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For nearly two thousand years Paul's suggestion at the end of 1 Corinthians 15 that God will be 'all in all' has appealed to those who hold a 'wider hope' that eventually no person will be lost from God's love. Clearly, such hope for universal salvation is at variance with most Christian tradition, which has emphasized the possibility, or certainty, of eternal hell. However, a minority of Christian thinkers have advocated the idea and it has provoked much debate in the course of the twentieth century. Responding to this interest, Morwenna Ludlow compares and assesses the arguments for universal salvation by Gregory of Nyssa and Karl Rahner - two influential theologians from very different eras who are less well known for their eschatological views. In this book Dr Ludlow gives an assessment of early Christian eschatology and its effect on modern theology by examining some fundamental questions. Does universal salvation constitute a 'second tradition' of eschatology and how has that tradition developed? What can we learn from Patristic writers such as Gregory of Nyssa? How does one approach Christian eschatology in a modern context?
Art, Craft, and Theology in Fourth-Century Christian Authors analyses Christian Greek literature in the fourth century in order to emphasise the style, ingenuity, and craftsmanship demonstrated by the authors of such texts. It considers the way these 'wordsmiths' used classical literature techniques to strengthen their theological writings.
The fourth-century Christian thinker, Gregory of Nyssa, has been the subject of a huge variety of interpretations over the past fifty years, from historians, theologians, philosophers, and others. In this highly original study, Morwenna Ludlow analyses these recent readings of Gregory of Nyssa and asks: What do they reveal about modern and postmodern interpretations of the Christian past? What do they say about the nature of Gregory's writing? Working thematically through studies of recent Trinitarian theology, Christology, spirituality, feminism, and postmodern hermeneutics, Ludlow develops an approach to reading the Church Fathers which combines the benefits of traditional scholarship on the early Church with reception-history and theology.
Rhetoric and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity takes an interdisciplinary approach to the question of how individuals and groups ascribed religious categories during late antiquity. Particular focus is given to the role of rhetoric in the expression of religious identity, in order to give mutual illumination to both phenomena in this period.
How did the early Christians manage to establish a religion and institution which, despite persecution, flourished and grew? How did their initial experience of being a despised minority in the Roman Empire shape their sense of privileged identity and uniqueness? And how was it that - at least at the outset - the first believers were able to exist alongside the same shared traditions, rituals and beliefs of the Jews, despite the Jewish rejection of Jesus as Messiah?The Christian community was born out of paradox: its faith in a man who was also the 'anointed one' (or Christ) of God; and its growth and development often echoed those complex and contradictory origins. Morwenna Ludlow discusses...
" As a religious sect, the Anabaptists were seen to practice unusual rituals and follow an eccentric set of beliefs. One story, for instance, purports that an Anabaptist prophet, claiming to have visited heaven, persuaded his followers to run naked through the streets of Amsterdam. Eradicating the Devil's Minions investigates these beliefs in the context of Reformation Europe, a time in which persecution, religious intolerance, and witch-hunting were rampant. Focusing primarily on the Habsburg-controlled regions of Europe, Gary K. Waite argues that the persecution of Anabaptists did not go hand-in-hand with the outbreak of witch-hunts in the mid-sixteenth century. Rather, as distrust of Anabaptists predated the first major witch panic of 156263, Waite suggests that the virulent propaganda against Anabaptist heretics helped convince governments of the existence of a diabolical threat. Although Anabaptists rejected religious magic, they were consistently demonized by Catholic and Lutheran polemicists. Eradicating the Devil's Minions is an investigation into the roots of religious intolerance in Reformation Europe, and a unique examination of mass hysteria and social extremism. "
Ancient biographies were more than accounts of the deeds of past heroes and guides for moral living. They were also arenas for debating pressing philosophical questions and establishing intellectual credentials, as Arthur P. Urbano argues in this study of biographies composed in Late Antiquity
The Emergence of Monasticism offers a new approach to the subject, placing its development against the dynamic of both social and religious change. First study in any language to cover the formative period of medieval monasticism. Gives particular attention to the contribution of women to ascetic and monastic life.
An introduction to one of the most challenging areas of contextual theology. Queer theology is a significant new development and central to much current teaching and thinking about gender, sexuality and the body.
Fairacres Publications 190 None of us need reminding that terrible situations exist and horrific events happen in the world around us. We need only to open our newspapers or turn on our televisions to hear of war and violence, or situations of injustice and oppression, or acts of crime or terrorism. When we are confronted by such things, the word ‘evil’ comes readily to our lips. We sense that events and situations of this kind are not just unfortunate and regrettable: they have a different character which we can only describe as evil. Such evil deeds and situations have been a part of human life throughout history, and we seem to be unable to do anything about them. We can, and indeed should act, however, and we can pray. This book asks us to confront the reality of evil in the world and use our ability to change the world around us with the power of prayer.