During the late second and early third centuries C.E. the resurrection became a central question for intellectual commentary, with increasingly tense divisions between those who interpreted the resurrection as a bodily experience and those who did not. The relationship between the resurrected person and their mortal flesh was also a key point of discussion, especially in regards to sexual desires, body parts, and practices. Early Christians struggled to articulate how and why these bodily features related to the imagined resurrected self. The problems posed by the resurrection thus provoked theological analysis of the mortal body, sexual desire and gender. Resurrecting Parts is the first study to examine the place of gender and sexuality in early Christian debates on the nature of resurrection, investigating how the resurrected body has been interpreted by writers of this period in order to address the nature of sexuality and sexual difference. In particular, Petrey considers the instability of early Christian attempts to separate maleness and femaleness. Bodily parts commonly signified sexual difference, yet it was widely thought that future resurrected bodies would not experience desire or reproduction. In the absence of sexuality, this insistence on difference became difficult to maintain. To achieve a common, shared identity and status for the resurrected body that nevertheless preserved sexual difference, treatises on the resurrection found it necessary to explain how and in what way these parts would be transformed in the resurrection, shedding all associations with sexual desires, acts, and reproduction. Exploring a range of early Christian sources, from the Greek and Latin fathers to the authors of the Nag Hammadi writings, Resurrecting Parts is a fascinating resource for scholars interested in gender and sexuality in classical antiquity, early Christianity, asceticism, and, of course, the resurrection and t

How is theology liberating? In this post-Gorbachev world in which many demand freedom, and which the West seems ill-equipped to deliver, can we even envisage a liberative theology? Taking as his starting point the Marxist complaint that Christianity is ideological, Dr Scott argues that it is not enough for Christian theology to talk about liberation. It must be liberative. Stressing with feminist and liberation theologies the embodied, contextual nature of theology, the constructive proposal made here locates God's liberating abundance towards society in an interpretation of resurrection as social. Only in this way can a trinitarian Christian account of liberation be adequately grounded. This study will be of interest to those who wish to know if theology may speak truthfully about the transformation of society. In a period of crisis and hope, the book offers the shape of a liberative theology that might nerve Christian practice towards social freedom.

Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist ECPA Top Shelf Award Winner Taylor Schumann never thought she'd be a victim of gun violence. But one spring day a man with a shotgun walked into her workplace and opened fire on her. While she survived, she was left with permanent wounds, both visible and invisible. In When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough, Taylor invites us to see what it means to be a survivor after the news vehicles drive away and the media moves on. Healing is slow and complicated. As she suffered through surgeries, grueling rehabilitation, and counseling to repair the physical injuries and emotional trauma, she came face to face with the deep and lasting impact of gun violence. As she began grappling with the realities, Taylor experienced another painful truth: Christians have largely been absent from this issue. Gun violence undercuts God's vision of abundant life and community-and the silence of the church rings loudly in the ears of survivors and families of victims. Taylor weaves her own incredible story of survival and recovery into a larger conversation about gun violence in our country. With compassion and honesty, she encourages readers to reconsider their own engagement with the issue and to join her in envisioning a more hopeful, safer future for our nation. Move beyond thoughts and prayers and enter into grace-filled dialogue and action.

In The Roots of Pope Francis's Social and Political Thought Thomas R. Rourke traces the development of Pope Francis's thinking from his time as a Jesuit provincial through today. Meticulously researched, the book draws on decades of previously untranslated writings from Father Jorge Bergoglio, SJ, who went on to become archbishop and cardinal; this volume also references his recent writings as pope. The book explores the deepest roots of Pope Francis's thinking, beginning with the experience of the Jesuit missions in Argentina (1500s - 1700s), showing how both the success and tragedy of the missions profoundly formed his social and political views. Subsequent chapters explore influences from the Second Vatican Council through today regarding culture, politics, and economics. In Pope Francis's understanding, there is a perpetual tension between the attempts to redeem the social order through the Gospel and the never-ending attempts to dominate peoples and their lands through a variety of imperial projects that come from the powerful. What emerges is a profoundly Christian approach to the social, political, and economic problems of our time. The Pope is portrayed as an original thinker, independent of ideological currents, rooted in the Gospels and the tradition of Catholic social thought. In a time of division and violence, the writings of Pope Francis often point to the path of peace and justice.

