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In Augustine and the Fundamentalist''s Daughter, Margaret Miles weaves her memoirs together with reflections on Augustine''s Confessions. Having read and reread Augustine''s Confessions, in admiration as well as frustration, over the past thirty-five years, Miles brings her memories of childhood and youth in a fundamentalist home into conversation with Augustine''s effort to understand his life. The result is a fascinating work of autobiographical and theological reflection. Moreover, this project brings together a rare combination of insights on fundamentalists'' convictions and habits of mind, as well as on differences among fundamentalists. Such reflections are especially urgent in this time in which fundamentalism is prominent in political and social discourse.""For over thirty years we have read and heard Margaret Miles on Augustine, and her insights on this spectacular ancient have been compelling. Now we read Miles in Augustine''s Confessions, and her self-disclosure is as compelling as Augustine''s. This is a soul-rending book that opens the world of Augustine to the world of a fundamentalist''s daughter. We have known for a long time that scholarly study reflects the life experience of the scholar, but Miles has taken this both to new heights and new depths. This book reveals both Augustine and the world of a fundamentalist, and it is simply stunning in its depth of disclosure and revelation--all what we have come to expect from Augustine and now from Miles.""-Richard ValantasisCo-director, Institute for Contemplative Living, Santa FeCanon Theologian for Formation and Education, Diocese of the Rio Grande""Augustine and the Fundamentalist''s Daughter is a revealing, lively, and deeply engrossing conversation among many speakers, from Saint Augustine to modern poets to the multiple voices age and insight have given Professor Miles on her own journey from fundamentalism to wisdom. In this book, we meet the rich tapestry of life''s defeats, fears, delights, and changes in the vignettes of memories narrated from either Augustine''s new state of restful faith or Margaret Miles''s hard-won place of gracefully honest reflection. Find a quiet room, pull up a chair, and listen to this superb scholar and teacher talk with her longtime mentor, Augustine, about life, love, sex, faith, and family. It is a conversation not to be missed.""-Mary Ann Tolbert George H. Atkinson Professor of Biblical StudiesVice President of Academic Affairs and DeanPacific School of Religion, BerkeleyMargaret R. Miles is Emerita Professor of Historical Theology at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. She is the author of A Complex Delight: The Secularization of the Breast, 1350-1750 (2008).

The chapters in this volume were originally presented as papers at the 2009 colloquium of the Calvin Studies Society, held to mark the five-hundredth anniversary of John Calvin''s birth. They offer a fresh evaluation of Calvin''s ideas and achievements, and describe how others--from his contemporaries to the present--have responded to or built upon the Calvinist heritage. This book dispels popular misperceptions about Calvin and Calvinism, allowing readers to make a more accurate assessment of Calvin''s importance as a theologian and historical figure. Contributions address areas in which Calvin''s legacy has been most controversial or misunderstood, such as his attitude toward women, his advocacy of church discipline, and his understanding of predestination. These essays also give a nuanced picture of the impact of Calvinism by taking account of both the positive and negative reactions to it from the early modern period to the present.Part 1: Calvin: The Man and His WorkPart 2: Appeal of and Responses to CalvinismPart 3: The Impact of Calvin''s Ideas""The essays in this volume do an admirable job of carefully distinguishing Calvin and his influence from the myths that have grown up around him, beginning with the myth that Calvin is the most important figure of the tradition that has taken his name, and that Calvinists always followed his advice. The temporal and geographical reach of the analyses is impressive, extending from Geneva through France and the Netherlands to Java and Korea, and from Calvin himself to twentieth century political thought and philosophy."" --Randall C. ZachmanProfessor of Reformation StudiesUniversity of Notre Dame""Among the late-blooming fruits of the Calvin Jubilee in 2009 is Amy Nelson Burnett''s John Calvin, Myth and Reality. The articles gathered here inform, engage, correct, and sometimes even delight the reader. The team of scholars demonstrates the wide audience that Calvin still attracts, while the depth of the scholarship promises an ongoing benefit to both the novice and the advanced scholar.""--R. Ward HolderAssociate Professor of TheologySaint Anselm CollegeAmy Nelson Burnett is Professor of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is the author of Teaching the Reformation: Ministers and Their Message in Basel, 1529-1629 (2006), and The Yoke of Christ: Martin Bucer and Christian Discipline (1994).

In The Dead Sea Scrolls for a New Millennium, Phillip R. Callaway presents the most comprehensive survey of the Dead Sea Scrolls since the final publication of the cave 4 fragments. The chapters on editing the Scrolls, on the caves, on the scrolls, and on Khirbet Qumran present the evidence without getting bogged down in older controversies. Callaway discusses the so-called yahad ostracon, as well as a fascinating writing exercise, and the supposed Dead Sea Scroll on stone. Those who desire to know more about the Bible among the Scrolls are offered brief comments on over one hundred readings from Qumran''s biblical manuscripts and other biblical texts. In the chapter on the pseudepigrapha and apocrypha, Callaway emphasizes the rich literary production of the mid- to late Second Temple period, with sections on Enoch, Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, a Genesis commentary, the Reworked Pentateuch, targums on Leviticus and Job, the Temple Scroll, the New Jerusalem, an Apocryphon of Joshua, the psalms, various works of wisdom, Tobit, Ben Sira, the Epistle of Jeremiah, and the Greek fragments from cave 7. The chapter on the Community Scrolls deals with the Damascus Document, the Rule of the Community and its appendages, a Hybrid Rule, the Rule of War, the Thanksgiving Hymns, Florilegium, Testimonia, Melchizedek, the pesher commentaries on Habakkuk, Nahum, and Psalm 37, Ordinances, Calendar texts, Some Works of the Law, the Angelic Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, and the phylacteries. In terms of the Scrolls and Jewish history, Callaway discusses the text called Praise for Jerusalem and King Jonathan, the Copper Scroll, the documentary texts (which may or may not be from Qumran), the history of the Qumran community, and some similarities to early Christian thought and language. In addition to clarifying discussions of all the works mentioned above, the author hopes that The Dead Sea Scrolls for a New Millennium will help readers understand the Scrolls not as the product of a radical, separatist community, but rather as the literary heritage of many of the greatest Jewish minds that lived in the Second Temple period.""Phillip Callaway takes his readers through the stories of discovery, conveying with a cool and authoritative touch the major theories and issues that the Scrolls have engendered, and leading us into the heart of the scrolls themselves. His account is readable, reliable, undogmatic, up-to-date, and strongly recommended for students and non-specialists alike.""--Philip DaviesUniversity of Sheffield""If you are looking for a refreshing guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls that introduces you to most of the major compositions in a clear and sympathetic way, then this is the book for you. Callaway presents a wide range of views about the Scrolls, and yet overall he sees them not as the products of a maverick minority but very much as part of the Judaism of their time. As such he argues that they need to be taken seriously by all who understand themselves as in any way the heirs of that formative period two thousand years ago.""--George J. Brooke,University of ManchesterPhillip R. Callaway studied the Dead Sea Scrolls with Hartmut Stegemann and worked at the Qumran Institute at the University of Marburg and the University of Gottingen, Germany. He received the PhD in Religion from Emory University. He has published widely on the Dead Sea Scrolls and is the author of The History of the Qumran Community: An Investigation (1988) and the coauthor of The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls (2002).

