This volume brings together the prestigious speakers at the inaugural Church in Our Times Lecture Series at Liverpool Hope, throughout the first 4 months of 2006, and invited contributors from and addressing wider international contexts Africa, Sri Lanka, India and the United States. The volume explores themes such as questions of ecclesial and religious identity in these post-modern times, the advent of neo-exclusivism, divisions within the contemporary Roman Catholic and Anglicans churches, inter-faith relations and dialogue, questions of sexuality and Christian ministry, contemporary understandings of ecclesial authority, teaching and tradition, the inter-relation between the church and the kingdom of God today, an Asian appraisal of Pope Benedicts first sermon, inculturation and the rhetoric and reality of the notion of Church as Christianitys most distinctive and defining feature and constructive proposals for ecumenical ways forward in the future. The commonality and coherence of the papers, along with the manner in which a number of them together contribute towards making a cumulative case upon similar issues of concern for the church in our times, constitute a major strength of this collection. This volume will interest faculty and students engaged in the study of the contemporary church, ecumenism, global Christianity, secularity and inter-religious dialogue, as well as appealing to ministers and pastors as well as the general reader excited by the most pressing debates pertaining to the church in these times.

True leadership isn't a matter of having a certain job or title. In fact, being chosen for a position is only the first of the five levels every effective leader achieves.

To become more than "the boss" people follow only because they are required to, you have to master the ability to invest in people and inspire them. To grow further in your role, you must achieve results and build a team that produces. You need to help people to develop their skills to become leaders in their own right. And if you have the skill and dedication, you can reach the pinnacle of leadership-where experience will allow you to extend your influence beyond your immediate reach and time for the benefit of others.

The 5 Levels of Leadership are:

• Position - People follow because they have to
• Permission - People follow because they want to
• Production - People follow because of what you have done for the organization
• People Development - People follow because of what you have done for them personally
• Pinnacle - People follow because of who you are and what you represent

Through humor, in-depth insight, and examples, internationally recognized leadership expert John C. Maxwell describes each of these stages of leadership. He shows you how to master each level and rise up to the next to become a more influential, respected, and successful leader.

Various social, political, economic and cultural commentators are presently arguing that human history is reaching a decisive stage in its development, a stage marked by increased interconnection between peoples, the compression of space and time, a sharing of ideas at unprecedented levels, global trade and finance, and so on. The shorthand word used to encompass these phenomena is "globalization." Some embrace it, others reject it, while still others dispute its existence. But with the abundance of literature and debate that it generates, the topic cannot be ignored. From its inception in the missionary mandate of Jesus (Matthew 28), Christianity has had a global dimension to its mission. Christianity is not a spectator to globalization but one of its agents, one of the forces at work which have extended interconnection between peoples, shared ideas and promoted social, political and cultural links.
The purpose of the present work is not to provide a complete response to the question of the mission of the church in a globalizing world, but to establish a framework within which answers may be sought. Grounded in the writings of Bernard Lonergan and Robert Doran, it develops a theology of history and addresses the churches response to the impact of globalization on vital, social, cultural, personal and religious values. The project brings together the perspectives of Catholicism and Pentecostalism, the former providing a depth of wisdom and tradition, the latter drawing on the insight of a newly emerging movement that has taken root in every continent with remarkable energy and enthusiasm.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Forged by Conviction is a never before written, chronologically accurate account of the birth and prominent rise of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. Meet the colorful personalities who helped to define and mobilize this great movement for God's glory. Discover how both church planting and decentralization helped to carve what would become the foundation of one of America's most modern day struggles for biblical inerrancy. Learn of the controversial and often courageous struggle of many Southern Baptist men and women who were seemingly cast as renegades by the liberal establishment. See how their obedience to God and bold faith in Jesus Christ enabled them to witness their dreams-initially written on a napkin at a local restaurant-blossom into a great organization known as the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. **** ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jeffrey Pinder has been in full-time ministry for over twenty-five years. Aligned with the SBCV since its inception in 1996, he has had a unique vantage point from which to observe its early beginnings. He holds three advanced degrees, including a doctorate from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Graduate School. Jeff, his wife Cheryl, and their twin sons, John and Caleb, live in Port St. Joe, Florida.

Heresy was the most feared crime in the medieval moral universe. It was seen as a social disease capable of poisoning the body politic and shattering the unity of the church. The study of heresy in late medieval England has, to date, focused largely on the heretics. In consequence, we know very little about how this crime was defined by the churchmen who passed authoritative judgement on it.
By examining the drafting, publicizing, and implementing of new laws against heresy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, using published and unpublished judicial records, this book presents the first general study of inquisition in medieval England. In it Ian Forrest argues that because heresy was a problem simultaneously national and local, detection relied upon collaboration between rulers and the ruled. While involvement in detection brought local society into contact with the apparatus of government, uneducated laymen still had to be kept at arm's length, because judgements about heresy were deemed too subtle and important to be left to them. Detection required bishops and inquisitors to balance reported suspicions against canonical proof, and threats to public safety against the rights of the suspect and the deficiencies of human justice.
At present, the character and significance of heresy in late medieval England is the subject of much debate. Ian Forrest believes that this debate has to be informed by a greater awareness of the legal and social contexts within which heresy took on its many real and imagined attributes.

Who was Saint Hippolytus? The answer has eluded historians for centuries. This is the first in-depth analysis of the 'Hippolytus question' in English for over a hundred years. It suggests that this writer, so influential on Western liturgical practice in the twentieth century, is best viewed as a writer of the East.

Concerned by the ever-widening chasm between Paul and Reformation theology, Forensic Apocalyptic Theology is a thorough and innovative examination of the mature work of Karl Barth in relationship to the question of Paul and the Protestant doctrine of justification. Shannon Nicole Smythe argues that the basis of Barth's revised doctrine of justification is located in his mature Christ-ology, which is both deeply apocalyptic and thoroughly forensic. Closely analysing Barth's exegetical work, Smythe discovers in Barth what she terms a "forensic-apocalyptic" approach, which allows him to formulate a doctrine of justification with stronger ties not only to the Reformation doctrine but also to Pauline apocalyptic. The result is that Barth's doctrine of justification is not susceptible to the same criticisms commonly brought against a judicial (forensic) reading, while his soteriology becomes more consistently forensic than that of the Reformation and points toward a different approach to the relationship between justification in Paul and the Protestant doctrine.