Christianity Books

In its various forms, speech is absolutely integral to the Christian mission. The gospel is a message, news that must be passed on if it is to be known by others. Nevertheless, the reality of God cannot be exhausted by Christian knowledge and Christian...

This collection of essays provides samplings of a theological engagement of culture that Paul Louis Metzger has been developing over the years in his work as founder and director of The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins at...

Historical Jesus research remains trapped in the positivistic historiographical framework from which it emerged more than a hundred and fifty years ago. This is confirmed by the nested assumptions shared by the majority of researchers. These include the...

"". . . from expected death comes unexpected new life!""The Gospel of Matthew does not shy away from the realities of struggle, suffering, doubt, and death. Yet, from the first names in the genealogy to the last words spoken by Jesus, the Gospel...

At a time when the Western church is having to come to terms--painfully and often reluctantly--with its diminished social and intellectual status in the world following the collapse of Christendom, we find ourselves, as interpreters of Paul, increasingly...

In the 1930s, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer anticipated the restoration of the church after the coming second world war through a new kind of monasticism, a way of life of uncompromising adherence to the Sermon on the Mount in imitation of Christ...

Along with the churches located in large Greek cities of the East, the church of Carthage was particularly significant in the early centuries of Christian history. Initially, the Carthaginian church became known for its martyrs. Later, the North African...

Working within two popular genres, gardening books and biblical meditations, God Gardened East offers a meditation on the first twenty-five chapters of Genesis, emphasizing the tropes of cultivation, wandering, and "the east." Reconceived in a post-9/11...

In this creative contribution to the doctrine of revelation, Clark seeks to develop and articulate an understanding of God's self-disclosure located in the participation of the ecclesial community in the trinitarian life of God. Clark takes as his point...

The Ten Commandments belong to the "classics" of Western culture. They are an authoritative part of the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures. Since they come to us from an ancient past, it is both necessary and worthwhile to inquire what they may mean for...

In Seeking the Imperishable Treasure, Johnson tracks the use of a single saying of Jesus over time and among theologically divergent authors and communities. He identifies six different versions of the saying in the canonical gospels and epistles (Mark,...

This translation of the Gospel of Thomas represents a departure from the usual literal English of previous publications. It aims at providing a reader-friendly translation of the original Coptic language in contemporary idiomatic English, while remaining...

From the very beginning there have been Christians who wanted to go all the way--who, rather than asking, ""What must I do to be a Christian?"" asked instead, ""What can I do to be more Christian?"" These highly intentional Christians have had an impact...

Uncommon Friendships explores the often-overlooked dynamic of interreligious friendships, considering their significance for how we think about contemporary religious thought. By exploring the dynamics of three relationships between important religious...

On the morning after they walked for miles through freezing rain to a prayer vigil outside the White House in March 2007, a group of young war protesters listened to one last speech before heading home to Chicago. Peter Dula, who had served with the...

Green Witness is a work in theological ethics, addressed primarily to theologians and seminarians, but also to clergy and church study groups. Yordy approaches the topic of Christian environmental work not from the perspective of a global crisis that...

Depression and related illnesses threaten to wreck the lives of many teens and their families. Suicide driven by these illnesses is one of the top killers of these young people. How do teens become depressed? What does depression feel like? How can we...

Your Neighbor's Hymnal provides a winsome and thoughtful exploration of popular music, from rock to hip-hop to metal to soul, as a vital source contemporary culture continues to go to learn about faith, hope, and love. Where some Christians have kept...

A leading scholar of ascetical studies, Richard Valantasis explores a variety of ascetical traditions ranging from the Greco-Roman philosophy of Musonius Rufus, the asceticism found in the Nag Hammadi Library and in certain Gnostic texts, the Gospel of...

Youth ministry has increasingly lost touch with its origins in the way of Jesus and the social practices intrinsic to Christian discipleship, and has instead substituted layers of "Jesus talk," middle class values, fun and games, and doses of "warm...

For about the last fifteen years of his life, Thomas A. Langford pondered how grace is central to Christian theology. This book records his reflections and provides numerous gems of mature Christian insight. From beginning to end, the book is...

The Shape of Participation is a work of constructive theology addressed to theologians, seminarians, and thoughtful pastors. Owens engages and deepens recent popular discussions of church practices by approaching practices from the church Fathers'...

If the church is more than just a building, what could it mean to live in it--to inhabit it as a way of life? From their location in new monastic communities, Otto, Stock, and Wilson-Hartgrove ask what the church can learn from St. Benedict's vows of...

This book is a study of the Christian life and the practice of Christians and the church from an Anglican perspective. It begins with an analysis and explication of the structure and process of the Christian life before God in the church and the world...