This study is the first comprehensive history of the impact of the modern missionary movement on the understanding of and work toward Christian unity. It tells stories from all branches of the church: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant in its many types (conciliar, evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent).Part 1, ""Historical,"" highlights the contribution of modern missions to Christian unity, from William Carey and his antecedents and peers to present-day missions.Part 2, ""Ten Models of Unity,"" takes an inductive approach to history, asking not ""how should Christians cooperate?"" but ""how has the missionary movement helped Christians to work together at the local, national, regional, and global level?""Part 3, ""Wider Ecumenism,"" broadens the evidence to include how the missions movement has helped not only institutional churches but also broader society to have concern for the unity of the entire human family. Included here is the story of how the Protestant missionary movement influenced the forming of the United Nations as well as the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The study also covers the movement''s impact on Christian attitudes toward, and relations with, persons of other faiths.Mission and Unity is the standard reference work in the field for persons studying modern history, modern church history, missions, and ecumenics. ""Flowing from a lifetime of scholarship and activism, this timely book on a classic theme could only be written by Norman Thomas. His panoramic yet thorough treatment of ''missions and unity'' will help to restore this subject to the central place it deserves in mission praxis. This useful book belongs on the shelf of everyone who cares about the continued relevance of Jesus'' visions for his followers.""--Dana L. RobertTruman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of MissionBoston University School of Theology ""It is often remarked that missionary work and efforts of Christian unity are vitally linked. What Norman Thomas has shown in these pages is how very true this is. I don''t know of any other source that treats the topic of missions and unity with comparable depth, clarity, and careful scholarship. This books is a gift to missiology.""--Stephen Bevans, SVDLouis J. Luzbetak, SVD Professor of Mission and CultureCatholic Theological Union""Common participation in mission has consistently been the most powerful solvent of the historic divisions between churches. Yet Christians have frequently disagreed about the appropriate means of mission, and may struggle to agree even about the goals of mission. The twin themes of mission and unity are thus intertwined in complex and ambiguous ways throughout the history of the Church. Norman Thomas''s book is a timely and helpful reminder of that ambiguous yet inescapable relationship.""--Brian StanleyProfessor of World ChristianityUniversity of Edinburgh""This book is quintessentially Thomas. I know of no one more aptly experienced or academically capable of writing this immensely useful historical assessment of the interstices of world missions and the ecumenical movement. This will become a standard reference on the theme.""--Jonathan J. BonkExecutive DirectorOverseas Ministries Study CenterNorman E. Thomas is Professor Emeritus of World Christianity at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He is the editor of Classsic Texts in Mission and World Christianity (1995) and of the International Mission Bibliography: 1960-2000 (2003).

The Heterodox Yoder provides a critical rereading of Yoder''s corpus through his own conviction that discipleship is, most basically, ethics. Tracing the development of Yoder''s theological foundations through to their final role in redefining Jewish-Christian and ecumenical relations, this volume explains why the appropriation and use of the language of politics eventually constrains Yoder''s ethical vision to the point that it reframes Christianity within the limits of social ethics alone. Because this vision self-consciously excludes or, at best, relativizes many of the claims of orthodox Christianity (including but not limited to the ecumenical creeds), Martens concludes that Yoder''s Christian ethic is best described as heterodox.""[T]here has been an influx of recent books on Yoder that has ensured that the significance of his work will continue to be engaged. Most of those books try to help us better understand Yoder. Martens tries to help us understand what may be some troubling trajectories associated with Yoder''s work. He has, therefore, written a book that all who are concerned with the significance of Yoder''s work must take seriously. I confess I remain unconvinced by some of Martens'' criticisms. Nonetheless, this is a book that should be taken seriously.""--Stanley HauerwasGilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological EthicsDuke Divinity School""[S]ince his death, the swell of interest in John Howard Yoder''s contributions to Christian ethics--as seen in the many constructive appropriations of his work--has shown no signs of dissipating. Dispersion, however, is finally surfacing with Paul Martens'' rather unorthodox reading of Yoder. . . . By carefully identifying and critically examining in Yoder''s corpus a trajectory toward practices and politics and away from beliefs and creeds, Martens offers a provocative-and I think helpful-argument that should stimulate and inform future waves of scholarship about or indebted to Yoder.""--Tobas WinrightAssociate Professor of Theological EthicsSaint Louis University""Among the excellent studies of Yoder published in recent years, this one stands out for its controversial yet well-argued thesis. Like Yoder himself, Martens conceals his considerable knowledge in a lively style and dislodges fixed assumptions with a light touch. This book ensures that in his legacy Yoder will remain as resistant to assimilation as he was in his lifetime, and no one with a stake in that legacy can afford to ignore it.""--Gerald McKennyAssociate Professor of Christian Ethics, TheologyUniversity of Notre Dame""This is a soul-wrenching book . . . for its author above all. John Howard Yoder measured his Church and our world with unyielding measures of reason and of witness. In The Heterodox Yoder, Paul Martens holds the words of his beloved John Yoder up to the same measure. No reading or discussion of Yoder will remain untouched by the results.""--Peter OchsBronfman Professor of Modern Judaic StudiesUniversity of Virginia""Building on a persuasive account of key shifts in John Howard Yoder''s thinking, Paul Martens advances a provocative and refreshing thesis: Yoder''s account of the particularity of Jesus Christ as ethical is, ultimately, heterodox. Yet, rather than reject him, Martens asks how critical engagement with Yoder might nevertheless help Christians resist the many temptations of modernity. The Heterodox Yoder is a lively and important book.""--Jeremy M. BergenAssistant Professor of Religious Studies and TheologyConrad Grebel University College, University of WaterlooPaul Martens held a postdoctoral research fellowship at The University of Notre Dame and currently teaches Christian Ethics at Baylor University. He has co-edited several works by John Howard Yoder, including Nonviolence: A Brief History and Revolutionary Christianity: The 1966 South American Lectures (Cascade Books, 2012).

Who is the God in whom Christians believe? Is he just a figment of the human mind as critics of religion claimed in the nineteenth century and as crusading atheists assert again today? Since the beginnings of rational thought the brightest minds among humanity have attempted to assert that God does indeed exist. But even the so-called proofs for God''s existence always started with the assumption that there is someone to prove. As soon as we move beyond that which is within space and time mere proofs or disproofs no longer suffice. Both believers and unbelievers live to a certain degree by faith. Yet religion is inextricably connected with human history.When we journey through the landscape of religion and witness its gradual unfolding we soon realize that not all religions are equal. Though they may be witnesses of the same God, the way they talk about God is so different that this not only leads to very different concepts of God but also to different approaches to life on this earth. At the end of this long journey we finally arrive at the Judeo-Christian tradition which witnesses to the God in whom Christians believe. This book seeks to show how this belief matured and what difference this belief still makes today. ""Building upon decades of interreligious and ecumenical engagement, Hans Schwarz establishes the parameters for serious deliberation of the God question in our time. Taking seriously diverse views and counterarguments against religion, The God Who Is invites readers to examine biblical claims for the God who is revealed in history and whose ultimate self-disclosure occurs in Jesus Christ. The longings of theomorphous humanity meet the infinite compassion of the one, true God most adequately and completely in the Christ event.""--Craig L. NessanAcademic Dean and Professor of Contextual TheologyWartburg Theological SeminaryHans Schwarz is Professor of Systematic Theology and Contemporary Theological Issues at the University of Regensburg, Germany. His most recent books include theology in a Global Context (2005), Creation (2002), and Eschatology (2000).

