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The average Christian knows somewhat how dangerous radical Islam is because of the regular media coverage of beheadings of Christians, Jews, and even young little children, not to mention Muslims with which they disagree. However, the average Christian does not know their true beliefs, just how many there are, to the extent they will go to carry out these beliefs. Daily we find Islamic commentators on the TV and radio, offering up misleading information, quoting certain portions of the Quran while leaving other parts out. When considering Islamic beliefs, other Islamic writings must be considered, like the Hadith or Sunnah, and the Shariah, or canon law. While Islam, in general, does not sup...
Much of the world today is convulsed in an epic struggle between the Christian West and Islam. Scholars seeking to understand the issues look back in history to unearth the roots of this conflict. Of great value in this effort are the writings of an eyewitness, a devoted Christian who served as chief financial officer of the Umayyad Empire and wrote at the time Islam was developing. John of Damascus (675-750) authored two major works, the Heresy of the Ishmaelites and the Disputation between a Christian and a Saracen, to provide an apologetic response to Islam from a Christian perspective. His writings shed light on many questions that are pertinent today: When was the Qur'an actually written? What was the role of the powerful caliph Abd al-Malik in the making of Muhammad? How did the theological issues related to the deity of Christ and the Trinity develop in the early days of Islam? This book delves into the life of John and studies his apologetic writings in detail, utilizing the first English translation from the critical text. It seeks to address these questions thoughtfully, provide valuable insights from the past, and then equip today's church as it engages with Islam.
In Jesus on Trial, David Limbaugh applies his lifetime of legal experience to a unique new undertaking: making a case for the gospels as hard evidence of the life and work of Jesus Christ. Limbaugh, a practicing attorney and former professor of law, approaches the canonical gospels with the same level of scrutiny he would apply to any legal document and asks all the necessary questions about the story of Jesus told through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. His analysis of the texts becomes profoundly personal as he reflects on his own spiritual and intellectual odyssey from determined skeptic to devout Christian. Ultimately, Limbaugh concludes that the words Christians have treasured for centuries stand up to his exhaustive inquiry—including his examination of historical and religious evidence beyond the gospels—and thereby affirms Christian faith, spirituality, and tradition.
This volume examines what it means to live as a Christian minority: both in non-Christian societies and in societies where other forms of Christianity are predominant. Many Christians live in states where other religions have historically influenced national identities, or where secularism defines communal expectations. At the same time, some Christian minorities live among other, more prevalent Christian traditions and often experience marginalization as a result. This volume provides insight into the experiences of the many contemporary Christian communities throughout the world and how they are responding to their varied societal circumstances.
How did Christian missions happen in the early church from AD 100 to 750? Beginning with a brief look at the social, political, cultural, and religious contexts, Mission in the Early Church tells the story of early Christian missionaries, their methods, and their missiology. This book explores some of the most prominent themes of mission in early Christianity, including suffering, evangelism, Bible translation, contextualization, ministry in Word and deed, and the church. Based on this survey, modern readers are invited to a conversation that considers how early Christian mission might inform global mission thought and practice today.
When one considers the early Christian church, one is immediately struck by the exponential growth that the church experienced. The inevitable question one must ask when considering the early church’s rapid rate of growth is: How did it happen? While social forces, plagues, politics, and ideology competitions were certainly factors in the growth of Christianity, one would be remiss not to consider the methodology behind the considerable evangelistic effort made by the patristic church. This dissertation analyzes the use of Scripture in the apologetic and evangelistic writings produced by Christian leaders within the Greek patristic tradition and their belief that Scripture was the primary tool given by God for the conversion of souls.
In Wonder as a New Starting Point for Theological Anthropology: Opened by the World, José Francisco Morales Torres constructs a new theological anthropology that begins with wonder. He contends that the visceral experience of wonder is an opening up of the human by an excess that saturates the world. This opened-by-ness points to a transforming receptivity as the basis of the person and to an extravagant Generosity that grounds all creation. Thus, wonder, which is grounded in generous Excess, is not only a gift but a demand: it calls for a liberative praxis that resist the forces that flatten the fullness of life into what is ‘useful’ and profitable and that reduce the limitless worth of fellow humans to mere commodities to be exploited and exchanged at the altar of the idolatrous ‘Market’. Wonder reveals a primordial receptivity in the human person, which demands of us an ethic of sustainability that does not reduce the other to commodity, a vulnerability that risks being opened by the other, a commitment to solidarity and liberation that resist the forces of an insatiable, idolatrous Market that seeks “only to steal and kill and destroy.”
"I . . . find these Fathers to be, in words of William Butler Yeats, 'singing-masters of my soul'. Anyone who prays through the year the Office of Readings in the Roman Liturgy of the Hours will understand why." — Fr. Aidan Nichols, From the Introduction TheSinging-Masters, written by the author of Rome and the Eastern Churches, is a passionate, personalized account of the theological achievement of eighteen of the Church Fathers. Ten come from the Greek East: Irenaeus, Origen, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Cyril of Alexandria, Denys the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, and John Damascene. Eight come from the Latin West: Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose...
Why does God seem so hidden, obscure, and silent? Why doesn't he make himself known in a more explicit way to those who dispute his existence? This line of questioning presents a perplexing conundrum for Christian theologians. On the one hand, Christians affirm that God's revelation of himself is sufficient, but, on the other hand, it appears that some genuine seekers remain unconvinced of his existence. In recent decades, philosopher J. L. Schellenberg has proposed an argument for atheism that attempts to exploit this apparent contradiction. This book offers a new take by approaching the conversation using a Trinitarian theological lens. The character of Trinitarian love shapes the way God communicates in pursuit of relationships. Namely, God desires spiritually oriented, communal divine-human relationships, and this endeavor necessarily entails hiddenness. This work proposes five spiritual criteria that an individual must meet to be open to having a relationship with the triune God, and these are the criteria that atheists have failed to consider. Articulating these five is exactly what is needed to resolve the vexing theological puzzle of divine hiddenness.
This volume is a collection of essays on transregional aspects of Malay-Indonesian Islam and Islamic Studies, based on Peter G. Riddell’s broad interest and expertise.