@lt;DIV@gt;The relationship between Israel and the church is a crucial reference point in theology, especially in distinguishing between dispensational and nondispensational ways of thinking. The thesis of this book is that Israel and the church are distinct theological institutions that have arisen in the historical progress of divine revelation. But they are also related as successive phases of a redemptive program that is historically progressive and eschatologically converging. The approach to these issues here is neither polemical nor apologetic; rather, it anticipates a convergence among evangelical scholars in the recognition of both continuity and discontinuity in the Israel-church relationship. This book has three purposes: - To offer a contemporary dispensational treatment of that relationship through an exegetical examination of key texts with a focus on theological concerns - To foster genuine dialogue with nondispensational thinkers regarding major biblical themes tied to the plan of God - To identify the changes in dispensational thought that have developed since the publication of Charles Ryrie's book Dispensationalism Today in 1965@lt;/div@gt;

An inspiring story of how God called one man to "go back and make a difference"

Dolphus Weary knows from personal experience just how harmful racial division can be. Growing up in rural Mississippi, he leared that if poverty, hunger, and disease didn't kill him, racism, bigotry, or the Klan just might. So when a college basketball scholarship gave him the opportunity to get away from the broken, racially divided city of Mendenhall, he jumped at the chance. But he couldn't outrun racism.

Eventually God called him back to his hometown--to the city where the railroad tracks not only separate economic classes but also represent a divide in the church. Believing that prejudice is ultimately a spiritual issue, Weary went back to Mississippi and worked to break down racial divides and promote productive dialogue, greater understanding, and ultimately racial reconciliation. The founder and part-time president of R.E.A.L. (Rural Education and Leadership) Christian Foundation, Weary helps ministries and communities realize that a "kingdom mentality" is possible only when we stop limiting God's work to a denomination or racial group.

"Crossing the Tracks" offers an insider's look at Weary's life and experiences. It recounts both the heartbreaking and victorious events that helped him overcome the odds. Profoundly honest and never more timely, this book encourages Christians to partner together to turn the ugly legacy of racism wherever it is found into a beautiful community of hope.

Victor Turner altered the way ritual is viewed, by emphasizing its role as an agent of social change rather than an agent for conserving the status quo. This book reconsiders and clarifies Turner's theory of ritual in response to its frequent misinterpretation and then demonstrates its usefulness for interpreting such phenomena as ritual possession in a politically militant African-American Pentecostal congregation and the countercultural theatrical experiments of Jerzy Grotowski's Polish Laboratory Theater.

Hidden Threads: A Christian Critique of Sociological Theory, provides a framework for making sense of the social world. Heddendorf finds in sociological theories some "hidden threads" - Christian principles woven into the fabric of society. Early Christian thought was radical in its approach to social life. Jesus provided a different concept of the person, and encouraged his followers to act upon this new understanding. Thus, in the early centuries after Christ, Christian social thought was a dynamic, positive, social force, but today the situation differs. Many Christians readily accept current interpretations of problems as valid. Consequently, in response to these modern explanations, Christians develop a form of secularized thought which supports popular solutions and fails to critically engage with the real issues of the day. Hidden Threads is an examination and Christian critique of sociological theory, demonstrating appreciation for the richness of social life and holding in tension those theories that attempt to explain it.