Dick Armstrong was thoroughly committed to his promising future as a major league baseball front-office executive until something happened that completely changed his life and steered him in a totally new direction. In A Sense of Being Called, Armstrong tells the story of what he calls his ""Damascus Road"" experience, an awesome encounter with the God he had always believed in but had never given the slightest thought to serving. The dramatic theophany initiated a remarkable pilgrimage of faith in which he and his supportive wife, Margie, learned how God guides, provides for, and equips those who respond to the divine call.What the unbelieving world would label coincidence Dick and Margie viewed as the miraculous providence of God--of a God whose timing, they came to understand, is often surprising and always perfect. As the doors to entering seminary kept opening or closing in unpredictable ways, Dick was eventually led to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he met then-president John A. Mackay, who was to have a powerful impact on Dick''s life.Dick and Margie''s departure from the Baltimore Orioles and their transition to becoming a full-time seminary couple was traumatic. Their five-and-a-half-year-old son died on the Seminary''s convocation day. The poignant story of Ricky''s death provides another inspirational illustration of how God is able to work for good, even in the death of a child, with those who are called according to God''s purpose.The three years at seminary were transformational for Dick Armstrong, who traces the often -humorous events leading to his ordination and call to be the pastor of the Oak Lane Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. Armstrong''s hope is that this book will move readers to consider how God has been at work in their lives and will awaken in them their own sense of being called.""This is a providential publication. At a time when God''s people are challenged to rediscover their calling, Dick Armstrong''s beautiful story can help people do just that. It is a powerful reminder that when God enters our lives, life''s direction often changes, even dramatically. By the gift of faith we realise that our story has always been intended to be God''s story. The author invites the reader to accompany him on his remarkable journey of faith. This is a journey that I could observe for the almost thirty years that Prof. Armstrong has been my close personal friend and colleague. He and his writings have greatly impacted my ministry and the ministries of many hundreds of pastors and many more lay leaders in South Africa. They will be eager to read his amazing story, and I''m sure they will conclude, as I have, that his passionate commitment and powerful witness to the gospel are an impressive fulfilment of his ''sense of being called.''"" --Malan NelFounding Director of the Centre for Contextual MinistryFaculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa""I am so glad Dick Armstrong has at last written the story of his call to ministry. My unique friendship with Dick began soon after he announced that he was leaving his position as Public Relations Director of the Baltimore Orioles to enter Princeton Seminary. He became a vital partner and indispensable colleague in shaping and enabling the mission of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In the early days of the FCA he served as a most needed interpreter of the unfolding vital relationship being forged between religion and sports. With the publication of A Sense of Being Called he has added another very helpful, adventurous, intriguing, and joyful book to his excellent and varied writings.""--Don McClanenFounder and first Executive Director Fellowship of Christian Athletes ""Dick Armstrong has been a friend and inspiration to me for decades. I thought I knew Dick, but now I really know him after reading A Sense of Being Called. This book will stir your soul and lift your spirit just as it has done for me.""--Pat WilliamsSenior Vice Presid

A great deal of attention has been given over the past several years to the question: What is secularism? In On Diaspora, Daniel Barber provides an intervention into this debate by arguing that a theory of secularism cannot be divorced from theories of religion, Christianity, and even being. Accordingly, Barber''s argument ranges across matters proper to philosophy, religious studies, cultural studies, theology, and anthropology. It is able to do so in a coherent manner as a result of its overarching concern with the concept of diaspora. It is the concept of diaspora, Barber argues, that allows us to think in genuinely novel ways about the relationship between particularity and universality, and as a consequence about Christianity, religion, and secularism.""Writing with extraordinary philosophical imagination, Barber provides an account of Christianity that will challenge Christian and non-Christian alike. Barber will soon be recognized as an intellectual force whose work cannot be ignored.""-Stanley HauerwasDuke University""What a mysterious meditation unfolds here, oscillating subtly ''between namelessness and excessive signification.'' May its illumining construction of diaspora as a composition of differences in their ''intermattering'' refresh current conversations about religion, Christianity, and the secular; about immanence and negative theology; about the co-constitution of beings beyond preexisting identities and the construction of value.""-Catherine KellerDrew University""What are we to do, asks Daniel Barber, with Christianity? With our unavoidable inheritance of its tradition? Barber''s thoughtful, albeit astonishing, answer is that we must formulate, finally, a concept of Christianity, gather it out of its disseminated state, from the originary diaspora Christianity has yet to achieve. Whether Christianity, ''actually existing Christianity,'' retains the potential for such a challenge appears nowhere more in doubt-and nowhere more necessary-than in this unflinching meditation.""-Gil AnidjarColumbia University""This bold Spinozist-Deleuzian (and original) argument for diaspora as that which expresses the profound link between Christianity and differentiality (discontinuity) is simultaneously an extraordinarily nuanced and lucid critique of Pauline thought, of the secular, and of the continuity between Judaism and Christianity. It marks the emergence of a major new voice in the philosophy of religion.""-Eleanor KaufmanUniversity of California, Los AngelesDaniel Colucciello Barber teaches in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Marymount Manhattan College, in New York City.

Technologies are deeply embedded in the modern West. What would our lives be like without asphalt, glass, gasoline, electricity, window screens, or indoor plumbing? We naturally praise technology when it is useful and bemoan it when it is not. But there is much more to technology than the usefulness of this or that artifact. Unfortunately, we tend not to consider the inherently social and moral character of technology. As a result, we are prone to overlook the effects of technology on our spiritual lives. This book investigates the role technology plays in helping and hampering our Christian practice and witness.""Only Brad Kallenberg could have written this book. Drawing on an engineering background, schooled by Wittgenstein''s philosophical work, and shaped by Christian theological convictions, he enables us to see how technology can exercise power over us to our detriment without asking us to abandon technology in service to human life.""--Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School""Kallenberg does a masterful job of helping his reader see the blind spots of modern, technological culture. His insights are provocative, instructive, and often redemptive. You will find yourself asking a whole new set of questions after reading this book--questions you might wish you started asking long ago!""--Rick LangerTalbot School of Theology/Biola University""Brad Kallenberg brings a strong philosophical and theological acumen to God and Gadgets. The very idea that technology is a mixed blessing is a true act of Christian witness in a culture immersed in all that is ''new-fangled'' and thus considered almost in god-like terms. Kallenberg addresses in trenchant and true ways the claims of God and the Gospel on our gadget-infested culture. His prophetic voice rings true from a Christian perspective, much as an earlier philosopher, Ernesto Grassi, did in his insistence that technology has its own set of hazards. This is a must read for preachers and other scholars in our time.""--Rodney Wallace KennedyBaptist House of Studies, United Theological SeminaryBrad J. Kallenberg is Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Dayton He is the author of Live to Tell: Evangelism for a Postmodern Age (2002) and Ethics as Grammar: Changing the Postmodern Subject (2001).

This book is a collection of nine articles by the twentieth century''s leading medievalist, Etienne Gilson. A major participant in the revival of Thomistic philosophy, Gilson was a member of the French Academy and, after a university career culminating at the Sorbonne and the College de France, he turned down an invitation from Harvard University to become the guiding spirit of the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto for several decades. Several of the articles stand on their own as making a significant contribution to topics like St. Anselm''s ontological argument for the existence of God. Likewise, ""The Middle Ages and Naturalism"" contrasts Renaissance Humanists and Reformers with the medievals on the defining issue of their attitude toward nature in order to understand who actually stands closer to the ancient Greeks.All of the articles give an insight into the great synthetic visions articulated by the better-known works of Gilson like The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy. We see Gilson''s meticulous spadework for the broader theme of Christian philosophy in his examination of the Latin Averroist Boethius of Dacia''s book on the eternity of the world. Gilson finds that Boethius never expresses the view attributed to Latin Averroism that there are contradictory truths in religion and philosophy, although he does think that Boethius is unsuccessful in his account of the relations between philosophy and theology. The opening piece revisits a battle now won (and won in great measure by Gilson''s efforts), namely the fight to acknowledge the very existence of medieval philosophy and win its place in the academic world. But the article also makes the effort--which becomes a connecting thread throughout the nine articles-to pinpoint the uniqueness of what Gilson calls Christian philosophy. The closing article studies the profound influence of the great Muslim thinker Avicenna on Latin Europe drawing a parallel between Avicenna''s work and that of the great Christian medievals like Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus.When Gilson died in 1978, a great deal of his work on the history of philosophy, and specifically God, the primacy of existence or esse over essence, and the impact of Christianity on philosophy had been translated. A significant amount of material, however, has not yet appeared in English. The publication of Medieval Studies represents a vital step in bringing these important works into the English-speaking world. ""Back in the days before Vatican II, when Catholic students of philosophy were trying to understand manuals such as the ones written, say, by the Benedictine, Joseph Gredt, OSB, while their contemporaries at secular schools were excited by existentialism or phenomenology or analytic philosophy, they would turn to the works of Etienne Gilson. In my recollection, Gilson''s luminous historical works helped them both to understand Aquinas and to situate his thought in relation to such modern philosophers as Descartes, Hume, and Kant intelligently and without distorting caricature. Turning to these Medieval Essays with a certain sentiment of nostalgia, then, I marveled to encounter the subtle scholarship, the wide-ranging erudition, and the detailed knowledge of the authors and texts in relation to issues that still burn today. Gilson''s even-handed defense of the study of medieval philosophy is imbued with an understanding of the justice of the Renaissance and Enlightenment complaints against scholastic thought; but it takes the readers by the hand and leads them into an utterly refreshing appreciation of those old authors and texts that is rarely, if ever, matched in the depth of its gratitude to his masters and in its profound courtesy towards those with whom he disagrees. These essays take the readers back to school and offer the opportunity to experience the thrill of discovery even with regard to texts and issues with which they may have had a great familiarity.""--Frederic

