of the biblical church. He covers the topics of the church's identity and a characteristics; its growth through purity, unity, and discipline;…
Outline : Each book in the Big Theology for Little Hearts series introduces a big idea from the Bible with concise definitions and engaging illustrations to help young minds gain a foundational understanding of God's word. With each volume written to complement all the others, this series is designed to help children develop a cohesive framework of theology that includes God, creation, humanity…
Outline : walking with an addict through the process of change takes wisdom, love, and perseverance. To walk with an addict is both a gift and a grief. In the Crossroads: A Step-by-Step -Guide Away from Addiction Facilitator's Guide, Welch walks leaders through the process of loving, connecting with, and speaking truth to a group of addicts. This book contains helpful observations about the me…
Mancini is an expert in the movement to make churches more missional: moving them from an internal focus to an emphasis on participating in the culture and their community. In this book, he outlines a new model to help churches articulate strategy and live into their visions.