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Spiritually there is a great hunger today for contemplative and more satisfying experiences with God. Puritanism might seem to be an unlikely source for this, yet few groups in the history of Christian spirituality have written more extensively or wisely on the subject. Isaac Ambrose (1604-64), a relatively forgotten English Puritan, developed a theological foundation for the spiritual life based upon the Christian's intimate union with Christ, which the Puritans often called "spiritual marriage." Schwanda demonstrates that this vibrant relationship of union and communion with Jesus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was manifested in a deep contemplative piety of gazing lovingly and gratefully upon God. At the same time, Ambrose did not neglect loving his neighbors. This study reveals how heavenly meditation was one of the significant practices engaged by Ambrose to cultivate spiritual intimacy and enjoyment of God. Further, his experiential reading of Scripture, in particular the Song of Songs, provided him with a language of ravishment and delight in God. This book provides a distinctively Protestant foundation for recovering the contemplative life while recognizing the significant contributions of the Western Catholic tradition.

Description:Lamentations is a book that has never had a place of honor at the table of Christian spirituality. This is an unfortunate state of affairs because its challenging poetry has much to offer. This volume explores the how the biblical book of Lamentations may be engaged afresh so that it can function as Holy Scripture for the ekklesia. Four main chapters consider issues in hermeneutics, exegesis, the use of Lamentations in worship, and pastoral reflections. These chapters have been supplemented by seventeen reception history studies written by an international team of Jewish and Christian scholars. These studies introduce a wide range of interpretations and uses of the book of Lamentations from throughout the history of Judaism and Christianity. They include examinations of the use of Lamentations in Isaiah 40-55, the Targum, Rashi, and contemporary Jewish thought, the Patristic period, Calvin, Jewish and Christian worship, music, Rembrandt, and psychological and feminist interpretation. Appendices include new English translations of LXX Lamentations and Targum Lamentations.Endorsements:""The question mark in this title points to the fact that sadness, loss, and grief are now the order of the day in Western culture. For that reason the book of Lamentations now draws great attention and energy among us. This book, with its long historical sweep of interpretations and its broad ecumenical reach in rereading Lamentations, is sure to become a point of reference for our continuing response to the question. The question of the title requires endless, continuing engagement among us. These pages provide guides and models for continuing answering.""-Walter BrueggemannColumbia Theological Seminary""The essays in Great is Thy Faithfulness? focus upon one question: How is Lamentations a word of God? Responses are deep, rich, and many. They draw from interpretations, contemporary and ancient, Jewish and Christian, and from the arts, pastoral care, and liturgical usage. They reveal how Lamentations has been and can be embraced by believers. For pastors and classrooms, this book promises to stir up conversation, questions, and faith.""-Kathleen M. O'ConnorColumbia Theological Seminary About the Contributor(s):Robin A. Parry is an Editor at Wipf and Stock Publishers. He is the author of a commentary on Lamentations in the Two Horizons series. Heath A. Thomas is Assistant Professor of Old Testament & Hebrew at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He is author of Poetry & Theology in Lamentations: The Aesthetics of an Open Text (Sheffield Phoenix Press, forthcoming).

Street Signs is an engaging missiological inquiry into the cultural and theological meaning of the city. Through the lens of Seattle's Rainier Valley, one of the most ethnically and socioeonomically diverse communities in the US, this work constructs an urban, missional, and contextual theology that is shaped by the local realities of urban neighborhoods but relevant to cities everywhere. Focused on the themes of incarnation, confrontation, and imagination, Street Signs explores the contours of missional theology in urban contexts marked by physical density, social diversity, and economic disparity. In addition to examining contextualization and cultural theory, Street Signs also utilizes creative research methods like urban exegesis, cultural semiotics, and theology of the built environment. For the urban ministry practitioner or the theologian in the city, this work aims to engage thoughtful Christians with missiological and theological reflections on place, neighbor, and community.

