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The End of Theology generates a discussion of the nature of theology and how it is most meaningfully constructed to offer a truly interdisciplinary perspective on theology and mission. The volume highlights perspectives of contextual and systematic theology, as well as missiology, world Christianity and history, biblical studies and hermeneutics, ethnography, pastoral practice, and social justice. It also pays keen attention to matters on the ground with a profound desire to relate questions of evangelical identity including ministry practice and mission to the wider tradition.

Hans Urs von Balthasar (19051988) sets out to reunite Truth and holiness by returning the saints to their proper place at the heart of philosophy, theology, and metaphysics. Love Itself is Understanding is one of the first systematic treatments of Balthasars theology of the saints. Matthew Rothaus Moser presents Balthasar as an alternative to Idealist philosophy, a thinker who develops a religious metaphysics in which the saints practices of prayer and contemplation are the chief mode of knowing that the Truth of Being is divine love. Love Itself is Understanding casts new light on dominant themes in Balthasars thought and invites a renewed vision of the theological and metaphysical significance of the spiritual practices of prayer, obedience, and charity.

Of the world's three major religions, only Christianity holds to a doctrine of original sin. Ideas are powerful, and they shape who we are and who we become. The fact that many Christians believe there is something in human nature that is, and will always be, contrary to God, is not just a problem but a tragedy. So why do the doctrine's assumptions of human nature so infiltrate our pulpits, sermons, and theological bookshelves? How is it so misconstrued in times of grief, pastoral care, and personal shame? How did we fall so far from God's original blessing in the garden to this pervasive belief in humanity's innate inability to do good? In this book, Danielle Shroyer takes readers through an overview of the historical development of the doctrine, pointing out important missteps and overcalculations, and providing alternative ways to approach often-used Scriptures. Throughout, she brings the primary claims of original sin to their untenable (and unbiblical) conclusions. In Original Blessing, she shows not only how we got this doctrine wrong, but how we can put sin back in its rightful place: in a broader context of redemption and the blessing of humanity's creation in the image of God.

Lukes two-volume work contains the only narrative depictions of Jesus ascent into heaven in the New Testament. The significance of the event at the end of the Gospel and the beginning of Acts have long been recognized. While select studies have focused on particular aspects of these accounts, however, the importance of the ascension to Luke-Acts calls for renewed attention to the narratological and theological significance of these accounts. Here, leading scholars discuss the ancient, literary and theological contexts of the ascent-into-heaven accounts for the next generation of interpreters.

Donald M. MacKinnon has been one of the most important and influential of the post-World War British theologians, significantly impacting the development and subsequent work of the likes of Rowan Williams, Nicholas Lash and John Milbank, among many other notable theologians. A younger generation largely emerging from Cambridge, but with influence elsewhere, has more recently brought MacKinnons eclectic and occasionalist work to a larger audience worldwide. In this collection, MacKinnons central writings on the major themes of ecclesiology, and especially the relationship of the church to theology, are gathered in one source. The volume will feature several of MacKinnons important early texts. These will include two short books published in the Signposts series during World War II, and a collection of later essays entitled The Stripping of the Altars.

Dietrich Bonhoeffers work has persistently challenged Christian consciousness due to both his death at the hands of the Nazis and his provocative prison musings about Christian faithfulness in late modernity. Although understandable given the popularity of both narrative trajectories, such selective focus obscures the depth and fecundity of his overall corpus. Bonhoeffers early work, and particularly his Christocentric anthropology, grounds his later expressed commitments to responsibility and faithfulness in a world come of age. While much debate accompanies claims regarding the continuity of Bonhoeffers thought, there are central motifs which pervade his work from his doctoral dissertation to the prison writings. This book suggests that a concern for otherness permeates all of Bonhoeffers work. Furthermore, Clark Elliston articulates, drawing on Bonhoeffer, a Christian self-defined by its orientation towards otherness. Taking Bonhoeffer as both the origin and point of return, the text engages Emmanuel Levinas and Simone Weil as dialogue partners who likewise stress the role of the other for self-understanding, albeit in diverse ways.

Scholars of early Christianity are awakening to the potential of Pompeiis treasures for casting light on the settings and situations that were commonplace and conventional for the first urban Christians. The essays of this book explore different dimensions of Pompeiis potential to refine our lenses for interpreting the texts and situations of early Christianity. The contributors to this book (including Carolyn Osiek, David Balch, Peter Oakes, Bruce Longenecker, and others) demonstrate that it is an exciting time to explore the interface between the Vesuvian contexts and the early Jesus-movement.