This book explores theologically the practice of hospital chaplains seeking to meet the spiritual needs of parents bereaved by baby death in-utero. The lived experience of bereaved parents, gathered through a series of in-depth interviews, informs such an exploration. Parents describe the trauma of late miscarriage and stillbirth as still being shrouded by silence, myth and misunderstanding in contemporary society. Up-to-date theoretical understandings of grief are also re-examined in light of parents' stories of living with baby death. This book offers suggestions as to how the actual spiritual needs of parents may be met and their grief sensitively facilitated through the sharing of rituals co-constructed by parents and chaplain which seek to have theological integrity yet be relevant in our postomodern age. In our prevalent culture of caring, where increasingly ongoing professional and personal development are regarded as normative, recommendations are made which may aid reflection on current, or shape future, practice for chaplains, pastors, students and various healthcare professionals.

The Catholic Church has had a dramatic impact on both the structure and understanding of criminal justice up to the present. This book surveys the history of the church to suggest that despite demonstrable abuses, a humane and redemptive theory of criminal justice can be constructed that is harmonious with biblical sources, tradition, and current normative emphases in Catholic social thought.

Embracing your Christian identity does not make you "soft." Embracing your Black identity does not make you less Christian. Throughout American history, Black people were not given the freedom to acknowledge their suffering. A. D. Thomason believes that the Holy Spirit brings freedom and liberation as we're able to name our pain, recognize its roots in history and society, and seek healing. While many saw a confident, six-foot-five Black man, A. D. "Lumkile" Thomason lived most of his life in fear and anguish, deeply wounded by encounters with violence, abandonment, and family tragedy. Hiding behind a tough exterior, Adam earned his "Black card" but felt joyless inside. Even traveling around the globe to play professional basketball could not resolve his despair. But in the art of Jay-Z, A. D. discovered stirring honesty that gave voice to his own expressions of longing. And in the gospel of Jesus, he experienced the healing and salvation that had long evaded him. Now through what he calls "kingdom therapy," he's figuring out how to redefine the Jay-Z and Jesus that make up his blackness. A. D. uses his artistry as a poet and storyteller to share how he confessed his internalized pain and embraced the liberating joy of Christ. He writes for millennials, emerging adults, and anyone else who's ready to acknowledge the reality of racial trauma and our need to confront it. A. D.'s powerful story gives you permission to be Black, to be Christian, and to be the person God has made you to be.

2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalists -Religion Evangelicalism in America has cracked, split on the shoals of the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath, leaving many wondering if they want to be in or out of the evangelical tribe. The contentiousness brought to the fore surrounds what it means to affirm and demonstrate evangelical Christian faith amidst the messy and polarized realities gripping our country and world. Who or what is defining the evangelical social and political vision? Is it the gospel or is it culture? For a movement that has been about the primacy of Christian faith, this is a crisis. This collection of essays was gathered by Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, who provides an introduction to the volume. What follows is a diverse and provocative set of perspectives and reflections from evangelical insiders who wrestle with their responses to the question of what it means to be evangelical in light of their convictions. Contributors include: Shane Claiborne, Red Letter Christians Jim Daly, Focus on the Family Mark Galli, Christianity Today Lisa Sharon Harper, FreedomRoad.us Tom Lin, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Karen Swallow Prior, Liberty University Soong-Chan Rah, North Park University Robert Chao Romero, UCLA Sandra Maria Van Opstal, Grace and Peace Community Allen Yeh, Biola University Mark Young, Denver Seminary Referring to oneself as evangelical cannot be merely a congratulatory self-description. It must instead be a commitment and aspiration guided by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. What now are Christ's followers called to do in response to this identity crisis?

What does the Bible say about poverty and our responsibility toward the poor? This book examines the concept of "brother's keeper" in both the ancient Near East and the biblical world. Wafawanaka contends that biblical Israel failed to play the rightful role of brother's keeper and claims that we, too, have strayed from this responsibility. Am I Still My Brother's Keeper? reveals what we can learn about poverty from a biblical context and how we might appropriate those insights to fight poverty in our own communities. Beginning with the biblical mandate in Deuteronomy 15, Wafawanaka surveys the Hebrew Scriptures and challenges those with power and resources to reevaluate their response to the poor. Failure to revisit the notion of "brother's keeper" threatens to create a society that is increasingly disenfranchised and unjust. A glance at our world in light of biblical history suggests that poverty is an endemic global problem that requires a radical global solution.