""The conversation between music and theology, dormant for too long in recent years, is at last gathering pace. And rightly so. There will always be theologians who will regard music as a somewhat peripheral concern, too trivial to trouble the serious scholar, and in any case almost impossible to engage because of its notorious resistance to words and concepts. But an increasing number are discovering again what many of our forbears realized centuries ago, that the kinship between this pervasive feature of human life and the search for a Christian 'intelligence of faith' is intimate and ineradicable.Maeve Heaney's ambitious, wide-ranging, and energetic book pushes the conversation further forward still. Her approach is unapologetically theological, grounded in the passions and concerns of mainstream doctrinal theology. And yet she is insisting . . . that music must be given its due place in the ecology of theology. Although convinced that music should not be set up as a rival to linguistic or conceptual articulation, let alone swallow up 'traditional' modes of theological language and thought, she is equally convinced that music is an irreducible means of coming to terms with the world, a unique vehicle of world-disclosure, and as such, can generate a particular form of 'understanding': 'there are things which God may only be saying through music.' If this is so, it is incumbent on the theologian to listen.""--Jeremy Begbie, from the Foreword

Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998) was one of the seminal theologians of mission in the twentieth century, and perhaps the most important in the English-speaking world. His thinking was anchored in the practice of mission: he was a missionary in India, a bishop of the Indian church, and a leader in emerging international mission structures. In his late years, he pioneered research on how the gospel could engage with Western culture. For many he is the founding father of the missional church movement. This book is the first to address the crucial role Newbigin played in shaping ecumenical thinking on mission during the twentieth century, filling an important gap in our knowledge of the development of twentieth-century missional theology. It does so by seeking to answer a central question in Newbigin's thinking: How does ""mission"" relate to ""church""?Taking the integration of the International Missionary Council with the World Council of Churches as its central focus, this book provides a unique history of crucial events in the ecumenical movement. But more importantly, through a study of Newbigin's role in the theological debate, this book demonstrates how missional theology evolved during the postwar period when there was a ""sea change"" in understandings both of mission and church.

In recent decades few Christian themes have attracted as much attention as that of eschatology, or Christian hope. Resurrection, Apocalypse, and the Kingdom of Christ explores the meaning of this theme for Thomas F. Torrance, one of the twentieth-century's leading theologians. This study, the first of its kind, brings Torrance's eschatology to light through an exploration of the whole range of his corpus, including sermons, lectures, and correspondence. It also demonstrates that his eschatology is molded by momentous historical events such as World War II, the spread of communism, and the ecumenical movement. Out of all this, we realize that eschatology is a central component of Torrance's theology--so much so that it conditions his thinking on other Christian doctrines.

By Bartholomew's Day, 24 August, 1662, all ministers and schoolmasters in England and Wales were required by the Act of Uniformity to have given their ""unfeigned assent and consent"" to the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. On theological grounds nearly two thousand ministers--approximately one fifth of the clergy of the Church of England--refused to comply and thereby forfeited their livings. This book has been written to commemorate the 350th Anniversary of the Great Ejectment. In Part One three early modern historians provide accounts of the antecedents and aftermath of the ejectment in England and Wales, while in Part Two the case is advanced that the negative responses of the ejected ministers to the legal requirements of the Act of Uniformity were rooted in positive doctrinal convictions that are of continuing ecumenical significance.

Remain in Your Calling explores the way the Apostle Paul negotiates and transforms existing social identities of the Corinthian Christ-followers in order to extend his gentile mission. Building on the findings of Tucker's first monograph, You Belong to Christ: Paul and the Formation of Social Identity in 1 Corinthians 1-4, this work expands the focus to the rest of 1 Corinthians. The study addresses the way Paul forms Christ-movement identity and the kind of identity that emerges from his kinship formation. It examines the way previous Jewish and gentile social identities continue but are also transformed "in Christ." It then provides case studies from 1 Corinthians that show the way social-scientific criticism and ancient source material provide insights concerning Paul's formational goals. The first looks at the way Roman water practices and patronage influence baptismal practices in Corinth. The next uncovers the challenges associated with the transformation of the Roman household when it functions as sacred space within the ekklesia. The final study investigates the way Paul uses apocalyptic discourse to recontextualize the Corinthians' identity in order to remind them that God, rather than the Roman Empire, is in control of history.