Examining each of the major sections of 1 Corinthians, Horsley probes the disagreement Paul had with those claiming special spiritual status. The conflicts over what constitute wisdom, knowledge, and spirituality cut to the core of what Paul was trying...

The book is a manifesto or apologia for Chinese Christians. It seeks to articulate how it is possible to maintain a Chinese identity and a Christian identity at the same time without capitulating to some western or other cultural model of Christian...

We are, at our base, humus-beings. Our lives are dependent upon the soil and we flourish when we live in this reality. Unfortunately, we have been a part of a centuries-long push to build a new tower of Babel--an attempt to escape our basic dependence on...

""Most of the following essays reveal my interest in the significance of literary forms--both the short literary forms in the Gospels, such as pronouncement stories, and an entire Gospel as a formed narrative. I am interested in the significance of these...

The Politics of Discipleship and Discipleship in Politics is a work of dialog and cooperation at every level. At the core of this volume are lectures by Jurgen Moltmann, originally delivered at two Mennonite seminaries at the height of the Cold War...

This unique theological biography traces the emergence of William Stringfellow's theology and the place of biblical politics within it. It highlights the centrality of life and work to his theology, and the inseparability of one from another. It tells...

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Arthur McGill had numerous opportunities to air his rich theological musings outside of the classroom. We are now fortunate, some twenty-five years after his death, to have seventeen sermons brought to us by the aid of his...

Working with selected miracles of Jesus from the canonical Gospel traditions and with background studies in the general understanding of miracles in the Greco-Roman world of the Hellenistic period, this collection of essays shows how we may understand...

When a boy cries, his father trains him in the way of the ancients. He is taught to "man up," and rejects anything feminine in his life. Thus he begins the process of becoming a man in the image of his culture. This transformation comes at the expense of...

Through the available patristic writings Caesar and the Lamb focuses on the attitudes of the earliest Christians on war and military service. Kalantzis not only provides the reader with many new translations of pre-Constantinian texts, he also tells the...

Once upon a time a group of young Anabaptist scholars took it upon themselves to convene a series of incisive conversations that addressed questions of Christian renewal. Among other topics that the CONCERN group (1955-1971) took on was the subject of...

While some of the chapters focus on systemic issues, others probe the depths of individual Gospel passages. The author's keen eye for textual detail, archaeological data, comparative materials, and systemic overviews make this volume a joy for anyone...

Paradox and surprise face those who pursue deeper spiritual practice, theological wisdom, and even a religious calling ""into the ministry."" Unbeknownst to incoming students, the pursuit of theological education in established institutions today...

In the aftermath of World War II, seven American Mennonite graduate students spent eleven days together in Amsterdam discussing their concerns around the state of North American Mennonite churches. Out of this historic gathering came a publication...

When Jesus spoke at his local synagogue he boldly proclaimed that he was the one sent to free those who were oppressed. He came to provide hope, peace, and safety to those suffering in the world. When he left this earth, his followers were left with the...

To read 'The Substance of Faith' is once again to experience Clarence Jordan at his best: the flashing wit that could illuminate even as it entertained, the blazing concern that knew how to lay its burden on the heart of even the casual listener, the...

'To Baghdad and Beyond' is the story of a young evangelical couple who followed the conviction of their faith into a war zone and discovered an alternative to the violence of empires and the complicity of quietism in the "third way" of Jesus's beloved...

""All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.""Lady Julian of NorwichUniversalism runs like a slender thread through the history of Christian theology. It has always been a minority report and has often been regarded...

Throughout the history of the church, monastic movements have emerged to explore new ways of life in the abandoned places of society. School(s) for Conversion is a communal attempt to discern the marks of a new monasticism in the inner-cities and...

""Stanley Hauerwas is a man of many gifts. These include wide and deep learning, passion about the issues of the day, a pastoral heart, a love of the Lord Jesus, and a puckish humor that permeates everything he does. Hauerwas has forged these gifts into...

Steven Lewis's Landscape as Sacred Space: Metaphors for the Spiritual Journey invites new discussions about our spiritual journeys and allows seekers to rethink approaches to Christian spirituality and theology in light of postmodernity. Landscape...

How is God sovereign with respect to creation? Does creation affect God? Does God suffer or change because of creation? If so, how is this related to Christology? Why have these questions been so controversial in evangelical theology, even costing some...

This cutting-edge volume has been brought together in honor of Thomas Boomershine, author, scholar, storyteller, innovator. The particular occasion inviting this recognition of his work is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Society of Biblical...

John Wesley (1703-91) was a unique character in history who left a disproportionately large imprint on the world. That imprint was a contagious passion for what he called real Christianity--the Good News of saving grace and scriptural holiness. This...