Presenting cutting edge research on how religion can confront and obscure social inequalities in everyday life, Religion, Equalities and Inequalities argues that when religion is left out of social scientific analyses, it can result in incomplete analyses that conceal pathways to social inclusion and exclusion. Bringing together an international and interdisciplinary group of contributors who operate at the vanguard of theoretical and empirical work on how social structures of power, institutions and bodies can generate equalities and inequalities in religion, the collection shows how religion can enable and challenge the inequities that affect people's everyday lives. Academics and students of religious studies, sociology, politics and social policy will all find this book offers useful insights into the relationship between religion and contemporary culture.

Exciting: documents a recent journey through difficult and at times hostile territory

Christianity Today Book Award The Gospel Coalition Book Awards Honorable Mention Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award "Reading the morning newspaper is the realist's morning prayer."-G. W. F. Hegel Whenever we reach for our phones or scan a newspaper to get "caught up," we are being not merely informed but also formed. News consumption can shape our sense of belonging, how we judge the value of our lives, and even how our brains function. Christians mustn't let the news replace prayer as Hegel envisioned, but neither should we simply discard the daily feed. We need a better understanding of what the news is for and how to read it well. Jeffrey Bilbro invites readers to take a step back and gain some theological and historical perspective on the nature and very purpose of news. In Reading the Times he reflects on how we pay attention, how we discern the nature of time and history, and how we form communities through what we read and discuss. Drawing on writers from Thoreau and Dante to Merton and Berry, along with activist-journalists such as Frederick Douglass and Dorothy Day, Bilbro offers an alternative vision of the rhythms of life, one in which we understand our times in light of what is timeless. Throughout, he suggests practices to counteract common maladies tied to media consumption in order to cultivate healthier ways of reading and being. When the news sets itself up as the light of the world, it usurps the role of the living Word. But when it helps us attend together to the work of Christ-down through history and within our daily contexts-it can play a vital part in enabling us to love our neighbors. Reading the Times is a refreshing and humane call to put the news in its place.

The walls between us seem impenetrable. We live in an age of strife and division. Factors such as race, class, values and lifestyles keep us from connecting with others in meaningful ways. It's easy to avoid or ignore those who make us uncomfortable and those we simply do not like, but God's call to the church is to do just the opposite. Leroy Barber has spent decades pursuing reconciliation and justice amongst groups of vastly diverse people. He knows the challenge of embracing those who are difficult to embrace, yet he advocates that the way to radical shalom on earth is through pursuing these relationships. We have the opportunity as the people of God to bring true peace and unity to a world that desperately needs it. Embrace the challenge to show a divided world the bridge-building power of God's love.

An inspiring story of one woman's survival and her part in God's work in Africa

Annie Chikhwaza grew up in Holland. In struggling to come to terms with her abuse as a child, she tried to commit suicide but was dramatically converted through the ministry of Brother Andrew. She then began to minister, first to the poor and marginalized on the streets of Amsterdam and then in the volatile townships of South Africa during the height of the apartheid era.

After surviving an abusive marriage and the turmoil and humiliation of divorce, she married a poor African pastor and went to Malawi to start an orphanage. Today Annie has nearly two hundred children in her care, many of whom are HIV positive, and she has built a small town called Kondanani ("Love one another"), which boasts a care facility, several children's homes, a nursery school, primary school, and farm. Kondanani is an oasis of love in a country with more than one million orphans. It has attracted the attention of the media around the world and a host of celebrities, including Madonna, who has adopted one of Kondanani's children.

Annie's story, told here for the first time, shares her many terrible trials: abuse, abortion, a broken back, attempted murder, the loss of everything she had built, attempted rape, and the death of her beloved husband. Her story might have been one of bitterness and anger; instead, Annie uses each trial to point to God's love for her and for every one of His creation.

