You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The eighteenth-century Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards has become popular again in contemporary theological discussion. Central to Edwards' theology is his concept of beauty. Delattre wrote the standard work on this topic half a century ago. However, Delattre approaches Edwards mainly as a philosopher, and he does not address how Edwards employs the concept of beauty to explain and defend traditional Reformed doctrines. Recent writings by McClymond, Holmes, and others have shown that defending the Reformed tradition is a fundamental concern of Edwards. This work reveals how Edwards, starting with the common notion that beauty means the appropriate proportional relationship, develops a theological aesthetic that contributes to a rational understanding of major doctrines such as the Trinity, Christology, and eschatology. It shows that Edwards is both an innovative speculative theologian and a staunch defender of Reformed orthodoxy.
Is there any way to talk theologically about the Trinity and place? What might the "placedness" of creation have to do with God's triunity? In The Place of the Spirit, Sarah Morice-Brubaker considers how anxieties about place have influenced Trinitarian theology--both what it is asked to do and the language in which it is expressed. When one is nervous about collapsing God into created horizons, she suggests, one is apt to come up with a model of trinity that refuses place. Distance becomes a primary way of situating the divine persons in relation to each other. Conversely, those theologians who wish to avoid a too-remote God likewise recruit Trinitarian language to suit that purpose. They, ...
This dissertation is a theological analysis of the trinitarian shape of Jonathan Edwards' aesthetics of beauty. The contributions of this dissertation lie chiefly in three areas. The primary aim of this study is to advance the burgeoning field of the study of Jonathan Edwards by elucidating his views of beauty. In so doing, I present him as a rich source for the theological engagement of beauty, which could serve not only the field of Edwards studies, but also that of theological aesthetics more broadly.
It has been widely accepted that few individuals had as great an influence on the church and its theology during the twentieth century as Karl Barth (1886-1968). His legacy continues to be explored and explained, with theologians around the world and from across the ecumenical spectrum vigorously debating the doctrinal ramifications of Barth's insights. What has been less readily accepted is that the Holocaust of the Jews had an equally profound effect, and that it, too, entails far-reaching consequences for the church's understanding of itself and its God. In this groundbreaking book, Barth and the Holocaust are brought into deliberate dialogue with one another to show why the church should heed both their voices, and how that may be done.
According to the Nicene Creed, Christ died for us and for our salvation. But while all Christians agree that Christ's death and resurrection has saving significance, there is little unanimity in how and why that is the case. In fact, Christian history is littered with various accounts of the redemptive value of Christ's death, and new models and motifs are constantly being proposed, many of which now stand in stark contrast to earlier reflections. How then should contemporary articulations of the cross's saving significance be judged? At the heart of this book is the contention that Christian reflection on the atonement is faithful inasmuch as it incorporates the intention that Jesus himself had for his death. In a wide-reaching study, the author draws from both classical scholarship and recent work on the historical Jesus to argue that not only did Jesus imbue his death with redemptive meaning but that such meaning should impact expressions of the cross's saving significance.
What is justice? How do we know justice? How is justice cultivated in society? These are the three questions that guide this critical dialogue with two representatives of the Catholic and Protestant traditions: Karl Barth and Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II. Though the two thought leaders are shaped within divergent theological traditions and historical contexts, they both appeal to Christian anthropology as a starting point for justice. Their explorations into the nature of humanity yield robust new theories of justice that remain relevant for our contemporary era. The third interlocutor, our female author, brings her own voice fully into the dialogue in the third part of the book in order to address the shortcomings in their theories and build upon their insights, all the while seeking theories of humanity and social justice that result in justice for all persons.
Christians in Australia are facing serious ethical issues. Contentious topics, such as same-sex marriage, the assisted-dying bill, gender fluidity, and attempts to censor Jesus-talk in the schoolyard, present serious challenges and require us to think more deeply about how we are to live in a strange new world. This volume presents papers from the 2018 Paradosis Conference at Melbourne School of Theology and brings together a number of voices to explore doctrinal foundations and their practical outworkings in the fields of biblical studies, systematic and practical theology, Islamic studies, and medical ethics. Contributors examine questions of contemporary interest as they pertain to both t...
Using the theological work of Karl Barth as a resource for present-day inquiry, the contributors in this volume discuss the complex interconnections between the religious and the political designated by the term theo-politics. Speaking from various political and cultural contexts (Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the People’s Republic of China) and different disciplinary perspectives (Protestant Theology, Political Sciences, and Sociology), the contributors address contemporary challenges in relating the religious and the political in Western and Asian societies. Topics analyzed include the impact of diverse cultural backgrounds on given theo-political...
How are we to care for our bodies and our health as part of faithful Christian living? Melanie Dobson excavates from Thomas Aquinas an answer for how contemporary Christians might live well in the midst of a very sick culture. Through a close reading of Aquinas's Treatise on Habit, Dobson reveals that the moral practice of habit does indeed include health. Thomas's keen understanding of the human person and of human longings supports the book's argument for a practice of health that directs us deep into the heart of God. Field research with clergy and missionaries offers concrete examples of the implementation of habits of health as part of the life of Christian virtue. The stories from the Clergy Health Initiative and Word Made Flesh missionary organization exhibit transformations that ushered Christian leaders into deeper love of God, neighbor, and themselves. In the end, the theology of habits of health means that our quotidian care of our bodies is not only faithful, but directs us into a life of flourishing.
When in the sixth century Dionysius the Areopagite declared beauty to be a name for God, he gave birth to something that had long been gestating in the womb of philosophical and theological thought. In doing so, Dionysius makes one of his most pivotal contributions to Christian theological discourse. It is a contribution that is enthusiastically received by the schoolmen of the Middle Ages, and it comes to permeate the thought of scholasticism in a multitude of ways. But perhaps nowhere is the Dionysian influence more pronounced than in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. This book examines both the historical development of beauty's appropriation as a name for God in Dionysius and Thomas, and th...