In this study-the third panel of a trilogy on J''s tales about evil and innocence in the primeval era-the author turns to Genesis 11:1-9, another parable, this time on the so-called ""Tower of Babel."" The Captivity of Innocence analyzes a systemic robotization of society as a way of keeping innocence behind bars, contending that innocence never fails to offend, never fails to stir envy and hate. Here, evil is not wrought by an individual like Cain or Lamech, but by ""all the earth,"" so that the summit of evil is now reached before Abraham''s breakthrough in Genesis'' following chapter. The present analysis uses a variety of techniques to interpret the biblical text, including historical-critical, literary, sociopolitical, psychoanalytic, and deconstructive approaches. The inescapable conclusion is that ""Babel"" is the ""Kafkaesque"" image of our world and is a powerful paradigm of our hubristic contrivances and constructions-""Des Tours de Babel,"" says Derrida-in order to deny our finiteness. Then innocence is trampled upon, but it is not overcome: Babel/Babylon''s fate is to crumble down, and to bring up from her ashes the Knight of Faith.""Breaking free from the compartmentalized exegesis of traditional commentaries, LaCocque suggests some lively, diverse, and somehow splintered leads of interpretation for Babel. Giving up the illusion of producing the meaning of the text, juxtaposing instead various approaches and ways to translate and understand it, he echoes the teaching of this moral tale : men''s calling is to understand each other without denying their differences, without submitting to any unifying tyrant.""--Hubert BostEcole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris-Sorbonne)""There are few scholars in the world today who can combine expertise in Hebrew and biblical scholarship with intimate familiarity with leading figures in theory and philosophy. The range of disciplinary languages brought together in this new Babel is deeply impressive; the conversation is genuine, rich, and insightful."" --Yvonne SherwoodSenior Lecturer in Biblical StudiesUniversity of GlasgowAndre LaCocque is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Chicago Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Trial of Innocence and Onslaught against Innocence (Cascade Books); The Feminine Unconventional; Romance, She Wrote; Esther Regina; and a commentary on Ruth. He is also the coauthor (with Paul Ricoeur) of Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies.

Christian ethics is less a system of principles, rules, or even virtues, and more of a free and open-ended responsible witness to God''s gracious action to be with and for others and the world. Postmodernity has left us with the risky uncertainty of knowing and doing the good. It also leaves us with the global risks of political violence and terrorism, economic globalization and financial crisis, and environmental destruction and global climate change. How should Christians respond to these problems? This book creatively explores how Christian ethics is best understood a witness to God''s action, thereby providing the ethical framework for addressing the various problematic social issues that put our world at risk. Haddorff develops the notion of witness through a detailed study of Karl Barth''s theological ethics. Barth, he argues, provides a language enabling us to know what a Christian ethics of witness actually looks like in both theory and in practice. In correspondence to God''s gracious action, Christians remain free to think and act in faith, hope, and love in respondence to their unique circumstances, even in a world at risk. In their witness, Christians remain confident that God has not abandoned the world but loves and cares for its future.""At a time when one might be tempted more than ever to offer an ethics of self-help, David Haddorff presents us with a truly theological ethics of ''witness'' based on the truth of the Gospel that is at once hopeful and realistic because its hope is found in the God who empowers us to do the good and not in our attempts to live any sort of self-chosen good. Relying on the theology of Karl Barth, Haddorff skillfully holds together theology and ethics as well as theory and practice. This is a compelling book that will be of great interest to theologians, ethicists, and to students of the theology of Karl Barth.""-Paul D. MolnarSt. John''s University, Queens, New York""That Barth is a moral theologian is now firmly established; this presentation offers its readers sure guidance as they explore the large landscape of Barth''s ethics, and is much to be commended.""-John WebsterUniversity of Aberdeen, Scotland""Far more than a summary of Barth''s ethics, David Haddorff''s book is a first-class effort to think in company with Barth about the source of our knowledge of the good and about the meaning of human freedom and ethical responsibility as faithful correspondence to God''s free grace in Jesus Christ. Employing witness as the interpretive key of his work, Haddorff shows that Barth''s ethics is radically Christocentric, and just for that reason is highly dialectical, free to recognize its limitations and avoid absolute claims, and free to engage in conversation with and learn from other ethical perspectives without becoming captive to them. In particular, Haddorff underscores the difference between Barth''s ethics of witness on the one hand and the ethics of both reductionist secularism and theological isolation on the other. In the final section of the book, the author offers a highly creative deployment of Barth''s ethics as it bears on the political, economic, and ecological crises of our time."" -Daniel Migliore Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New JerseyDavid Haddorff is Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at St. John''s University, New York. His previous works include Dependence and Freedom: The Moral Thought of Horace Bushnell and a lengthy introduction on Barth''s political theology in the reprint of State, Community, and Church (Wipf and Stock).

Virtues are values underlying human practices. We are at the dawn of a new era, an era of global ethics requiring some core virtues. These core virtues are hospitality, co-living, respect, tolerance, and communality. Book 1 treats the virtue of hospitality that is a right and a duty of all, and which is still to be discovered and practiced unconditionally. Book 2 deals with the virtues of co-living, respect, and tolerance, which are important virtues if the peoples of the earth are to live together in peace in our common home, the planet Earth. Finally, Book 3 deals with the virtue of communality; this is a very important virtue because a large part of humanity experiences hunger and thirst, which is something scandalous in this day and age, and which demonstrates a lack of humanity, because we possess the technical means and political framework to resolve this situation. If these core virtues become a reality, they will transform human practices into something beneficial both to human beings and to the planet Earth, our common home.""Leonardo Boff touches on a theme which is central to human flourishing and is a timely reminder of the need for the implementation of the practical politics of human connectedness. The exploration of the necessary processes to achieve hospitality, co-living, respect, tolerance, and communality is a key challenge of our age, and this book makes a positive contribution to that goal.""--Christopher RowlandDean Ireland Professor of the Exegesis of Holy ScriptureUniversity of Oxford""Leonardo Boff spins the spirituality of St. Francis into an ecological, cosmic, political--albeit human--vision of what our world could become if we are willing to practice hospitality, co-living, tolerance, respect, and feasting together. As a pastor whose church is earth-friendly and becoming green with solar panels, I found in Boff''s Virtues a credible, sustainable spirituality for all peoples of faith to meet the challenges of th twenty-first century. Very few theologians weave environmental and social justice into a unified holistic vision as Boff has accomplished here.""--Robert Shore-GossSenior Pastor/TheologianMCC in the ValleyLeonardo Boff was born in Brazil in 1938 and received a doctorate from the University of Munich in Germany in 1970. For the following twenty years, he worked as Professor of Theology at the Franciscan School for Philosophy and Theology in Petropolis, Brazil. During the 1970s, he and Gustavo Gutierrez helped to define liberation theology. Since 1993 he has been a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, where he is now Emeritus Professor of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology. He is also a member of the international Earth Charter Commission. Boff is the author of more than seventy books, including Saint Joseph: The Father of Jesus in a Fatherless Society. In 2001 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (which is considered to be the ""alternative"" Nobel Prize) by the Swedish Parliament.Alex Guilherme teaches in the Department of Philosophy at Durham University.

