Based on a constructive reading of Scripture, the apostolic and patristic traditions and deeply rooted in the sacramental experience and spiritual ethos of the Orthodox Church, John Zizioulas offers a timely anthropological and cosmological perspective of human beings as "priests of creation" in addressing the current ecological crisis. Given the critical and urgent character of the global crisis and by adopting a clear line of argumentation, Zizioulas describes a vision based on a compassionate and incarnational conception of the human beings as liturgical beings, offering creation to God for the life of the world. He encourages the need for deeper interaction with modern science, from which theology stands to gain an appreciation of the interconnection of every aspect of materiality and life with humankind. The result is an articulate and promising vision that inspires a new ethos, or way of life, to overcome our alienation from the rest of creation.

The Eucharist continues to be central to contemporary Christian religious tradition and to be the focus for a wide range of assumptions and disputes. Chief amongst these disputes is the role of women in the theology and the ritual of the Eucharist. Reinterpreting the Eucharist brings together a diverse range of voices with each using their own marginalised experience to explore other ways - indigenous culture, medieval and contemporary art, social history, and environmental ethics - of engaging with the Eucharist. Presenting new forms of theological and ethical engagement, the book responds to the challenge of reconsidering the meaning of the Eucharist today.

Before the advent of printing, the preaching of the friars was the mass medium of the middle ages. This edition of marriage sermons reveals what a number of famous preachers actually taught about marriage. David D'Avray teases out the close connection between marriage symbolism and social, cultural, and legal realities in the thirteenth century; and assesses the impact of this preaching.

The right words for the right occasion A pastor must be able to step with ease into a number of different speaking venues. In addition to a regular preaching schedule, you as a pastor face an endless parade of special occasions at which you are asked to speak. Some occasions are planned, others are unexpected, but for all occasions you must be ready to communicate the Word of God in a way that complements the liturgy and worship. Preaching for Special Services gives you practical guidance on how to develop and deliver clear, listener-sensitive sermons for special occasions such as weddings, baptisms, and funerals. Each chapter examines the history and theology of preaching for a particular occasion and then centers on the development of the sermon for that event. Scott M. Gibson's approach to sermon construction is based on Haddon W. Robinson's central-idea preaching described in his Biblical Preaching. Preaching for Special Services also offers an extensive list of resources for each special occasion and specific exercises to help you put the principles in this book into practice.

Existing books on Christian ritual and the sacraments tend to presuppose a good acquaintance with Roman Catholic thought and practice. Today, however, even at Catholic institutions students tend to lack even a basic knowledge of Christian ritual. Moreover, for many modern people the word "ritual" carries negative connotations of rigidity and boredom. In this accessibly-written book two noted authors offer an engaging introduction to this important topic. Their goal is first to demonstrate that celebration, ritual and symbol are already central to the readers' lives, even though most do not see their actions as symbolic or ritualistic. Once this point has been made, the book connects central Christian symbols to the symbols and rituals already present in the readers' lives. The Christian theology of symbol, ritual, and sacrament is thus placed in the context of everyday life. The authors go on to discuss such questions as how rituals establish and maintain power relationships, how "official" rituals are different from other "popular" Christian rituals and devotions, and how Christian rituals function in the process of human "salvation." Their lively yet solidly grounded work will appeal to intelligent lay readers and discussion groups, as well as being useful for courses in ritual and the sacraments at the undergraduate and seminary level.

How Baptism and the Eucharist Shaped Early Christian Understandings of Jesus Long before the Gospel writers put pen to papyrus, the earliest Christians participated in the powerful rituals of baptism and the Lord's Supper, which fundamentally shaped their understanding of God, Christ, and the world in which they lived. In this volume, a respected biblical scholar and teacher explores how cultural anthropology and ritual studies elucidate ancient texts. Charles Bobertz offers a liturgical reading of the Gospel of Mark, arguing that the Gospel is a narrative interpretation of early Christian ritual. This fresh, responsible, and creative proposal will benefit scholars, professors, and students. Its ecclesial and pastoral ramifications will also be of interest to church leaders and pastors.

