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Too many Christians are afraid of beauty. This fear disconnects these Christians from their larger culture, a culture that is increasingly visual, increasingly aware of the presence and power of images, and more commonly fascinated by the power of beauty and form. This historical-theological overview presents the thought of ten theologians and one philosopher in an attempt to give Christians helpful vocabulary concerning beauty and aesthetics. It is time to use beauty and aesthetics for the mission of Christ! And yet rather than simply parrot the larger post-Christian culture, Christians and churches need to employ beauty and aesthetics in a manner that echoes God's own revelation: creation and redemption through Jesus Christ. We need to develop a sensitivity that can perceive beauties ignored. We need theological framing that both respects the glory of God's handiwork and keeps it from becoming idolatrous. We need to live with wonder for the bounty that routinely surrounds us. In short, we need eyes to see.
No less than two decades were needed for the composition of the ecumenical convergence document The Church: Towards a Common Vision (TCTCV) which was published by the World Council of Churches in 2013. The document was intended to reflect a common vision of churches and ecumenical stakeholders on a myriad of ecclesiological themes. The book investigates whether the convergence document TCTCV delivers on its promises. The book focuses on the formation and the reception of TCTCV along with the two draft versions, The Nature and Purpose of the Church (1998) and The Nature and Mission of the Church (2005) and uncovers whether the responses by the churches to TCTCV hold an affirmation of the convergences registered in the document. Furthermore, it seeks to establish whether the responses point towards a "common vision" concerning various ecclesiological themes that are still contested by the churches today. The book also explores whether the responses to TCTCV reveal an advancement in the conversation surrounding several debated issues, and examines to what extent the churches are willing to creatively engage with the ecclesial other.
Despite their historical and cultural differences, Eastern Orthodox Christians and Classical Pentecostals share some surprising similarities. Both incorporate holistic approaches to Christian spirituality. Both manifest an organic approach to ecclesiology. Both emphasize that Christianity is not just about being saved. Most strikingly, both traditions embrace the effective and even mystical dimensions of Christian transformation. This study locates both traditions within their cultural and philosophical meta-contexts and suggests avenues of mutual understanding. No longer can these two groups, representing ancient and recent Christian expressions, afford to be strangers.
"This `pneumatology from below'-not in the methodological but in the geographical sense: from New Zealand---extends the contemporary renaissance of the discussion on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit across the theological loci and disciplines. A veritable pneumatological contribution indeed by Myk Habets and his colleagues from Down Under."---Amos Yong J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology Regent University --
The cultural politics of commemorating war.
A little over one hundred years ago the Holy Spirit breathed a fresh awakening into little communities in Topeka, Kansas (1901) and then on Azusa Street in California (1906). Over the past century this spiritual awakening has touched every country on the globe. By 2014 there were 631 million Pentecostals in the world, comprising a quarter of all Christians, and that number is forecast to grow to 800 million by 2025. This book offers a window into some of the unique features of this phenomenal movement through expert contributions from some of the world’s preeminent Pentecostal theologians. It presents a Pentecostal perspective on important theological themes that pastors, theologians, and lay leaders are grappling with in the twenty-first century.
This volume examines the Bible's role in the modern world - beginning with a treatment of its production and distribution that discusses publishers, printers, text critics, and translators and continuing with a presentation of new methods of studying the text that have emerged, including historical, literary, social-scientific, feminist, postcolonial, liberal, and fundamentalist readings. There is a full discussion of the changes in understandings of and approaches to the Bible in various faith communities. The dissemination of the Bible throughout the globe has also produced a host of new interpretations, and this volume provides a comprehensive geographical survey of its reception. In the final chapters, the authors offer a thematic overview of the Bible in relation to literature, art, film, science, and other disciplines. They demonstrate that, in spite of challenges to the Bible's authority in western Europe, it remains highly relevant and influential, not least in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
Evangelicalism, a vibrant and growing expression of historic Christian orthodoxy, is already one of the largest and most geographically diverse global religious movements. This Companion, first published in 2007, offers an articulation of evangelical theology that is both faithful to historic evangelical convictions and in dialogue with contemporary intellectual contexts and concerns. In addition to original and creative essays on central Christian doctrines such as Christ, the Trinity, and Justification, it breaks new ground by offering evangelical reflections on issues such as gender, race, culture, and world religions. This volume also moves beyond the confines of Anglo-American perspectives to offer separate essays exploring evangelical theology in African, Asian, and Latin American contexts. The contributors to this volume form an unrivalled list of many of today's most eminent evangelical theologians and important emerging voices.
Though the Christian church has a well-developed theology of Godward-facing remorse about sin, it has paid little attention to the interpersonal implications of the remorse that people feel when they wrong one another. Since the nineteenth century, important work has been done by psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, ethicists, scientists, and lawyers that has implications for the way theologians might think about remorse. This book draws on the biblical record in its ancient settings as well as on insights from contemporary scholarship to offer a new and distinctively Christian contribution to an understanding of remorse.