About the Contributor(s):Kevin Livingston is Associate Professor of Pastoral Ministry at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto. He has served as a missionary in Mexico and as a pastor in congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

The idea of "salvation" tends to be interpreted as an exclusively religious category. The author of this essay believes that philosophy, the quintessence of human thinking, possesses a salvific power, as it offers the possibility of broadening the horizons of humanity, leading us out of the oppressive limits of our "hic et nunc." However, philosophical salvation needs to be found in time and space. The edification of a society based upon the ideal of solidarity, in which history may be meaningful for everyone, is its preeminent manifestation.

What has the Spirit to do with the blessing of Abraham and justification? This book challenges the common assumption that the Abrahamic blessing and the Spirit are equated in Gal 3:14 and points out how an accurate understanding of the relationship between these two motifs contributes significantly to appreciating Paul's overall argument in Galatians and his theology of justification. Even though Paul does not cite Old Testament passages on the promise of the Spirit in Gal 3:1-14, his arguments are nonetheless deeply influenced by the whole prophetic tradition about the Spirit. Most current discussions on the present and future aspects of justification have yet to consider the Spirit's role in the latter. Given the renewed interest in Pauline justification, this book contributes to this important aspect of the Spirit's role in future justification, which needs to be developed further in Pauline and New Testament theology.

Humans are lovers, and yet a good deal of pedagogical theory, Christian or otherwise, assumes an anthropology at odds with human nature, fixed in a model of humans as "thinking things." Turning to Augustine, or at least Augustine in conversation with Aquinas, Martin Heidegger, the overlooked Jesuit thinker Bernard Lonergan, and the important contemporary Charles Taylor, this book provides a normative vision for Christian higher education. A phenomenological reappropriation of human subjectivity reveals an authentic order to love, even when damaged by sin, and loves, made authentic by grace, allow the intellectually, morally, and religiously converted person to attain an integral unity. Properly understanding the integral relation between love and the fullness of human life overcomes the split between intellectual and moral formation, allowing transformed subjects--authentic lovers--to live, seek, and work towards the values of a certain kind of cosmopolitanism. Christian universities exist to make cosmopolitans, properly understood, namely, those persons capable of living authentically. In other words, this text gives a full-orbed account of human flourishing, rooted in a phenomenological account of the human as basis for the mission of the university.

A Theology of Religious Change asks a simple question with a complicated answer: Why do people change religious faiths? The study invites its readers on a trek through sociological and psychological literature that suggests many causes of religious change. Moving beyond a mere catalogue of motives for conversion, the author explores how a theological account of conversion and the doctrine of election can be broadened, strengthened, and reformulated in light of the complexity of faith's human side. This book seeks to guide pastors, church workers, and theologians in their task of communicating the message of good news effectively by drawing attention to the diverse factors influencing religious change.

The human imagination is a reflection of and a participation in the divine imagination; so mused the romantic poet, philosopher and theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His thinking was intuitive, dense, obscure, brilliant, and deeply influenced by German philosophy. This book explores the development of his philosophical theology with particular reference to the imagination, examining the diverse streams that contributed to the originality of his thought. The second section of this book extrapolates his thinking into areas into which Coleridge did not venture. If God is intrinsically imaginative, then how is this manifested? Can we articulate a theology of the ontology of God that is framed in imaginative and creative terms? Drawing on the groundbreaking work of Huizinga on 'play,' this study seeks to develop a theological understanding of God's playfulness.

