By now we've all heard the word postmodernism. But what is it? Can it be defined? Does it really represent a monumental shift away from how we use to think about right and wrong, truth, the world, and even the whole cosmos? Most important, how should Christians respond? Robert C. Greer helps us grasp the nature of the shifts in thinking and believing that are taking place in our world. More important, he helps us navigate the complex debate among Christians as to how best to respond to these new challenges. Astutely he maps four different ways Christian thinkers have recommended we respond. These alternatives are represented by four theologians: Francis Schaeffer, Karl Barth, John Hick and George Lindbeck. Greer warns that being merely for or against postmodernism is inadequate. He guides us across the terrain of alternatives along a path that leads neither back to the land of modernism nor to the wild frontiers of postmodernist relativism. Acknowledging the relative strengths and weaknesses of these options, Greer turns us to a thoroughly Christian theology that points beyond them to the true Subject who makes knowledge possible through the language of revelation and relationship with God. This book is an illuminating map for all those who feel lost in the maze of conflicting analyses of postmodernism and are looking for a faithful way forward .

Religion as it relates to public education, and problems of religion in public school, such as Bible reading in schools, are treated in this volume.

This book is an important contribution for all United Methodists concerned that their denomination is approaching irrelevance. Within its pages Dr. Lavender offers a Biblical, Wesleyan and means-tested approach that both saves the lives of millions of orphans and vulnerable children and inspires evangelical hope for the church.

Although scholarship has noted the thematic importance of peace in Ephesians, few have examined its political character in a sustained manner throughout the entire letter. This book addresses this lacuna, comparing Ephesians with Colossians, Greek political texts, Dio Chrysostom s "Orations," and the Confucian "Four Books" in order to ascertain the rhetorical and political nature of its "topos" of peace. Through comparison with analogous documents both within and without its cultural milieu, this study shows that Ephesians can be read as a politico-religious letter concerning peace within the church. Its vision of peace contains common political elements (such as moral education, household management, communal stability, a universal humanity, and war) that are subsumed under the controlling rubric of the unity and cosmic summing up of all things in Christ.

The Judeo-Christian tradition testifies to a God that cries out, demanding that justice "roll down like waters, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24). Christians agree that being advocates for justice is critical to the Christian witness. And yet one need not look widely to see that Christians disagree about what social justice entails. What does justice have to do with healthcare reform, illegal immigration, and same-sex marriage? Should Christians support tax policies that effectively require wealthy individuals to fund programs that benefit the poor? Does justice require that we acknowledge and address the inequalities borne out of histories of gender and ethnic exclusivity? Is the Christian vision distinct from non-Christian visions of social justice? Christians disagree over the proper answer to these questions. In short, Christians agree that justice is important but disagree about what a commitment to justice means. Christian Faith and Social Justice makes sense of the disagreements among Christians over the meaning of justice by bringing together five highly regarded Christian philosophers to introduce and defend rival perspectives on social justice in the Christian tradition. While it aspires to offer a lucid introduction to these theories, the purpose of this book is more than informative. It is purposefully dialogical and is structured so that contributors are able to model for the reader reasoned exchange among philosophers who disagree about the meaning of social justice. The hope is that the reader is left with a better understanding of range of perspectives in the Christian tradition about social justice.

What does it mean to evangelize ethically in a multicultural climate? Following his successful Evangelism after Christendom, Bryan Stone addresses reasons evangelism often fails and explains how it can become distorted as a Christian practice. Stone urges us to consider a new approach, arguing for evangelism as a work of imagination and a witness to beauty rather than a crass effort to compete for converts in pluralistic contexts. He shows that the way we lead our lives as Christians is the most meaningful tool of evangelism in today's rapidly changing world.

While there are a growing number of researchers who are exploring the political and social aspects of the global Renewal movement, few have provided sustained socio-economic analyses of this phenomenon. The editors and contributors to this volume offer perspectivesin light of the growth of the Renewal movement in the two-thirds world.

Holiness and hedonism. Lonesomeness and community. Tradition and progress. Highly regarded commentator on Christianity and popular culture Rodney Clapp argues that these great tensions form the bedrock of American history and our current culture. Utilizing the life and music of Johnny Cash to illustrate these and other American contradictions, he probes these phenomena with sharp theological questions--seeking the language and knowledge that will enable us to reach across political and cultural divides and encourage a more graceful and constructive negotiation of current contradictions.