A Generous Symphony offers a balanced appraisal of Balthasars literary achievement and explicates Balthasars literary criticism as a distinctive theology of revelation, which offers possibilities for understanding how divine presence may be manifested outside the canonical boundaries of Christian tradition. The structure of A Generous Symphony is a chronological presentation of the Balthasarian canon of imaginative literature, which allows readers to see how social and historical interests guide Balthasars readings in the pre-Christian, medieval, and modern eras. While other books have examined the systematic theology of Balthasar, this book will examine the important question of how students of literature, like Balthasar, can be transformed into theologians by attending to the implicit presence of Christ in what Gerard Manley Hopkins poem As kingfishers catch fire . . . called the ten thousand places. Balthasars deep investment in the uniqueness of Christian revelation is underlined, while, at the same time, his aesthetic sympathies cause him to invest literature with quasi-sacramental status.

Throughout the two-thousand-year span of Christian history, believers in Jesus have sought to articulate their faith and their understanding of how God works in the world. How do we, as we examine the vast and varied output of those who came before us, understand the unity and the diversity of their thinking? How do we make sense of our own thought in light of theirs? The Christian Understandings series offers to help. In this crisp and engaging volume Amy Frykholm offers a tour through more than two millennia of Christian thought on the future. Starting with the contexts of the Hebrew Bible and moving forward, Frykholm outlines the enduring fascination believers have had with future events and the myriad ways they have articulated their beliefs about what the future holds. From the imperial contexts of the book of Revelation to the end times prophecy of Harold Camping, Frykholm presents a thoughtful and insightful tour. - back of the book.

Throughout the two-thousand-year span of Christian history, believers in Jesus have sought to articulate their faith and their understanding of how God works in the world. How do we, as we examine the vast and varied output of those who came before us, understand the unity and the diversity of their thinking? How do we make sense of our own thought in light of theirs? The Christian Understandings series offers to help. In this exciting volume, Charlene Burns offers a brief but thorough tour through more than two millennia of thought on the nature of evil. Starting with the contexts of the Hebrew Bible and moving forward, Burns outlines the many ways that Christian thought has attempted to deal with the reality of evil and suffering. From a personal Satan and demonic activity, to questions of free will and autonomy, to the nature of God and Gods role in suffering, Burns offers a clear and compelling overview.

"Sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.": pages 345-346.

The profound ambivalence of the biblical portrayals of Hagar and Ishmaeldispossessed, yet protected; abandoned, yet given promises that rival those of the covenant with Abrahambelies easy characterizations of the Pentateuch''s writers. In particular, John T. Noble argues, conventional characterizations of the Priestly writers'' view of covenant have failed to take into account the significance of these two "non-chosen" figures.Noble carefully examines their roles and depictions in the P and non-P Genesis traditions, comparing them to other "non-chosen" figures and to patterns found in Exodus traditions and the patriarchal promises to Abraham, showing that Ishmael is clearly favored, though not chosen. Indeed, Noble argues, Ishmael must be seen as a key figure in the Priestly material, highlighting the relationship between Noahic and Abrahamic covenants. His ambiguous status calls for reconsideration of the goals and values of the Priestly work, which Noble sketches around themes of covenant, fertility, life, and the future of nations.

Beneath the commonplace affirmation that Jesus paid for our sins lie depths of implication: Did God demand a blood sacrifice to assuage divine anger? Is sacrifice (consciously or unconsciously) intended to induce the deity to show favor? What underlies the various metaphors for atonement used in the Bible?Here, Stephen Finlan surveys psychological theories that help us to understand beliefs about sacrifice and atonement and what they may reveal about patterns of injury, guilt, shame, and appeasement. Early chapters examine the language in both testaments of purity and the scapegoat, and of payment, obligation, reciprocity, and redemption. Later chapters review theories of the origins of atonement thinking in fear and traumatic childhood experience, in ambivalent or avoidant attachment to the parents, and in poisonous pedagogy. The theories of Sandor Rado, Mary Ainsworth, Erik Erikson, and Alice Miller are examined, then Finlan draws conclusions about the moral responsibility of appropriating or rejecting atonement metaphors. His arguments bear careful consideration by all who live with these metaphors and their effects today.

"The devil has fallen on hard times. Surveys say that even the majority of Christians doubt Satan's existence. Burdened by doubts, skeptical believers find themselves divorced from Jesus' dramatic confrontation with Satan in the Gospels and from the struggle that galvanized the early church. In [this book], ... blogger and theologian Richard Beck reintroduces the devil to the modern world with a biblical, bold, and urgent vision of spiritual warfare: we must resist the devil by joining the kingdom of God's subversive campaign to interrupt the world with love"--Amazon.com.

Archaeologists have disputed the scarce evidence claimed for the presence of Christians in Pompeii before the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Now, Bruce W. Longenecker reviews that evidence in comparison with other possible data of first-century Christian presence elsewhere in the Mediterranean and reaches the conclusion that there were indeed Christians living in the doomed city. The Crosses of Pompeii presents an elegant case for their presence, with photographic illustration of the available archaeological evidence.