The ritual of eating and drinking together is one of the most important Christian events. Often called Eucharist, Lord's Supper, or Communion, this sacrament is about the presence of Christ transforming not only those who participate in it but also the world. In this book, the author engages this Christian liturgical act with movements of people around our globalized world and checks the sacramental borders of hospitality. The author calls our attention to the sacramental practices of Reformed churches and, from this liturgical practice, challenges Christian churches to expand the borders of hospitality. Engaging several critical lenses around the notion of the sacrament--namely, Greco-Roman meals, Calvin's theology, and feminist and Latin American theologies--the author challenges theological and liturgical understandings of the Eucharist. He fosters an interreligious dialogue around the table and ends up using ritual theory to expand the circles of traditions, vocabularies, and practices around the sacrament. Proposing a borderless border eucharistic hospitality, the author encourages readers to ask who and where we are when we get together to eat and drink, and how this liturgical act around Jesus' table/meal can transform the lives of the poor, our communities, societies, and the world.

The project of developing a contextual theology for the Caribbean was first articulated in the early 1970s in Trinidad and Jamaica. In the years since, many evangelical churches and theologians in the Caribbean have been ambivalent about the validity of this project, assuming that an emphasis on context was somehow antithetical to the pure gospel. But the crisis of the times, along with a more mature hermeneutic, has led to a re-evaluation of this assumption. Here a group of evangelical Caribbean theologians enter the discussion, with substantive proposals for how the gospel addresses the Caribbean context. They are joined by other theologians from mainline Protestant and Catholic traditions in the Caribbean. The result is an ecumenical dialogue on the diverse ways in which orthodox Christian faith may provide both challenge and hope for the Caribbean context. Half the essays in this volume were originally presented at the Forum on Caribbean Theology held in 2010 at the Jamaica Theological Seminary; the rest were invited especially for this volume.

Drinking from the Same Well is designed for those who seek a praxis-oriented theological grounding in the exploration of cross-cultural perspectives in the field of pastoral care and counseling. It traverses the broad terrain of cultural analysis and also explores in depth a number of discrete cross-cultural issues in pastoral counseling, related to communication, conflict, empathy, family dynamics, suffering, and healing. Cultural analysis and theological reflection are situated alongside numerous case studies of persons and situations that enflesh the concepts being discussed, and readers are invited to engage personally with the material through a variety of focus questions and reflective exercises. This book can serve as a helpful textbook for seminarians and a useful guide for pastors and priests, church study groups, multicultural parishes, and anyone engaged in helping ministries with persons from other cultures. The goal is to develop culturally competent pastoral caregivers by providing a comprehensive and practical overview of the generative themes and challenges in cross-cultural pastoral care.

This book, as a comprehensive analysis of the fate of Saul's heirs, shows that David, like other ancient Near Eastern usurpers, perpetrated heinous injustices against the vanquished house of Saul. It evaluates the relationships between David and Saul's heirs, using the criterion of justice, which is a cardinal directive principle for living in YHWH's covenant community as is enunciated in the Deuteronomic Code. Tushima focuses on the story of David and its interconnections with the fate of the Saulides to determine the factors that lay behind the latter's tragedies, inquiring into whether these tragedies were due to continuing divine retribution, pure happenstance, or Davidic orchestration. In his close reading of these texts, Tushima argues that David was, for the most part, unjust and calculating in his dealings with the Saulides. Thematic and motific threads arising from this narrative critical study (such as the impact of human conduct on the environment, the tension between election and the character of God's servants, the dynamics of sacred space and sacred typonyms, the Judahite [Davidic] kingship, the monarchy, marriage, and Zion theology) are considered within their contexts in Israel's traditions for their biblical-theological and redemptive-historical import.

Luther's universal priesthood is, in part, a political doctrine that constitutes a revolutionary strain in Luther's thinking--a strain that can only be described as radical. Luther's political understanding of the universal priesthood posed a challenge to the concrete structures of his day, which were built upon a cosmological foundation that came under attack as a result of the Protestant Reformation. Thus, Luther's universal priesthood was not simply another evangelical concept that dealt with the office of ministry. It also served as the means for reordering the concept of temporal authority and the temporal order. Understood in this way, the universal priesthood had a political dimension that must be acknowledged if it is to be fully understood.

