We cannot escape ethical questions. What Christians need is guidance to think well. In 50 Ethical Questions, J. Alan Branch addresses pointed questions regarding ethics, sexuality, marriage and divorce, bioethics, and Christian living. Readers will find biblical and reasonable guidance on their questions, including: What are the differences between individual and systemic racism? I've been invited to a same--sex wedding. Should I attend? Should Christians use vaccines from cell lines derived from aborted babies? I'm a Christian in an abusive marriage. What should I do? Is it morally permissible for a Christian to conceal--carry a firearm? With Branch's help, you can navigate ethical challenges with care and conviction.

In this innovative treatment of the ethics of war, Ryan P. Cumming brings classical sources of just war theory into conversation with African American voices. Drawing on the Black press of the early twentieth century and modern writers like Cornel West, James Cone, and Manning Marable, this volume develops new questions about the authority to wage war, the causes that can justify war, and the economic costs of war. The result is a new direction in just war thought that challenges dominant interpretations of just war theory by looking to the perspectives of those on the underside of history and politics.

Is your church prepared to care for individuals who have experienced various forms of abuse? As we continue to learn of more individuals experiencing sexual abuse, domestic violence, and other forms of abuse, it's clear that resources are needed to help ministries and leaders care for these individuals with love, support, and in cooperation with civil authorities. This handbook seeks to help the church take a significant step forward in its care for those who have been abused. Working in tandem with the resources and videos found at churchcares.com, this handbook brings together leading evangelical trauma counselors, victim advocates, social workers, attorneys, batterer interventionists, and survivors to equip pastors and ministry leaders for the appropriate initial responses to a variety of abuse scenarios in churches, schools, or ministries. Though the most comprehensive training is experienced by using this handbook and the videos together, readers who may be unable to access the videos can use this handbook as a stand-alone resource.

The relationship between America and Christianity has never been so hotly contested as it is today. September 11, 2001 and the war on terror have had an almost schismatic impact on the Church. American Christians have been forced to ask the really hard questions about faith and politics. While some Christians would rather not ask these questions at all, they are unavoidable for a religion that seeks to speak to the whole world, with the expectation of nothing less than global transformation. Like it or not, Christians have to take a stand on the issue of America's alleged imperialism, not only because America is largely a product of the Christian imagination but also because the converse is true - the growth of Christianity worldwide is largely shaped by American values and ideals. American Providence makes the case that American Christianity is not an oxymoron. It also makes the case for a robust doctrine of providence - a doctrine that has been frequently neglected by American theologians due to their reluctance to claim any special status for the United States. Webb goes right to the heart of this reluctance, by defending the idea that American foreign policy should be seen as a vehicle of God's design for history.

The provocative title of these essays plays on a traditional Catholic slogan: "No salvation outside the church." Insofar as it implies God's response to a world marked by suffering and injustice, then the poor represent an indispensible test, a key to the healing of a sick society. Drawing on the radical hope of Christian faith--the promise of the kingdom of God and the resurrection of the death--Sobrino presents a bold counter-cultural challenge to a "civilization of wealth" that lives off the blood of the poor. Inspired by the witness of Oscar Romero and Ignacio Ellacuria, and the church's preferential option for the poor, Sobrino offers these "prophetic-utopian" reflections on faith and the meaning of discipleship in our time.

With a revolution behind them, a continent before them, and the First Amendment protecting them, religio-sexual pioneers in antebellum America were free to strike out on their own, breaking with the orthodoxies of the past. Shakers followed the ascetic path; Oneida Perfectionists accepted sex as a gift from God; and Mormons redefined marriage in light of new religious revelations that also redefined God, humankind, spirit, and matter. Sex became a powerful way for each group to reinforce their sectarian identity as strangers in a strange land. Sex and Sects tells the story of these three religiously inspired sexual innovations in America: the celibate lifestyle of the Shakers, the Oneida Community's system of controlled polyamory, and plural marriage as practiced by the Mormons. Stewart Davenport analyzes why these bold experiments rose and largely fell over the course of the nineteenth century within the confines of the new American republic. Moving beyond a social-scientific lens, Davenport traces for the first time their fascinating shared trajectory as they emerged, struggled, institutionalized, and declined in tandem-and sheds historical light on the way in which Americans have discussed, contested, and redefined the institutions of marriage and family both in our private lives and in the public realm.

Introduction by Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford

The crisis in the Middle East is not a political issue. It's a spiritual issue.

Rapidly unfolding events in the Middle East will shape the future, not just of Israel but of our entire world. This insightful commentary by Rabbi Jonathan Bernis combines historical, biblical, and prophetic teaching to help you understand what's happening and how Believers should respond to these events.

Drawing from the perspective of a Jewish Believer in Jesus, this book provides a biblical understanding of the complex issues continuing to unfold in the Middle East today and how they relate to key prophecy in Scripture.

Discover why there is constant upheaval in the Middle East, what to watch for in the days ahead, and whether peace is really possible.

The works of Ambrosiaster, a Christian writing in Rome in the late fourth century, were influential on his near contemporaries and throughout the Middle Ages. In the first half of her study, Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe addresses the problem of the author's mysterious identity (which scholars have puzzled over for centuries) and places him in a broad historical and intellectual context. In the second half she addresses Ambrosiaster's political theology, an idea which has been explored in other late Roman Christian writers but which has never been addressed in his works. She looks at how Ambrosiaster's attitudes to social and political order were formed on the basis of theological concepts and the interpretation of scripture, and shows that he espoused a rigid hierarchical and monarchical organization in the church, society, and the Roman empire. He also traced close connections between the Devil, characterized as a rebel against God, and the earthly tyrants and usurpers who followed his example.