The work of John Howard Yoder has become increasingly influential in recent years. Moreover, it is gaining influence in some surprising places. No longer restricted to the world of theological ethicists and Mennonites, Yoder has been discovered as a refreshing voice by scholars working in many other fields. For thirty-five years, Yoder was known primarily as an articulate defender of Christian pacifism against a theological ethics guild dominated by the Troeltschian assumptions reflected in the work of Walter Rauschenbusch and Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr. But in the last decade, there has been a clearly identifiable shift in direction. A new generation of scholars has begun reading Yoder alongside figures most often associated with post-structuralism, neo-Nietzscheanism, and post-colonialism, resulting in original and productive new readings of his work. At the same time, scholars from outside of theology and ethics departments, indeed outside of Christianity itself, like Romand Coles and Daniel Boyarin, have discovered in Yoder a significant conversation partner for their own work. This volume collects some of the best of those essays in hope of encouraging more such work from readers of Yoder and in hopes of attracting others to his important work.""The New Yoder is John Howard Yoder as dialogue partner both with and against the grain of Adorno, Foucault, Derrida, de Certeau, Horkheimer, Rowan Williams, Said, Stout, Volf, and many more. Here is patient, Christian theological pacifism beyond the either/ors that burdened a previous generation: beyond universalism vs. isolationism, Church vs. world, politics vs. quietism, Scripture vs. social activism. Here the eschaton meets postmodernity. The result? Anguished laughter, exilic politics, apocalypse, and dialogue: the work of Yoder-reading for our time.""--Peter OchsUniversity of VirginiaPeter Dula is Assistant Professor of Religion and Culture at Eastern Mennonite University. Chris K. Huebner is Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Canadian Mennonite University.

Born with cerebral palsy, Diana Ventura has known brokenness her entire life. Through telling her story, she shares what it means to live with and overcome brokenness of all kinds.As she reflects on her own experience and that of others, Diana offers understanding and insight. There is a mystical path through the landscape of suffering, she says, and those who travel it can find God and healing even in the midst of pain and sadness. Readers who join her on this journey of prayer and faith will be better equipped to meet the everyday challenges of living with brokenness with hope, dignity, and true love.""From the first stunning sentence of this book, Diana Ventura invites us to listen to the voice of her body. Lean in close and prepare to be transformed. Her book is a testimony to the power of the incarnation ablaze in the life of the body.""--Stephanie PaulsellHarvard Divinity School""Diana Ventura is a model of a theologian thinking through the most difficult issues of suffering and faith. I have known her work for several years and invite others to listen to her distinctive voice.""--David TracyUniversity of Chicago Divinity SchoolDIANA VENTURA, currently a PhD student in Practical Theology and Spirituality at the Boston University School of Theology, is an ethical reviewer for New England Institutional Review Board and head of standardization for the Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research at Harvard University. Contact information is available at www.dianaventura.com.

In this commentary Kanagaraj examines how John projects the church as God''s ""new covenant community,"" which, is characterized by two virtues: love and obedience. Impossible to exhibit under the old covenant based on Moses'' Law, these qualities became possible by the initiative grace and faithfulness of God revealed in Jesus and demonstrated by the power of the Spirit.God''s new community is an inclusive and progressive community because its witness to Jesus in a world that hates and persecutes it has the power to bring in all people so that they may become one flock under one shepherd. Kanagaraj argues that the idea of founding and nurturing a new community was in God''s heart even before the time of creation and not just at the time of incarnation.""It is a precious gift when a key biblical scholar puts together a commentary that reflects the best current research and a concern to relate the text to today. Jey Kanagaraj''s commentary does just that, providing the reader with reliable historical information and perspectives that fuse the horizons of then and now. A sound guide for the careful and the caring.""--William Loader, Emeritus Professor, Murdoch UniversityJey J. Kanagaraj is Professor of New Testament who served a number of years at the Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, India, and who was the Principal of Bethel Bible Institute near Salem, India. He is the author of ''Mysticism'' in the Gospel of John: An Inquiry into its Background (1998), and of another commentary on John''s Gospel written to the Indian context (2005). In addition, he has edited two books and published numerous articles.

A thorough and insightful commentary on Paul''s letter to his coworker Timothy, which the Apostle wrote before and during Nero''s persecution. Spencer carefully examines each part of the letter and relates it to the overall flow of the argument and in light of the larger biblical, historical, social, and cultural contexts. How Paul''s writing related to the ancient communities is highlighted in the light of original data gleaned from her explorations on location in Ephesus and throughout Greece. In addition, Paul''s rhetorical and ministry strategies, especially as they relate to women and their role in the church, are explored. Throughout, Spencer presents an in-depth exegesis in a readable format enhanced by forty years of ministry.""By explaining both lexical, grammatical, historical, and theological matters, and by focusing consistently on canonical connections and pastoral application, Aida Spencer has written a lucid commentary that will prove helpful for general readers, students, and pastors alike.""--Eckhard J. Schnabel, Associate Editor, Bulletin of Biblical Research""In 1 Timothy, more than any other New Testament writing, Paul has specific instructions for how Christian women are to present and conduct themselves, and how they are to learn, teach, and minister in the church. How appropriate [it is], then, that a commentary on this book should be written by a woman. Dr. Spencer provides a carefully researched, well-balanced, and well-written exposition with special attention given to the difficult and controversial texts relating to women, men, and to all Christians. Highly recommended.""--John R. Kohlenberger III, Editor, The NIV Greek and English New Testament""Spencer well understands that our texts are in dialogue with their contexts and that the wise interpreter must mark out the intimate relationships between scripture and its worlds, both ancient and modern. 1 Timothy is a careful and confessional exploration of Paul''s message for the young pastor in Ephesus and the leader in today''s church. Both readable and detailed, this is a work that wise expositors will keep within easy reach.""--Gene L. Green, Professor of New Testament, Wheaton College and Graduate School""As a believer with the simple faith of a child, the author manages to provide a well-researched and easily readable scholarly contribution on 1 Timothy. It is refreshing to read this well-balanced contribution by a female scholar on this letter that repeatedly refers to the role of woman in the church but also to other ministerial strategies. Her perspectives on the influence of this text on a contemporary faith community are enlightening.""--Francois P. Viljoen, Professor, Faculty of Theology, North-West University""Spencer''s commentary on 1 Timothy provides an articulate defense of Pauline authorship that interacts well with critical scholarship. It is full of valuable grammatical, lexical, syntactical, historical, and theological insights. . . . Theological insights include its discussion of the heretical teaching addressed in 1 Timothy and its outstanding treatment of 1 Timothy 2:15. I enthusiastically endorse this well-documented commentary.""--Philip B. Payne, Author of Man and Woman, One in ChristAida Besancon Spencer (PhD, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY; ThM, MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary) is Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, and Extraordinary Researcher for North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa. She is the author or coauthor of thirteen books, including 2 Corinthians (Bible Study Commentary), Beyond the Curse: Women Called to Ministry, and Paul''s Literary Style.