Long obfuscated by modern definitions of historical evidence and art patronage, Lucrezia Tornabuoni de' Medici's impact on the visual world of her time comes to light in this book, the first full-length scholarly argument for a lay woman's contributions to the visual arts of fifteenth-century Florence. This focused investigation of the Medici family's domestic altarpiece, Filippo Lippi's Adoration of the Christ Child, is broad in its ramifications. Mapping out the cultural network of gender, piety, and power in which Lippi's painting was originally embedded, author Stefanie Solum challenges the received wisdom that women played little part in actively shaping visual culture during the Florentine Quattrocento. She uses visual evidence never before brought to bear on the topic to reveal that Lucrezia Tornabuoni - shrewd power-broker, pious poetess, and mother of the 'Magnificent' Lorenzo de' Medici - also had a profound impact on the visual arts. Lucrezia emerges as a fascinating key to understanding the ways in which female lay religiosity created the visual world of Renaissance Florence. The Medici case study establishes, at long last, a robust historical basis for the assertion of women's agency and patronage in the deeply patriarchal and artistically dynamic society of Quattrocento Florence. As such, it offers a new paradigm for the understanding, and future study, of female patronage during this period.

Conservative evangelicals; engaged Christians concerned at the rise of progressive Christianity; followers of The Gospel Coalition

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“This may be the most influential book you will read this year.” —Lee Strobel, bestselling author of The Case for Miracles

A Movement Seeks to Redefine Christianity. Some Think that It Is a Much-Needed Progressive Reformation. Others Believe that It Is an Attack on Historic Christianity.
Alisa Childers never thought she would question her Christian faith. She was raised in a Christian home, where she had seen her mom and dad feed the hungry, clothe the homeless, and love the outcast. She had witnessed God at work and then had dedicated her own life to leading worship, as part of the popular Christian band ZOEgirl. All that was deeply challenged when she met a progressive pastor, who called himself a hopeful agnostic.

Another Gospel? describes the intellectual journey Alisa took over several years as she wrestled with a series of questions that struck at the core of the Christian faith. After everything she had ever believed about God, Jesus, and the Bible had been picked apart, she found herself at the brink of despair . . . until God rescued her, helping her to rebuild her faith, one solid brick at a time.

In a culture of endless questions, you need solid answers. If you or someone you love has encountered the ideas of progressive Christianity and aren’t sure how to respond, Alisa’s journey will show you how to determine—and rest in—what’s unmistakably true.

In light of the current popularity enjoyed by the subject of religion and questions about the consequences arising from this situation, especially for practical theology, the early essays on the sociology of religion by Volker Drehsen (born 1949) have once again become poignant. They continue to retain their power of illuminating the self-conception and tasks of practical theology. The collected essays, some of which were originally published obscurely, are now published together for the first time in this volume.

An examination of the efforts of faith-based organizations to expand the rights of the formerly incarcerated The use of religion to rehabilitate and redeem formerly incarcerated individuals has been a cultural touchstone of the modern era. Yet religious outreach to those with criminal records has typically been associated with an emphasis on private spirituality, with efforts focused on repentance, conversion, and restorative justice. This book sheds light on how faith-based organizations utilize the public arena, mobilizing to expand the social and political rights of former inmates. In "Jesus Saved an Ex-Con," Edward Orozco Flores profiles Community Renewal Society and LA Voice, two faith-based organizations which have actively waged community organizing campaigns to expand the rights of people with records. He illuminates how these groups help the formerly incarcerated re-enter broader communities through the expansion of citizenship rights and participation in civic engagement. Most work on prisoner reentry has focused on how the behavior of those with records may be changed through interventions, rather than considering how those with records may change the society that receives them. Flores explores how the formerly incarcerated use redemption scripts to participate in civic engagement, to remove the felony conviction question from employment applications and to restrict the use of criminal background checks in housing and employment. He shows that people with records can redeem themselves while also challenging and changing the way society receives them.