This book engages the structure and message of 1 Corinthians within its most relevant context of late Western antiquity's oral culture. Using a text-centered methodology, Timothy Milinovich demonstrates and analyzes a series of concentric patterns (or ring formations) through which Paul develops his arguments to the Corinthian church. Such patterns were ubiquitous in oral cultures and their literature. These structures, which are defined by objective lexical repetitions, aid the interpretation of an overall concentric pattern of three sections (A, 1:1--4:21; B, 5:1--11:1; A¿, 11:2--16:24), nine ring sets (a, 1:1-17; b, 1:18--3:3; ä, 3:4--4:21; a, 5:1--6:20; b, 7:1-40; ä, 8:1--11:1; a, 11:2--14:40; b, 15:1-58; ä, 16:1-24), thirty-five ring units (e.g., 5:1-13; 10:1-17; 15:12-24), and numerous micro-rings (e.g., 4:6-8; 8:1-4). Analyzing these lexical repetitions presents a demonstrably coherent message as it progresses through the concentric portions of the text. These findings represent a departure from previous treatments of the letter as if it were a modern, linear essay. As shown throughout this work, many linear treatments view the units like wooden blocks, only to build a single, unbalanced tower, and thus can miss important rhetorical connections in the concentric textual units. Milinovich treats the units and sets like interlocking pieces to present the inherent cohesiveness of the complex yet integral exhortation to grace, love, and unity that Paul wished to convey to this community on the verge of collapse. Among the conclusions drawn in this book, Milinovich argues that many parallel ring sets together present an anti-imperial message, and that both 11:3-15 and 14:34-35 are likely later interpolations. Scholars, pastors, and students alike will find many useful elements for interpreting or preaching 1 Corinthians in the modern world.

In recent decades, biblical scholars have often drawn from the wells of literary theory when seeking to better understand the art of biblical narrative. This innovative work adds to these insights by applying film theory to the analysis of story in the Hebrew Bible. Kent argues that film theory helps us to attain much greater clarity in our appreciation of the functions of narrative repetition.This book offers a synchronic exegesis of Saul's night visit to the witch of En-Dor (1 Sam 28:3-25), focussing on the web of repetitions of visual elements, of symbols, of sounds, of entire scenes, and of keywords. Kent shows how an artistry of repetition and non-repetition helps to build characterization, plot, and structure, as well as prophetic fulfilments, foreshadowing, and inter-textual warnings. Anyone interested in biblical narrative and the Hebrew Bible will find here new questions and techniques, and a wider repertoire of tools offering fresh understandings.

Evangelical and feminist approaches to Old Testament interpretation often seem to be at odds with each other. The authors of this volume argue to the contrary: feminist and evangelical interpreters of the Old Testament can enter into a constructive dialogue that will be fruitful to both parties. They seek to illustrate this with reference to a number of texts and issues relevant to feminist Old Testament interpretation from an explicitly evangelical point of view. In so doing they raise issues that need to be addressed by both evangelical and feminist interpreters of the Old Testament, and present an invitation to faithful and fruitful reading of these portions of Scripture.

This book is about that treasured doctrine of Pentecostalism: baptism in the Holy Spirit, understood as a work subsequent to conversion to Christ. Since James Dunn's publication of Baptism in the Holy Spirit, there has been heated response from Pentecostals in defense of the doctrine. Key players are Roger Stronstad, Howard Ervin, David Petts, James Shelton, Robert Menzies, and ex-Pentecostal Max Turner. This book reviews Pentecostal criticisms of Dunn with respect to Luke-Acts, concluding that Pentecostals are right: for Luke, receiving the Spirit was not the inception of new covenant life. It was a powerful enabling for prophecy and miracles; for the church's outward mission and its internal life. After placing Luke-Acts in a wider canonical context, the book closes with some practical lessons from Luke-Acts for today's Pentecostal churches.

