Christianity Books

c. 1875

This volume is a collection of essays on church history by John Williamson Nevin (1803-86), the theological creator of Mercersburg Theology. Nevin and his colleague Philip Schaff were attempting to reorient American ecclesial thought to be more...

Peter the Rock is a series of studies of basic Christianity based on the New Testament accounts of Peter in the Gospels, Acts, and Letters. Because his stories are in all four Gospels, Acts, in Paul's Letters, and with First and Second Peter in the New...

Our era is experiencing unparalleled and rapid transience. The twentieth century began with the telephone and ended with e-mail. People change jobs and homes a half-dozen times or more in their lives. Air and water pollution are threatening the...

Christians have been taught that Jesus died on the cross to pay a fine or ransom to expiate or atone for our sins. Furthermore, they have been taught that the death of Jesus is the only way individuals can receive eternal salvation. In general, this...

As a result of the author's own spiritual and intellectual journey he came to believe that there was something missing in our traditional understanding of the nature of God. In the Scriptures God is presented as clothed with real emotions and feelings...

A large amount of Leviticus material has been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Yet there is surprisingly little secondary scholarly analysis of the role of Leviticus in this corpus. The book of Leviticus survives in several manuscripts; it also features...

With clear purpose and remarkable style, David Baily Harned writes about our identity as an imaginative act of mind and spirit. In this important theological work, Harned shows that the ""master images"" of self as player, sufferer, and vandal are...

This book is a journey to the land of faith. That land is our own planet, ablaze with the fire Jesus Christ came to set here twenty centuries ago.For most of those centuries, Christianity was something of a provincial phenomenon. It had won the West,...

How may the notion of Trinity become a practical, down to earth, living reality?The parable of the Good Samaritan must be one of the most familiar stories of Jesus. Yet we often miss what prompted it. Jesus asks the lawyer pointedly, ""How do you...

There is probably no set of issues of greater importance in the contemporary world than those that are to do with the Earth on which we live and depend. The more alienated we become from it the more we contribute to our own destruction. Christianity's...

Biblical inspiration and interpretation in conflict?Evangelicals assert that the Bible is the infallible source and sole authority for Christian beliefs and living. This premise is currently under fire from social and cultural mores AND, more...

Often, a disconnect exists between the way pastors, children's ministry volunteers, and churches describe the health and impact of children's ministry volunteers (and the overall functioning of an ongoing children's ministry). The volunteer dysfunction...

The declining religious participation among young adults, or ""Rise of the Nones,"" has signaled alarms across American Christianity. A closer look into the faith lives of thirty young adults who are, or were at one time, connected with a church,...

It was reported that a doctoral student at Princeton once asked Albert Einstein, ""What is there left in the world for original dissertation research?"" He replied by saying, ""Find out about prayer. Somebody must find out about prayer."" Since...

The biblical prophets and Biblical Performance Criticism are brought together in three case studies (Elijah, Ezekiel, Jonah) presented as performances. This book proposes a new method of reading the biblical prophets with a threefold focus on creativity,...

This book brings into conversation Western and Orthodox hermeneutical schools: one represented by Hans-Georg Gadamer and his followers, while the other school is less focused around one person and yet displays common distinct features. The main question...

In this groundbreaking study, John Howard Yoder searches for the New Testament vision of ministry. The author examines the vocabulary used by Paul and other New Testament writers in relation to the universal ministry of the church. The theological and...

This book is a memoir of a minister and peace activist in partnership with a whimsical ant to show a lifetime of artifacts in a room that uncovers thinking about peace and justice issues, such as in the following themes:- The values of Jesus and biblical...

In this book the author proposes the house church structure as a key to continuing renewal in the church today.After a biblical and historical look at the significance of the house church, the author looks at a model of ministry appropriate to that...

This collection of essays is indicative of the years of research that the author has devoted to the Acts of the Apostles. In a very easy style, some of the intriguing episodes in Acts are understood through the lens of ancient literature and the...

Talking about Jesus' story with others is designed to be a joy-producing experience for his followers, not to mention those hearing his story. Unfortunately, the prospect of talking about Jesus' story strikes fear into the hearts of many believers...

Engaging College Men is a ground-breaking collection of essays by mentors of college men and high school boys on what works to increase their engagement as citizens and participants in the common good. Sponsored by the Lilly Endowment, Engaging College...