Ephesians speaks to our deepest questions about God: the redemptive plan of God written from ages past now revealed; the work of Christ complete and effective now and for eternity; the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives and build a community. The clear message of God''s unfathomable grace establishes the believer''s hope and undergirds the call for faithful living. Down through the centuries, the clarion call to unity that permeates Ephesians has inspired and challenged the faithful to live out the promises found in Christ. This short letter speaks to the twenty-first century''s longing for friendship and wholeness.""Lynn Cohick''s commentary on Ephesians provides a practical explanation and appropriation of the letter. She demonstrates that she is well-informed about the issues, sane in her judgments, effective in her communication, and that she cares about the lives of modern Christians. Her knowledge of the ancient world allows her to bring historical and sociological information to bear on the text and its interpretation. People seeking an easily accessible and non-technical treatment of Ephesians will enjoy this commentary.""--Klyne SnodgrassPaul W. Brandel Professor of New Testament StudiesNorth Park Theological Seminary, ChicagoLynn H. Cohick is Associate Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. She is the author of Women in the First Christian Century (2009) and co-author with Gary Burge and Gene L. Green of The New Testament and Antiquity (2009).

In this wide-ranging collection of essays Ronald E. Osborn explores the politically subversive and nonviolent anarchist dimensions of Christian discipleship in response to dilemmas of power, suffering, and war. Essays engage texts and thinkers from Homer''s Iliad, the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament to portraits of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Noam Chomsky, and Elie Wiesel. This book also analyzes the Allied bombing of civilians in World War II, the peculiar contribution of the Seventh-day Adventist apocalyptic imagination to Christian social ethics, and the role of deceptive language in the Vietnam War. From these and other diverse angles, Osborn builds the case for a more prophetic witness in the face of the violence of the ""principalities and powers"" in the modern world. This book will serve as an indispensible primer in the political theology of the Adventist tradition, as well as a significant contribution to radical Christian thought in biblical, historical, and literary perspectives.""In reading Osborn you cannot help but think, ''He has to be kidding. He has to be putting us on to suggest there is a connection between anarchy and that form of Christianity called Adventist.'' But he is not kidding. Rather he has written a book of lively essays to remind us that a commitment to peace is a challenge to any order based on violence. It was the Adventists, in their early formations, who reminded us that a commitment to peace cannot avoid challenging orders based on violence; that peace requires a different kind of order altogether. This is a call to the church to be that community based on the order of Christ''s peace.""--Stanley Hauerwasauthor of Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary""This book is a bracing read for anyone trying to make sense of Christian witness in a violent world. Osborn ranges both widely and deeply, connecting insights from theology, history, literature, and political science in startling and inventive ways. He shows how violence creates its own momentum, and offers a wide range of resources for countering that momentum. Anyone interested in living creatively in a destructive world will benefit from this book. It is the kind of book that has the power to transform lives.""--William T. Cavanaughauthor of The Myth of Religious Violence""The Christianity of the American Empire has not only come to accept the normalization of violence; it often celebrates it! How desperately American Christians need the keen insights regarding the demonic dynamics of power and violence that Ronald Osborn reflects in these essays!""--Greg Boydauthor of The Myth of a Christian NationRonald E. Osborn is a Bannermen Fellow with the Program in Politics and International Relations, University of Southern California

Preachers around the globe have come to rely on Will Willimon for insight and advice on the craft of preaching. For over a decade, Willimon has published his reflections in the ""Five-Minute Preaching Workshop,"" a quarterly column he writes as editor of Pulpit Resource. Here the best selections from that column have been brought together into a single volume for the first time. Drawing on years of experience, study, and careful observation of the current state of preaching, Willimon offers candid thoughts on a wide range of homiletical issues-from theological to pastoral, cultural, and stylistic. Readers will find challenge and inspiration from a few hours spent in the studio of this master preacher.""Will Willimon is a master preacher who is eminently qualified to teach a ''master class'' on preaching. Paradoxically, he refuses to master the text or the awesome responsibility of preaching the gospel. Instead, he shows us how to listen for God''s word and to experience it in every moment of the pastoral life. In Willimon''s reading, preaching is not an onerous burden but a lively exercise of the theological and biblical imagination. He really can''t help himself! He loves words, but he loves the Word even more. The outcome of this book is something we could all use--a newfound joy in the art of preaching.""--Richard LischerDuke Divinity Schoolauthor of The End of Words ""What a wonderful collection of insightful essays that invite us preachers to learn from the homiletic wisdom of Bishop Will Willimon. Arguably, what is best about this little book is that the teacher of this wisdom has been a faithful preacher of the gospel for more than thirty years. I hope many readers will take advantage of this opportunity to enhance their growth in the art of preaching for building up the faith and life of the church.""--Michael Pasquarello IIIGranger E. and Anna A. Fisher Professor of PreachingAsbury Theological SeminaryWilliam H. Willimon is Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church and former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. He is the author of over fifty books and is widely recognized as one of America''s best preachers.

The history of the Jesus movement and earliest Christianity requires careful attention to the characteristics and peculiarities of oral and literate traditions. Understanding the distinctive elements of Greco-Roman literacy potentially has profound implications for the historical understanding of the documents and events involved. Concepts such as media criticism, orality, manuscript culture, scribal writing, and performative reading are explored in these chapters. The scene of Greco-Roman literacy is analyzed by investigating writing and reading practices. These aspects are then related to early Christian texts such as the Gospel of Mark and sections from Paul''s letters.""At last! This collection of essays by Pieter Botha is a tremendous gift to those interested in issues related to orality and literacy in the ancient world. Botha is among the leading voices in this conversation. His thoughtful and carefully crafted essays represent some of the best work in the field. This collection deserves to be a part of any conversation moving forward.""--Holly Hearon, Author of The Mary Magdalene Tradition""For twenty years Pieter Botha has been doing foundational research on the communications media of the ancient world . . . I have repeatedly returned to his articles, learned from them again, and cited them often. Finally, we have Botha''s important articles collected and easily accessible in this book.""--Richard Horsley, Author of Hearing the Whole Story""Botha''s work is a significant, historical study that cuts through dichotomous views of communication and demonstrates the complex relationship of oral and written media in antiquity. This is responsible scholarship that seeks to define ''orality'' and ''literacy'' as cultural activities informed by their historical settings."" --James Maxey, Author of From Orality to OralityPieter J. J. Botha is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at the University of South Africa (Unisa) in Pretoria. He is the author of Everyday Life in the World of Jesus.

The Reformer Martin Luther is the source of endless fascination and dispute. Not only his antagonists but also his supporters have created a host of representations of his thought. On the one hand, Catholic and other similar voices have accused Luther of being the major agent in the birth of modern secularism. On the other hand, Lutherans themselves are divided on the meaning of Reformation. In view of all these interpretations and dismissals of Luther and the Lutheran Reformation, it requires a certain boldness to claim that Luther''s theology is intellectually fascinating and contains exceptional resources. This is precisely what the present volume claims. The studies collected in this volume aim at showing in which sense Luther remains a fully Catholic and genuinely Augustinian theologian who is not so much a forerunner of problematic modernity as a representative of classical Christianity. At the same time, Luther''s theology contains ideas that can be made fruitful in dialogue with currents like communitarianism or Radical Orthodoxy. The volume consists of articles written by scholars affiliated with the project known as ""the New Finnish Interpretation of Luther."" The topics include Luther''s theological anthropology, Trinity, christology, sacraments, faith, theology of the cross, the Virgin Mary, sexuality, music, and the spiritual reading of the Holy Scriptures.""This compelling volume continues the ground-breaking project known as the ''new Finnish interpretation of Luther.'' It is the contention of this movement that, for Luther, union with Christ in faith necessarily entails active and robust participation in God''s own life. Building upon the Reformer''s unique vision, at once evangelical and catholic, this book offers powerful contributions to contemporary theology and renewed sustenance for ecumenical advances. Highly recommended.""--Thomas G. GuarinoSeton Hall University""For over twenty years a remarkable group of Finnish scholars has been offering a new interpretation of Luther''s theology. Here for the first time in English these theologians give us not only a presentation of their challenging approach to Luther research, but a splendid introduction to Luther''s theology as a whole. Beginners and experts alike will find much to ponder in the Luther who speaks from these pages.""--Bruce MarshallPerkins School of TheologySouthern Methodist UniversityOlli-Pekka Vainio is an Adjunct Professor of Ecumenical Theology at the University of Helsinki, and a member of the Center for Theological Inquiry, Princeton. He is the author of Justification and Participation in Christ (2008) and Beyond Fideism: Negotiable Religious Identities (2010).