Description:This book seeks to demonstrate that the Letter to the Romans may be seen as an attempt by a subordinate group to redress actual and potential issues of confrontation with the Empire, and to offer hope, even in the crisis of facing death.Paul demonstrates that it is God's peace and not Rome's peace that is important; that loyalty to the exalted Jesus as Lord and to the kingdom of God--not Jupiter and Rome--leads to salvation; that grace flows from Jesus as Christ and Lord and not from the benefactions of the Emperor. If the resurrection of Jesus--the crucified criminal of the Roman Empire--demonstrates God's power over the universe and death, the very instrument of Roman control, then the Christ-believer is encouraged to face suffering and death in the hope of salvation through this power. Paul's theology emerges from and is inextricably bound to the politics of his day, the Scriptures of his people, and to the critical fact that the God who is one and Lord of all is still in charge of the world. Endorsements:""A model of what exegesis must be in a global, postmodern world. Ian Rock's remarkable study of Romans 1:1-17 (and 9-11) makes explicit (1) its analytical/textual frame (a rigorous historical critical/political and rhetorical exegesis), (2) its contextual frame (Rock's experience of the interaction of imperialism and religion in the Caribbeans and in Rome), and (3) its hermeneutical/ideological frame (striking theological insights in Paul's letter).""--Dr. Daniel PatteProfessor of Religious Studies, New Testament and Early Christianity, Vanderbilt UniversityCo-editor of the series Romans through History and CulturesEditor of The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity (2010)""This book enables us to listen to Paul again as he speaks in Romans. Just when we thought we had heard all that St. Paul had to say, Dr. Rock invites us to listen again. When we do so, we hear some new things that, like the old ones, can lead us to a deeper understanding of Paul, and, even more so, a better understanding of the integrity of the faith in the context of a powerful and domineering imperialistic ideology. The book is excellent reading for Pauline scholars in particular and biblical scholars in general.""--Rt. Revd. Dr. and Hon. John W. D. HolderBishop of Barbados""By means of an ideological analysis of the exordium (Rom 1:1-17), Ian Rock demonstrates that the issues between Jew and Gentile arising from the arrival of the Christ-movement in first-century Rome concerned more than intercommunal conflicts. Rock depicts the Roman context as an arena of competing and conflicting ideologies--that of Roman imperialism and the Augustan peace based on Virgil's Aeneid, in contrast and opposition to the justice and mercy of the God of Israel, whose son Jesus Christ was vindicated by his resurrection. . . . Rock offers a challenging reinterpretation of Romans that combines careful exegesis, theological and ideological competence, and a concern for context aided by his own Caribbean insights--an excellent study that uses a close analysis of the exordium to support the unity and integrity of the letter.""--Dr. William S. CampbellReader in Biblical Studies in the School of Theology, Religious Studies and Islamic Studies, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David""This is a stimulating in-depth analysis of the opening passage of Romans that triggers a wave of insights into the whole letter. Its hermeneutical rigor in the conscious location of thought both in the twenty-first-century Caribbean world as well as in the first-century Roman-dominated world offers a political reading of Romans that will lead to important further discussion in the academy and beyond.""--Dr. Kathy EhrenspergerReader in New Testament Studies in the School of Theology, Religious Studies and Islamic Studies, University of Wales, Trinity Saint DavidAbout the Contributor(s):The Rev. Dr. Ian E. Rock is the Principal of Codrington College, the Seminary

Radical Orthodoxy, whose founding father is John Milbank, claims that God has been pushed to the margins in modernity and that a false and misleading neo-theology has taken hold that needs to be revisited and contested. It is this return to the premodern that often leads theologians to have reservations about Radical Orthodoxy when they might otherwise have some sympathy for many of its positions. Radical Orthodoxy, like most traditional theology, claims that the power of God is in all creation and that God sits everywhere for all to partake of. But there appears to be a failure to see that the church and theology do not set in place systems that live out this basic assumption. Liberation theology, while sharing much of the same assumption that God is everywhere and to be shared, at the same time engages in a critique of the structures that claim to facilitate this vision, and finds them wanting. From here, then, liberation theologians attempt to refigure our understanding of shared power in order to broaden the vision, while it may be argued that Radical Orthodoxy simply restates the assumption with little political critique of the issues. Perhaps this point explains why this book is titled The Poverty of Radical Orthodoxy rather than Radical Error!