Focusing on texts in the Hebrew Bible, and using feminist hermeneutics, Phyllis Trible brings out what she considers to be neglected themes and counter literature.After outlining her method in more detail, she begins by highlighting the feminist imagery used for God; then she moves on to traditions embodying male and female within the context of the goodness of creation. If Genesis 2-3 is a love story gone awry, the Song of Songs is about sexuality redeemed in joy. In between lies the book of Ruth, with its picture of the struggles of everyday life.

This volume offers two of Martin Luthers writings on prayer, excerpted from The Annotated Luther, volume 4. In Little Prayer Book (1522), Luther seeks to reform the theology and practice of prayer in clear and understable language for all people. In A Simple Way to Pray (1535), Luther offers readers insights into his own prayer life and organizes his comments around the seven petitions of the Lords Prayer.

The delay of the Parousia-the anticipated return of Christ-is an issue that has troubled theology since the late writings of the New Testament. This volume, arising from the Oxford Postdoctoral Colloquium on Eschatology, offers a constructive proposal on this issue in a truly interdisciplinary manner.

Revision of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Wheaton College, 2016.

Love in a Time of Climate Change issues a call to readers to develop a loving response to climate change, which harms the poor, threatens future generations, and damages Gods creation. Exploring the theology of creation can help us understand the intrinsic value of creation and assess the physical and spiritual implications of climate changeespecially the disproportionate impact on the most vulnerableand our responsibility to work for climate justice in our time.

Constructive theology, over the last one hundred years, has developed a distinct method and set of concerns. Yet what makes constructive theology an important movement hasnt been explicitly formulated, its history analyzed, or its method clearly delineated. Constructing Constructive Theology offers that history as well as programmatic proposals for constructive theology. This book traces the overall historical arc of constructive theology, from proto-movement through the present. As constructive theology is the method of progressive Christian theology today, understanding it is crucial to undertaking the theological task of the present.

In this significant book Mark C. Mattes critically evaluates the role of justification in the theologies of five leading Protestant thinkers -- Eberhard Jungel, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jurgen Moltmann, Robert W. Jenson, and Oswald Bayer -- pointing out their respective strengths and weaknesses and showing how each matches up with Luther's own views. Offering both an excellent review of recent trends in Christian theology and a powerful analysis of these trends, Mattes points readers to the various ways in which the doctrine of justification has been applied today.

The Preached God' speaks directly to preachers, calling them to deliver the truths of forgiveness, life, and salvation through both word and sacrament to all who listen.

Sixteen church historians here examine Martin Luther in an uncommon way -- not as Reformer or theologian but as pastor. Luther's work as parish pastor commanded much of his time and energy in Wittenberg.After first introducing the pastoral Luther, including his theology of the cross, these chapters discuss Luther's preaching and use of language (including humor), investigate his teaching ministry in depth, especially in light of the catechism, and explore his views on such things as the role of women, the Virgin Mary, and music.

The development of Martin Luther's thought has commanded much scholarly attention because of the Reformation and its remarkable effects on the history of Christianity in the West. But much of that scholarship has been so enthralled by certain later debates that it has practically ignored and even distorted the context in and against which Luther's thought developed. In The Early Luther Berndt Hamm, armed with expertise both in late-medieval intellectual life and in Luther, presents new perspectives that leave old debates behind.

The Captivation of the Will provocatively revisits a perennial topic of controversy: human free will. Highly esteemed Lutheran thinker Gerhard O. Forde cuts to the heart of the subject by reexamining the famous debate on the will between Luther and Erasmus. Following a substantial introduction by James A. Nestingen that brings to life the historical background of the debate, Forde thoroughly explores Luther's "Bondage of the Will" and the dispute between Erasmus and Luther that it reflects.

This volume by Gracia Grindal introduces English-speaking readers to several significant yet unsung Lutheran women hymn writers from the sixteenth century to the present. After a brief introductory discussion of Elisabeth Cruciger, the first woman hymn writer of the Reformation, Grindal provides fascinating profiles of these talented Scandinavian women who "preached from home": Dorothe Engelbretsdatter, Birgitte Hertz Boye, Berthe Canutte Aarflot, Lina Sandell, Britt G. Hallqvist, and Lisbeth Smedegaard Andersen.

Martin Luther's relationship to music has been largely downplayed, yet music played a vital role in Luther's life -- and he in turn had a deep and lasting effect on Christian hymnody. In Luther's Liturgical Music Robin Leaver comprehensively explores these connections. Replete with tables, figures, and musical examples, this volume is the most extensive study on Luther and music ever published. Leaver's work makes a formidable contribution to Reformation studies, but worship leaders, musicians, and others will also find it an invaluable, very readable resource.