At a time when the Western church is having to come to terms--painfully and often reluctantly--with its diminished social and intellectual status in the world following the collapse of Christendom, we find ourselves, as interpreters of Paul, increasingly impressed by the need to relocate his writings in their historical context. That is not a coincidence. The Future of the People of God is an attempt to make sense of Paul''s letter to the Romans at the intersection of these two developments. It puts forward the argument that we must first have the courage of our historical convictions and read the text before Christendom, from the limited, shortsighted perspective of an emerging community that dared to defy the gods of the ancient world. This act of imaginative, critical engagement with the text will challenge many of our assumptions about Paul''s ""gospel of God,"" but it will also put us in a position to reconstruct an identity and purpose for the people of God after Christendom that is both biblically and historically coherent""The Future of the People of God: Reading Romans Before and After Western Christendom is clearly written and compellingly argued. Andrew Perriman probes the meaning of Romans, Paul''s most important letter, shedding light on the respective places of Jews and Gentiles in the redemptive plan of God. Perriman has captured the apostle''s thought and with impressive skill shows how it unfolds step by step. More impressive still is how the letter to the Romans is read in the light of the political realities of the Roman Empire in the middle of the first century and the dominical prophecy of Jerusalem''s impending doom. This is a great book. Highly recommended.""--Craig A. EvansPayzant Distinguished Professor of New TestamentAcadia Divinity College, Nova Scotia""Andrew Perriman here gives a fresh, highly stimulating reading of Romans rooted in its first century setting. His approach focuses on a soon-to-come historical crisis for Judaism and for the pagan world of Paul''s day, and provides new angles on passage after passage in Romans. This highly original book cannot fail to provoke thought, debate, argument, reflection and re-reading of Romans, both in its first century setting and for today.""-Steve WaltonSenior Lecturer in Greek and New Testament Studies, and Director of ResearchLondon School of Theology, United KingdomAndrew Perriman is a traveler, blogger (www.postost.net), ad hoc teacher and pastor, and independent theologian. He is the author of Speaking of Women: Interpreting Paul (1998), Faith, Health and Prosperity (2003), The Coming of the Son of Man: New Testament Eschatology for an Emerging Church (2005), and Re:Mission: Biblical Mission for a Post-Biblical Church (2007).

CONTRIBUTORS:Mustafa Abu-Sway, Al-Quds University, JerusalemAsma Afsaruddin, Indiana UniversityReinhold Bernhardt, Basel UniveristyDavid Burrell, CSC, University of Notre DameCatherine Cornille, Boston CollegeGavin D''Costa, University of BristolDavid M. Elcott, New York UniversityJoseph Lumbard, Brandeis UniversityJonathan Magonet, Louis Baeck Institute, LondonJohn Makransky, Boston CollegeAnantanand Rambachan, St. Olaf CollegeDeepak Sarma, Case Western UniversityJudith Simmer-Brown, Naropa UniversityMark Unno, University of Oregon""Discernment as the evaluation of one religious community by another is a critical question in contemporary interfaith dialogue theory and practice. How do the members of different religions judge the relative worth of other religious traditions? And how does this judgment connect with the complicated religious lives of modern people? The question of religious discernment has become much more pressing in an age of the globalization of religion along with economic and cultural exchange. What is so refreshing about these essays is that the authors do not shy away from the fact that every religious tradition does have ways of judging the relative merits (and demerits) of the religions of other people . . . As the Kongzi (Confucius) taught so long ago, we need to find harmony but not uniformity. These essays help us on this path.""--John BerthrongBoston University""This is serious and careful work, a rich collection yielding honest and provocative lessons by religious scholars challenged to identify the criteria for critical judgments they employ when addressing different understandings within their traditions and, particularly, across religious boundaries. They contribute significantly to contemporary reflections on the dynamics of interreligious exchange from a diversity of perspectives. Here five major traditions are represented, but not uniformly so. Their insightful, at times formidable, even counter-intuitive suggestions are instructive to all who wish to understand more clearly diverse religious perspectives on dialogue.""Georgetown University""--John BorelliGeorgetown UniversityCatherine Cornille is Associate Professor of Comparative Theology at Boston College. She is the author of The Im-Possibility of Interreligious Dialogue (2008) and editor of Many Mansions? Multiple Religious Belonging and Christian Identity (2002) and Song Divine: Christian Commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita (2006). She is managing editor of the series Christian Commentaries on Non-Christian Sacred Texts.

Globalization and urbanization are twin forces that are powerfully shaping economics, politics, and religion in the world today. Traditional anthropological theories are inadequate to recognize and analyze trends such as global migration, diasporas, and transnationalism. New departures in anthropology and the social sciences seeking to address these and other phenomena can help us critique and reshape the theology and practice of Christian mission.Today most societies are no longer monocultural. In such multicultural contexts any given individual may be competent in several cultures, several languages, several social networks. What does it mean to be in mission with people on the move--people who present themselves in one social identity, language, and culture within a particular setting, and then in another setting, even on the very same day, present themselves in another social identity, language, and culture? In the face of widespread, rapid movement of peoples and their increasingly fluid and multifaceted identities, will the missionary settle down somewhere or be itinerant along with the people? How are perplexing new questions in particular contexts to be addressed, such as: In what ways is the Nigerian who is founding an AIC congregation near Houston a missionary too? How will Brazilians and Koreans be trained for cross-cultural ministry?The world is changing faster than missionaries can be retrained for service. And yet ethnographic tools are still crucial to missionary practice. This important work seeks to draw on recent developments in anthropology to bring valuable perspective and tools to bear on equipping missionaries for work amidst the rapid shifting and complex shaping of peoples by the forces of today''s globalized world.""Rynkiewich has written an excellent accessible introduction for missionaries to postmodern anthropology. Soul, Self, and Society provides up-to-date perspectives and ''tools'' for properly understanding the cultural/social phenomena of our complex and changing world today, such as migration, urbanization, globalization, and postcolonialism, and therefore enabling missionaries to proclaim, serve, and witness to God''s Reign more appropriately and deeply within the heart of the human situation.""-Roger Schroeder Catholic Theological Union in Chicago""This book is a worthy successor to texts by Nida, Luzbetak, Mayers, Hiebert, and Lingenfelter. Good writing, clear thinking, and cutting-edge engagement with contemporary concerns such as migration, diaspora, transnationalism, urbanization, and globalization set this volume apart from its predecessors. It deserves to become the standard textbook for introductory anthropology courses in Christian colleges and seminaries.""-Jonathan BonkOverseas Ministries Study Center""Anthropology has always played a critical role in missiological reflection. Yet, though the discipline of anthropology has changed, missiology often has not. In this important work, Michael Rynkiewich, a senior missiological anthropologist, calls for a much needed ''upgrade.'' His mature reflection challenges traditional missiological thinking as he argues for a postmodern, postcolonial missiology that engages current anthropological theory. All who take mission and context seriously must grapple with the ideas in this book!""-Christopher FlandersAbilene Christian University""In an irenic spirit, Rynkiewich chides anthropologists, missiologists, and missionaries for not adequately coming to grips with the enormous changes our world has undergone in the past fifty years. We therefore ignore at our peril these urbanizing and globalizing dynamics, and may by default promote a missiological practice or follow an anthropological theory that is no longer useful or even true in today''s world. In a masterful way, Rynkiewich, drawing on his anthropological research and mission experience in the South Pacific, brings together anthropology and missiology and shows us how both can