Is the Old Testament still relevant for Christians today? Which fountains of wisdom, which never-failing streams, which wells of joy-filled salvation are we missing out on, if we neglect the Old Testament (Prov 18:4; Amos 5:24; Isa 12:3)? In this celebratory volume, fifteen scholars collaborate to explain and expound diverse aspects of the Christian life, with a special focus on drawing lines from the Old Testament through the New Testament toward the daily reality of living together as pilgrims in the church of Christ. This book commemorates the retirement of Dr. Cornelis Van Dam, professor of Old Testament, from the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. For three decades, Dr. Van Dam taught seminary students to draw living water from the wells of salvation. All the contributors to this book have benefited in one way or another from his knowledge and instruction.

""The Lord is the Spirit"" (2 Cor 3:17) . . . and yet one might be excused for thinking otherwise when reading studies on God's attributes--omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, impassibility, and the like. Although Christians throughout the ages have defended the deity of the Holy Spirit, theologians have not adequately taken the doctrine of the Holy Spirit into account when formulating a theology of the divine attributes. The resulting understandings of God fall short of being fully Trinitarian. Gabriel builds on contemporary Trinitarian theology by advocating for the integration of insights from pneumatology into the doctrine of God's attributes. Three case studies are presented: impassibility, immutability, and omnipotence. Gabriel writes from an evangelical and Pentecostal vantage point as he engages in ecumenical dialogue with a wide spectrum of historical and contemporary theological voices.

In this exciting volume, new and emerging voices join senior Reformed scholars in presenting a coherent and impassioned articulation of Calvinism for today's world. Evangelical Calvinism represents a mood within current Reformed theology. The various contributors are in different ways articulating that mood, of which their very diversity is a significant element. In attempting to outline features of an Evangelical Calvinism, a number of the contributors compare and contrast this approach with that of Federal Calvinism currently dominant in North American Reformed theology, challenging the assumption that Federal Calvinism is the only possible expression of orthodox Reformed theology. This book does not, however, represent the arrival of a "new Calvinism" or even a "neo-Calvinism," if by those terms are meant a novel reading of the Reformed faith. An Evangelical Calvinism highlights a Calvinistic tradition that has developed particularly within Scotland, but is not unique to the Scots. The editors have picked up the baton passed on by John Calvin, Karl Barth, Thomas Torrance, and others, in order to offer the family of Reformed theologies a reinvigorated theological and spiritual ethos. This volume promises to set the agenda for Reformed-Calvinist discussion for some time to come.

In this collection of inspirational and challenging essays, Methodists from around the globe reflect on the practice of disciple-making in their own contexts. From their own perspectives, they address questions like: What are the challenges you face? What biblical images shape your missional practice? What examples of Christian authenticity inspire your communities? What gifts related to mission and evangelism do you offer the global community of faith? Churches on every continent have their own stories of struggle and faithfulness. Indeed, each distinct community within any given region has a voice of its own that deserves to be heard. The voices included in this volume belong to women and men alike. Likewise, they resound with the accents of Africa and Asia, Latin and North America, Europe, and Oceania. Each voice is distinct, but all articulate a vision of faith made effective through love.In a world characterized variously by poverty and violence as well as prosperity and peace, the church must reclaim its central mission ""to make disciples of Jesus Christ."" In their effort to articulate a vision of mission and evangelism, the contributors to this volume bear witness to the fact that we can no longer do this work in isolation from one another. To be the ambassadors of the gospel, we need each other and we need to pay attention to the voices that sound different from our own. This volume takes a large step in that vital direction.

Religious themes, concepts, imagery, and terminology have featured prominently in much recent science fiction. In the book you hold in your hands, scholars working in a range of disciplines (such as theology, literature, history, music, and anthropology) offer their perspectives on a variety of points at which religion and science fiction intersect. From Frankenstein, by way of Christian apocalyptic, to Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and much more, and from the United States to China and back again, the authors who contribute to this volume serve as guides in the exploration of religion and science fiction as a multifaceted, multidisciplinary, and multicultural phenomenon.