The call to repentance is central to the message of early Christianity. While this is undeniable, the precise meaning of the concept of repentance for early Christians has rarely been investigated to any great extent, beyond studies of the rise of penitential discipline. In this study, the rich variety of meanings and applications of the concept of repentance are examined, with a particular focus on the writings of several ascetic theologians of the fifth to seventh centuries: SS Mark the Monk, Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, and John Climacus. These theologians provide some of the most sustained and detailed elaborations of the concept of repentance in late antiquity. They predominantly see repentance as a positive, comprehensive idea that serves to frame the whole of Christian life, not simply one or more of its parts. While the modern dominant understanding of repentance as a moment of sorrowful regret over past misdeeds, or as equivalent to penitential discipline, is present to a degree, such definitions by no means exhaust the concept for them. The path of repentance is depicted as stretching from an initial about-face completed in baptism, through the living out of the baptismal gift by keeping the Gospel commandments, culminating in the idea of intercessory repentance for others, after the likeness of Christ's innocent suffering for the world. While this overarching role for repentance in Christian life is clearest in ascetic works, these are not explored in isolation, and attention is also paid to the concept of repentance in Scripture, the early church, apocalyptic texts, and canonical material. This not only permits the elaboration of the views of the ascetics in their larger context, but further allows for an overall re-assessment of the often misunderstood, if not overlooked, place of repentance in early Christian theology.

A short, simple and thoroughly biblical explanation of the meaning and purpose of Holy Communion, designed to appeal to all ages. Explains its biblical origins, the different ways in which Christians have understood it over the centuries, and its crucial place in the Christian life today.

This series on the seven Sacraments provides readers with a deeper appreciation of God's gifts and call in the Sacraments through a renewed encounter with God's Word. In this volume, a leading Catholic scholar offers a biblical theology of the priesthood rooted in the Old and New Testaments. Half a millennium after the Protestant Reformation and in the midst of an ongoing clerical crisis in the Catholic Church, this book presents a comprehensive biblical vision and defense of the sacramental priesthood and an informed theological response to the problem of priestly sin. It gives expression to the ministerial priesthood's biblically grounded, sacramental share in the sacrificial ministry of Jesus Christ. Series editors are Timothy C. Gray and John Sehorn. Gray is president of the Augustine Institute, which has one million subscribers to its online content channel, Formed.org. Gray and Sehorn teach at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, which prepares students for Christian mission through on-campus and distance education programs.

The practice of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist allow Christians to read Scripture in the context of the church and in unity with the Trinity. Charles Meeks argues here, however, that over the centuries since the Reformation, Protestant expressions of the church have often allowed the sacraments to assume a minor role that has led to a weakening of Protestant ecclesiology and a disconnection of these ancient rituals from the gospel. To unpack this reality, Meeks relies on the work of fourth-century bishop Hilary of Poitiers and modern theologian Robert W. Jenson to examine the relationship between the sacraments and Scripture, the Trinity, and the church. With Hilary, he retrieves a hermeneutic that starts from the interdependence of the sacraments with all aspects of Christian life, especially the way one reads Scripture, formulates theology, and understands what the church is and is not. With Jenson, Meeks applies this hermeneutic to the modern church in an appeal to recover a premodern sense of God's relationship to time, and thus how the church relates to God through Word and Sacrament.

Writing in the middle of the twentieth century, G.W. Bromiley was acutely aware of the renewal of debates surrounding baptism taking place within the Anglican church and elsewhere. These debates, which are still the cause of denominational division, can be best understood by tracing them back to their origins in the sixteenth century. Analysing the Anglican Reformers' views on baptism's sacramental status, its liturgical format and its theological substance, Bromiley places the current diversity of positions in its proper context. The legitimacy of infant baptism, the authority of ministers and the efficacy of grace are all discussed. Whether a scholar of ecclesiological and doctrinal history, or of the current debate within and between churches, this study is essential reading on the question of baptism past and present.