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New Churches: A Theology considers the theological issues and questions that surface from the starting of new churches in the UK context. Offering both a theology for starting new churches (to support, guide, encourage and challenge practitioners to plant fully Christian churches) and a theology from new churches (using new churches as an opportunity to explore vital theological, ecclesiological, and missiological questions we might otherwise miss), the book brings together some of those most significant voices in the conversation today, speaking from a wide spread of perspectives including theologians and practitioners, pioneers and planters, evangelical and Anglo-Catholic. Contributors include Mark Powley, John Valentine, Tina Hodgett, Christian Selvaratnam, Cathy Ross and John Wallace
This book offers a theological, and more specifically ecclesiological, response to the philosophical problem of divine hiddenness. It engages with philosopher J.L. Schellenberg’s argument on hiddenness and sets out a theologically rich and fresh response, drawing on the ecclesiological thought of Gregory of Nyssa. With careful attention to Gregory’s work, the book shows how certain ecclesiological problems and themes are critical to the hiddenness argument. It looks to the gathered church (the church as the body of Christ) and the scattered church (the church as the image of God) for relevance to the hiddenness problem. The volume will be of interest to scholars of theology and philosophy, particularly analytic theologians and philosophers of religion.
Whether we realize it or not, our churches are full of those who have experienced and are living with the aftereffects of horror and trauma, whether as survivors, carers, or perpetrators. The central question of this book is simple: How can our churches become open to the Trinity such that they are trauma-safe environments for everyone? How can we join the triune God to become trauma-safe churches? While the reality is bleak, the church can dare to hope for healing because of the reality of God and the body of Christ. Using the metaphor of the dawn of Sunday, the authors propose a double witness to trauma that straddles the boundary between the deadly silence of Holy Saturday and the joy of Easter Sunday. While witnessing loss and lament we can also be open to the possibility of new life through God's trinitarian works of safety and recovery in the church. This involves adopting some basic principles and practices of trauma safety that every pastor, congregation, and layperson can begin using today. Creating trauma-safe churches is possible through God the Trinity.
Christian theology looks forward to a consummation of all things in which hope, justice, and flourishing will finally prevail. All creation will be perfectly united to God as its Creator, and all shall be well. But what does this mean for disabled people? The typical Christian answer through history has been that disability will not exist in the world to come. The advent of disability theology has given us reasons to doubt this answer. In response, Disability Theology and Eschatology: Hope, Justice, and Flourishing gathers together essays from established and emerging scholars alike to provide an extensive look at what it might mean to imagine disability as a part of humanity’s ultimate ends. The volume advances conversations in disability theology through rigorously creative work, including on the much neglected topic of psychiatric disability. Contributors ask and answer questions like “how can one’s well-being be high if they are disabled?,” “do Thomists have to be ableists?,” “how do our beauty standards limit our eschatological thinking?,” “what does dissociative identity disorder mean for the afterlife?,” and more.
For a long time, the philosophically difficult topic of religious experience has been on the sidelines of phenomenological research (with a notable exception of Anthony Steinbock, who focused on mysticism). The book The Problem of Religious Experience: Case Studies in Phenomenology, with Reflections and Commentaries brings together preeminent as well as emerging voices in the field, with fresh views on the topic. Originating from dialogues of the Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience, these two volumes cover a spectrum of phenomenological approaches, with a thematization of the field in the form of case studies. Contributions from theology, comparative religion, psychology an...
In the first book-length study of ecclesiology in analytic theology, Joshua Cockayne offers a vision of the Church, according to which the Church is united as the body of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, despite the apparent diversity of the Church in its gathered, particular forms.
The problem of evil has generated varying attempts at theodicy. To show that suffering is defeated for a sufferer, a theodicy argues that there is an outweighing benefit which could not have been gotten without the suffering. Typically, this condition has the tacit presupposition given that this is a post-Fall world. Consequently, there is a sense in which human suffering would not be shown to be defeated even if there were a successful theodicy because a theodicy typically implies that the benefit in question could have been gotten without the suffering if there had not been a Fall. There is a part of the problem of evil that would remain, then, even if there were a successful theodicy. Thi...
What does faithfulness mean for modern Christians who find themselves immersed in a social and moral context two millennia removed from that of Jesus? As a notion endorsed by Christians universally, irrespective of church tradition, geographic location, economic and political milieu, or spiritual experience, faithfulness is essential to mature Christian living. Yet many in the modern church have lost—or perhaps forgotten—the true nature of faithfulness, and thus have wandered from that which God envisages for believers. Rediscovering what faithfulness entails, however, is altogether possible. Theological ethicist Kenneth W. M. Wozniak takes the reader on a journey of encounter, looking to the earliest Christians and their understanding of fidelity to the way of Jesus as a model for believers today, and as the means by which the essence of faithfulness—rooted not in adherence to a performance standard but rather in personal cultivation of the divine character—the Jesus way not only can be discovered, but also embraced and enjoyed by the one who aspires to align with the very being of God.
How does God respond to trauma in a world full of horrors? Beyond their physical and emotional toll, the horrors of this world raise difficult theological and existential questions. Where is God in the darkest moments of the human experience? Is there any hope for recovery from the trauma generated by these horrors? There are no easy answers to these questions. In God of All Comfort, Scott Harrower addresses these questions head on. Using the Gospel of Matthew as a backdrop, he argues for a Trinitarian approach to horrors, showing how God--in his triune nature--reveals himself to those who have experienced trauma. He explores the many ways God relates restoratively with humanity, showing how God's light shines through the darkness of trauma.
This book addresses the various ways in which key social identities--for example, race, gender, and disability--intersect with, shape, and are shaped by traditional questions in analytic theology and philosophy of religion. The book both breaks new ground and encourages further analytic-theological work in these important areas of research.