What would happen if Christians and a Muslim at a university talked and disagreed, but really tried to understand each other? What would they learn? That is the intriguing question Peter Kreeft seeks to answer in these imaginative conversations at Boston College. An articulate and engaging Muslim student named 'Isa challenges the Christian students and professors he meets on issues ranging from prayer and worship to evolution and abortion, from war and politics to the nature of spiritual struggle and spiritual submission. While Kreeft believes Christians should not learn extremism or unitarian theology from Muslims, he does believe that if we really listened we could learn much about devoted religious practice and ethics. Here is a book to open your understanding of one of the key forces shaping our world today. It's a book that just could make you a better Christian.

New York Times bestseller God's Politics struck a chord with Americans disenchanted with how the Right had co-opted all talk about integrating religious values into our politics, and with the Left, who were mute on the subject. Jim Wallis argues that America's separation of church and state does not require banishing moral and religious values from the public square. God's Politics offers a vision for how to convert spiritual values into real social change and has started a grassroots movement to hold our political leaders accountable by incorporating our deepest convictions about war, poverty, racism, abortion, capital punishment, and other moral issues into our nation's public life. Who can change the political wind? Only we can.

In his Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate Pope Benedict XVI proposed a new humanistic synthesis to realign the economy with its social purpose. The aim of this book is to interpret, comment and develop aspects of the Encyclical Letter which are significant for economic and business activity and contribute to humanistic management.

After living for more than two decades in the Middle East, pastor, author and college Arabic instructor Mike Kuhn wonders if there can be a fresh vision for the Muslim world--one not rooted in media lies or personal fears but in the values of Christ's kingdom. Is the only option to fight, to eradicate, to judge? Or can the mindset of confrontation give way to one of incarnation? InFresh Vision for the Muslim World, Kuhn challenges readers to love the Muslims down the street and across the world with the love of Christ. Kuhn's vast experience and research show readers that Muslims today have the same hopes and spiritual needs as any of us. With practical suggestions, Kuhn helps readers leave the path of isolation, fear and self-preservation and choose a less-traveled road: a path of self-awareness, empathy, and deep listening. Choosing the latter path is radical. It is difficult. And it is a step toward seeing Jesus Christ receive his rightful place of honor among a people longing to know him.

Globalization may be the most hotly debated issue surrounding poverty. The benefits and costs of global economic integration are critical and complex. Is a globalized, free-market economy part of the solution to economic injustice or part of the problem? Are the international monetary systems pursuing policies that will reduce poverty or are they serving the interests of the wealthy? What do pro-poor policy reforms look like in the areas of trade and foreign investment? What kinds of immigration restrictions or reforms are consistent with the Christian faith? Should development aid be awarded only to well-governed, democratic countries? Would unrestrained economic growth imply environmental destruction? Economic Justice assembles leading economists to debate these and other issues surrounding globalization's effects on the poor. Writers urge an informed church to help identify the essentials of a Christian perspective on the societal, environmental and economic implications of globalization and to live accordingly.

"This is the best handbook on Christian loyalty in the market right now " The strength of LOYALTY TO THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST: CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY IN POLITICS AND SOCIETY is in the fact that Sven Pearl Johanson concretely discusses issues of conflict of loyalty facing Christians today in the society and in politics. The author/thinker offers specific ways in which Christians can show their loyalty to Jesus Christ. Particularly helpful is Sven's discussion of the implications of being citizens in the Kingdom of Christ. What does it mean to belong to a Heavenly Kingdom on earth? Does being a Christian have relevance for every-day living? How about voting in elections? Also helpful is Sven's discussion of the concept of a Christian Holy War. There are many questions regarding how Christians view Holy War. LOYALTY TO THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST: CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY IN POLITICS AND SOCIETY is the right book to start answering pressing questions about the concept of Holy War in Christianity. This book is essential reading for all Christian leaders and also other Christians who are serious about their Christian faith and want to apply it in practical ways. This book will be particularly good for discussions in Christian youth group and college Bible studies in Church and Christian School settings. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ leaders may want to use this book as a springboard for discussions about the place of Christians in society. There is a wealth of information from the Bible, history, theology, philosophy, and social sciences. This is a very intellectual book that is also very readable. This book should be on the shelf of every serious Christian's library.

Is Darwin a tool of Satan or a voice of reason? 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species and Christians continue to disagree about whether Darwinism should be baptized into our theology or rejected as a tool of Satan. Debating Darwin:Two Debates-is Darwinism True and Does it Matter? is aimed at Christians on both sides of the debate and hopes to further discussion. In this book two distinct questions are under the microscope 1. Is Darwinism compatible with orthodox Christian faith? 2. Does the scientific evidence support Darwinism? The book begins with a simple explanation of the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution. Stephen Lloyd then opens the first debate by making a theological and biblical case against Darwinism. He is met in battle by Graeme Finlay and Stephen Pattemore who argue that Christian Scripture and theology are compatible with Darwinism. This book will not tell readers what to think but it will inform the more intelligent debate.