This collection of essays examines how God's justice and mercy intersect in the lives of individuals and their communities, with a view to the establishment of personal and social well-being in the world. The authors, drawn from England and Australia,...

Human beings are interpreters.-When, what, and how do we interpret?-Which is more reliable: literal information or symbolic expression?-What consequences--in school and in all of life--are attached to our interpretative judgments?We find answers to these...

For the last three decades, I have listened intentionally and attentively while people have trusted me by telling me their personal, private stories. As they talked, I observed patterns and commonalities in their narratives. I compared their stories to...

Maximus the Confessor (580-662) was a monk and theologian whose combustive historical era, committed doctrinal reflection, and loud and influential voice took him on a turbulent career of traveling and writing around the Mediterranean. Maximus was a...

The Pauline Epistles have been claimed as a useful ally by parties across the political spectrum. Neoconservatives claim that Paul and his coworkers were law-abiding, authority-honoring, devoutly religious people oriented around their respect for hard...

The necessity for meaningful change and reform in the Roman Catholic Church is not just the opinion of the few but a consensus of the many. It is no secret; many Catholics today are discontent with the leadership of the church. The once bastion of the...

Church weddings, funerals, and most Sunday services reflect the values and dramas of their communities, even when the ministers are the main or sole actors. This point is illustrated by examples ranging from American television masses to the Zairean...

This book covers the contribution of Christianity in the care, stewardship, and management of the environment. It uses ideas from the logical position of a Christian, created in God's image, redeemed by God, and given responsibility to subdue and keep...

In the United States and Europe, membership and participation in Christian churches have steadily declined. When asked for their religious preference, increasing numbers say ""none."" This is especially the case for younger adults and the well-educated.A...

In this groundbreaking new work, Dillard makes a powerful case for bringing contemporary Christian theology into critical dialogue with Martin Heidegger's Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event). Following his initial receptivity to theology in his...

Humanity is moving ever towards its final destination without knowing why, when, where: teloi, multiple paths, leading towards God's eschaton. These essays examine the movement towards this day of reckoning, and how such eschatological events are...

Honest to Goodness proposes a new Christian presence that is free of dogmatism, exclusivism, and biblicism. It charts a way back to the spiritual and ethical revolution begun by Jesus of Nazareth, one that can make a vital difference to needless evils...

In seventeenth-century France, Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717) writes about the suffering of the apocalypse followed by the consummation of the second coming. Guyon believed that in our earthly pilgrimage, we may find the way to union with our Savior Jesus...

An individual's life story can provide insights into the character of a particular nation, the events of a specific time period, and the hopes and challenges faced by human beings as they strive to live a life that is consistent with the ideals that they...

The biblical story is about more than sin and salvation. It is about the creator's purposes and the fulfillment of those purposes in the climactic revelation of God's glory in Sabbath with creation.Christ Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the one through...

""This book, which now appears in a revised form, does not lay claim to be either a Critical or a Historical Commentary, but is intended to follow the Scriptural account of the Life and Work of the Prophet Elisha with the view of pointing out their...

The book you are holding results from years of research carried out as I traveled the world as a rock musician followed by living abroad as a minister. Did you know that all the music ever created in the West has its origin in just twelve sounds? From...

""In the world but not of it""--an expression that has been interpreted in a multitude of ways. With the publication of Rod Dreher's much-debated book The Benedict Option in 2017, the question of just how the church is to exist ""in but not of the...

Breakfast with Barth: Daily Devotions provides extracts from the writings of theologian Karl Barth. The short devotion that follows explains the meaning of Barth's quotation in light of his overall writings. It also explores the meanings of Barth's...

As Euro-American culture turns resolutely away from religiosity toward spirituality and becomes increasingly post-Christian, the ordinary, everyday practice of Christian life is ever more questioned and in need of scrutiny. In this interdisciplinary...

Marooned on a river island above the Arctic Circle, caught by a flash flood in New Zealand, boated with an NFL cheerleader in the Caribbean, robbed in a British Columbia motel, and bunked with an almost-terrorist in Manitoba, this author-preacher from...

For generations, scholars who study the letters of St. Paul have argued about ""being-in-Christ"" and ""justification by faith"" as though they were competing theologies. They have argued about faith as divine gift or human work, and more recently the...

Natural law, according to Thomas Aquinas, has its foundation in the evidence and operation of natural, human reason. Its primary precepts are self-evident. Awareness of these precepts does not presuppose knowledge of, or even belief in, the existence of...