What would biology look like if it took the problem of natural evil seriously? This book argues that biological descriptions of evolution are inherently moral, just as the biblical story of creation has biological implications. A complete account of evolution will therefore require theological input. The Dome of Eden does not try to harmonize evolution and creation. Harmonizers typically begin with Darwinism and then try to add just enough religion to make evolution more palatable, or they begin with Genesis and pry open the creation account just wide enough to let in a little bit of evolution. By contrast, Stephen Webb provides a theory of how evolution and theology fit together, and he argues that this kind of theory is required by the internal demands of both theology and biology. The Dome of Eden also develops a theological account of evolution that is distinct from the intelligent design movement. Webb shows how intelligent design properly discerns the inescapable dimension of purpose in nature but, like Darwinism itself, fails to make sense of the problem of natural evil. Finally, this book draws on the work of Karl Barth to advance a new reading of the Genesis narrative and the theology of Duns Scotus to provide the necessary metaphysical foundation for evolutionary thought.""The ongoing, critical re-evaluation of Darwinian evolution by theologians has revived an interest in the problem of natural evil. Stephen Webb must be counted as one of the most imaginative and adventurous contributors to this literature, someone who at once reasserts the significance of Satan in nature and the person of Christ as the archetype for the human condition. In Webb one encounters a close reader of the Bible who manages to render a providential view of divine creation compatible with recent convergent approaches to evolution that suggest, on scientific grounds, a more purposeful view of humanity than Darwin would ever have allowed."" --Steve FullerProfessor of SociologyUniversity of Warwick""Classic Webb--a take-no-prisoners assault on complacent assumptions, sharp-taloned critiques, a rip-roaring theological voice, Formula One urgency, and smart, rat-tat-tat prose.""--Russell R. RenoProfessor of Theological EthicsCreighton UniversityStephen H. Webb is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana. He is the author of nine previous books, including Dylan Redeemed (2006).

""All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.""Lady Julian of NorwichUniversalism runs like a slender thread through the history of Christian theology. It has always been a minority report and has often been regarded as heresy, but it has proven to be a surprisingly resilient ""idea."" Over the centuries Christian universalism, in one form or another, has been reinvented time and time again. In this book an international team of scholars explore the diverse universalisms of Christian thinkers from the Origen to Moltmann. In the introduction Gregory MacDonald argues that theologies of universal salvation occupy a space between heresy and dogma. Therefore disagreements about whether all will be saved should not be thought of as debates between ""the orthodox"" and ""heretics"" but rather as ""in-house"" debates between Christians.The studies that follow aim, in the first instance, to hear, understand, and explain the eschatological claims of a range of Christians from the third to the twenty-first centuries. They also offer some constructive, critical engagement with those claims.Origen (Tom Greggs)Gregory of Nyssa (Steve Harmon)Julian of Norwich (Robert Sweetman)The Cambridge Platonists (Louise Hickman)James Relly (Wayne K. Clymer)Elhanan Winchester (Robin Parry)Friedrich Schleiermacher (Murray Rae)Thomas Erskine (Don Horrocks)George MacDonald (Thomas Talbott)P. T. Forsyth (Jason Goroncy)Sergius Bulgakov (Paul Gavrilyuk)Karl Barth (Oliver Crisp)Jaques Ellul (Andrew Goddard)J. A. T. Robinson (Trevor Hart)Hans Urs von Balthasar (Edward T. Oakes, SJ)John Hick (Lindsay Hall)Jurgen Moltmann(Nik Ansell)""This is a lively and illuminating collection of essays. Its well-judged blend of theological analysis and historical context makes it accessible to the general reader as well as raising provocative questions for theologians about the place of universalism in Christian tradition. I will certainly use it in my teaching.""--Morwenna LudlowLecturer in Patristics, University of Exeter, UK""Is universalism the heart of the gospel or an idea concocted by the ''devil'' to desensitize human beings to the possibility of eternal damnation? The stakes could not be higher! This volume shows why many of the great theologians in the Christian tradition responded positively to the former question even as their engaging the arguments back-and-forth will equip readers to formulate their own answers to the latter and other associated rationales rejecting the universalist notion. For all booklovers, the riveting theological biographies in chapter after chapter will keep readers tuned in from start to finish to follow the twists and turns that have perennially characterized the quest to understand universal salvation and its implications.""--Amos YongJ. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology, Regent University, Virginia Beach Gregory MacDonald is Robin Parry, an Acquisitions Editor with Wipf and Stock.

What if we are more multiple as persons than traditional psychology has taught us to believe? And what if our multiplicity is a part of how we are made in the very image of a loving, relational, multiple God? How have modern, Western notions of Oneness caused harm--to both individuals and society? And how can an appreciation of our multiplicity help liberate the voices of those who live at the margins, both of society and within our own complex selves? Braided Selves explores these questions from the perspectives of postmodern pastoral psychology and Trinitarian theology, with implications for the practice of spiritual care, counseling, and psychotherapy. This volume gathers ten years of essays on this theme by preeminent pastoral theologian Pamela Cooper-White, whose writings bring into dialogue postmodern, feminist, and psychoanalytic theory and constructive theology.""The polyvalent beauty of the titular metaphor weaves right through this powerful new contribution to relational theology--in its most currently postmodern theory and practice. Managing to remain breathtakingly readable, this text offers its manifold gifts to the whole range of theological disciplines. Braid this book into your lives, your ministries, your studies, your selves!""--Catherine KellerProfessor of Constructive TheologyDrew Theological School""Braided Selves is a remarkable collection of richly nuanced, provocative, debatable, generative, and above all, truly important essays at the intersection of psychoanalytic theory, theological anthropology, constructive theology, and pastoral theology by one who may now be the most profound and searching pastoral theologian of our time. Pamela Cooper-White writes in a fluid, interesting, and highly readable style, while probing the depths of some of the most important issues in contemporary, postmodern theological anthropology and clinical and pastoral practice. This book cannot be too highly recommended.""--Rodney J. HunterProfessor Emeritus of Pastoral TheologyCandler School of Theology, Emory University""Braided Selves is what authentic theology could be in the twenty-first century: theoretically rich without fleeing into metaphysical and rhetorical abstractions; rooted in human experience without degenerating into sentimentality and cliche. Anyone who cares about religious reflection in this troubled time should read this book. It will be a loss if Dr. Cooper-White''s text is in any way restricted only to those who have ''pastoral'' in their job description.""--James W. JonesProfessor of Psychology of ReligionRutgers UniversityPamela Cooper-White is the Ben G. and Nancye Clapp Gautier Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, and Director of the Atlanta Theological Association''s ThD program in Pastoral Counseling. In 2005 she received the American Association of Pastoral Counselors'' national award for Distinguished Achievement in Research and Writing. Cooper-White holds PhDs from Harvard University and from the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago. She is the author of Many Voices: Pastoral Psychotherapy and Theology in Relational Perspective (2007), Shared Wisdom: Use of the Self in Pastoral Care and Counseling (2004), and The Cry of Tamar: Violence against Women and the Church''s Response (1995).