This book challenges the church to ask whether or not the gospel as we commonly interpret it today really embodies the jubilee vision of the Bible. Imagine a group of forty adults living in a community, assisting each other to buy houses, sharing material wealth and releasing the surplus to help others as a practical outworking of the biblical principles of jubilee.Kim Tan was part of this group and in The Jubilee Gospel seeks to unpack these principles of sacrificial generosity, stewardship and social holiness.Starting with the OT principle of jubilee and tracing the themes through the Bible, we discover a way of living that reflects Gods justice and compassion and embraces kingdom politics and economics.What may seem buried deep in the early parts of the OT is brought up to date as were confronted by Jesus teaching and principles of wealth distribution, cancellation of debt, hospitality and storehouses.

In Sexuality in the Confessional: A Sacrament Profaned, Stephen Haliczer places the current debate on sex, celibacy, and the Catholic Church in a historical context by drawing upon a wealth of actual case studies and trial evidence to document how, from 1530 to 1819, sexual transgression attended the heightened significance of the Sacrament of Penance. Attempting to reassert its moral and social control over the faithful, the Counter-Reformation Church underscored the importance of communion and confession. Priests were asked to be both exemplars of celibacy and "doctors of souls", and the Spanish Inquisition was there to punish transgressors. Haliczer relates the stories of these priests as well as their penitents, using the evidence left by Inquisition trials to vividly depict sexual misconduct during and after confession, and the punishments wayward priests were forced to undergo. In the process, he sheds new light on the Church of the period, the repressed lives of priests, and the lives of their congregations; coming to a conclusion as startling as it is timely. Both Inquisition and the Church, he finds, must shoulder much of the blame for eroticizing the confessional. The increased scrutiny of clerical celibacy and the disciplinary and consolatory function of the Sacrament, created and intensified sexual tensions, anxiety, and guilt for both priests and penitents, sexually charging the confessional and laying the groundwork for the Sacrament to be profaned. Based on an exhaustive investigation of Inquisition cases involving soliciting confessors as well as numerous confessors' manuals and other works, Sexuality in the Confessional makes a significant contribution to the history ofsexuality, women's history, and the sociology of religion.

This book is a wealth of information, which is interestingly written and justified with documents. It is very thorough and informative, whilst also discussing a delicate issue courageously. No matter what you think about the Millennium, you won't be bored with this book In addition, you will learn many facts about the situation in the Middle-East and Israel, which the newspapers refuse for some reason to reveal. The Finnish Christian TV-7, January 2008 One has to admire the author's knowledge of the Middle-East and the people living there; few have such expertise. When we add his knowledge of the Bible, there certainly aren't many people who can boast to know equally much. The book covers the basic Gospel too, and thus is also suitable for anyone who is still seeking. In all, this book is very extensive and it can be warmly recommended to anyone. The Finnish Christian Weekly magazine, December 2007 Reverend, author Pekka J. Sartola is without doubt one of the great literary talents of Finland. He is able to write theology with conviction, and his books can be well compared with those of Hal Lindsey or Tim La Haye. He writes fact with enthusiasm and exciting fiction comparable even with Frederick Forsyth or Tom Clancy and many others. Within the past ten years Sartola has succeeded in establishing himself as a foremost expert on the Israel, the Middle-East and eschatology, reaching an audience which for decades has been familiarized with it. Pekka Sartola is a beloved preacher, author and Bible-school teacher who for three decades has researched the subject. He is one of Finland's most popular lecturers and his literary works up to date by Autumn 2007 consist of ten books covering Israel, Islam, the Middle-East and eschatology. Millennium 1000 years of peace is his tenth book.

Thinking that postmodernism is a threat, many Christians take a duck-and-cover approach to dealing with it. But that will not make postmodernism go away. Can Christians learn from postmodern thinkers and their critique of modernism? Yes, says author Crystal L. Downing. Postmodernism should not be judged by some of the problematic practices carried out in its name. In a lively engagement with literature, philosophy and art, Downing introduces readers to what postmodernism is and where it came from, aiming to show how Christians can best understand, critique and even benefit from its insights. She draws on her own experiences as a graduate student and her careful research into this worldview's modernist and artistic origins, the challenges of foundationalism and poststructuralism, and the complexity of relativism. She ends with a challenge to Christians: that they not be postmodern in their attitudes towards postmodernism, but instead to "be in the world and not of it" and to extend grace where it is most needed. Downing believes that the challenges, questions and insights of postmodernism can contribute to a deeper and clearer grasp of our faith, as well as providing unique paradigms for sharing the truth of Christ.