A milestone in the history of popular theology, 'The Screwtape Letters' is an iconic classic on spiritual warfare and the power of the devil. This profound and striking narrative takes the form of a series of letters from Screwtape, a devil high in the Infernal Civil Service, to his nephew Wormwood, a junior colleague engaged in his first mission on earth trying to secure the damnation of a young man who has just become a Christian. Although the young man initially looks to be a willing victim, he changes his ways and is 'lost' to the young devil. Dedicated to Lewis's friend and colleague J.R.R. Tolkien, 'The Screwtape Letters' is a timeless classic on spiritual conflict and the invisible realities which are part of our religious experience.

The Life of St Martin by Sulpicius Severus was one of the formative works of Latin hagiography. Yet although written by a contemporary who knew Martin, it attracted immediate criticism. Why? This study seeks an explanation by placing Sulpicius works both in their intellectual context, and in the context of a church that was then undergoing radical transformation. It is thus both a study of Sulpicius, Martin, and their world, and at the same time an essay in the interpretation of hagiography.

This volume initiates von Balthasar's study of the biblical vision and understanding of God's glory. Starting with the theopanies of the Patriarchal period, it shows how such glory is most fully expressed in the graciousness of the Covenant relationship between God and Israel.

This volume presents a series of studies of representative mystics, theologians, philosophers, and poets and explores the three mainstreams of metaphysics which have developed since the catastrophe of Nominalism.

The acclaimed author of "Cold Noses at the Pearly Gates" investigates pets' afterlife--for the truth about their existence in Heaven--in a moving, inspirational, and comforting message of hope.

Over the past sixty years, within the analytic tradition of philosophy, there has been a significant revival of interest in the philosophy of religion. More recently, philosophers of religion have turned in a more self-consciously interdisciplinary direction, with special focus on topics that have traditionally been the provenance of systematic theologians in the Christian tradition. The present volumes Oxford Readings in Philosophical Theology, volumes 1 and 2aim to bring together some of the most important essays on six central topics in recent philosophical theology. Volume 1 collects essays on three distinctively Christian doctrines: trinity, incarnation, and atonement. Volume 2 focuses on three topics that arise in all of the major theistic religions: providence, resurrection, and scripture.

The Russian school of modern Orthodox theology has made an immense but undervalued contribution to Christian thought. Neglected in Western theology, and viewed with suspicion by some other schools of Orthodox theology, its three greatest thinkers have laid the foundations for a new ecumenism and a recovery of the cosmic dimension of Christianity. This ground-breaking study includes biographical sketches of Aleksandr Bukharev (Archimandrite Feodor), Vladimir Soloviev and Sergii Bulgakov, together with the necessary historical background. Professor Valliere then examines the creative ideas they devised or adapted, including the ?humanity of God?, sophiology, panhumanity, free theocracy, church-and-world dogmatics and prophetic ecumenism.

Augustine's City of God, written in the aftermath of the Gothic sack of Rome in AD 410, is one of the key works in the formation of Western culture. This book provides a detailed running commentary on the text, with chapters on the political, social, literary, and religious background. Through a close reading of Augustine's masterpiece the author provides an accessible guide to the cosmology, political thought, theory of history, and biblical interpretation of the greatest Christian Latin writer of late antiquity.

This book offers a fresh and up-to-date account of the ethical thought of one of the twentieth century's greatest theologians: Karl Barth. In it, the author seeks to recover Barth's ethics from some widespread misunderstandings, and also presents a picture of it as a whole. Drawing on recently published sources, Dr Biggar construes the ethics of the Church Dogmatics as it might have been had Barth lived to complete it. However, The Hastening that Waits is more than apology and description. For it recommends to contemporary Christian ethics the theological rigour with which Barth expounds the good life in terms of the living presence of God-in-Christ to his creatures; his conception of right human action as that which is able to hasten in the service of humanity precisely by waiting prayerfully upon God; and his discriminate openness to moral wisdom outside the Christian church. Among particular topics treated are: the concept of human freedom and of created moral order; moral norms and their relation to individual vocation; the relative ethical roles of the Bible, the Church, philosophy, and empirical science; moral character and its formation; and the problem of war.

Barrett's book consists of a complete revision of the four chapters, of the Didsbury Lectures, given at the British Isles Nazarene College, Manchester. The chapter titles indicate the content: From Jesus to the Church; Ministry; Sacraments; and The Developing Community. Barrett properly points out that "the church is at the same time central and peripheral." Likewise, the church is provisional, temporary, penultimate-an interim solution for the time between the resurrection/ ascension of Jesus and the heaven of the church. He also correctly notes the possibility and danger of an ecclesiological as well as christological Apollinarianism. Consequently, he emphasizes the human nature of Christ and human dimensions of the church.

Willie Esterhuyse is 'n produk en kind van Suid-Afrika; wereldbekend as denker, spreker en raadgewer vir staatsleiers. Sy passie vir reis bring hom uit by oerbeskawings waar hy godsdiens se geboorte sien. Tydens besoeke aan Malta raak hy vertroud met die eilandjie se onstuimige voorgeskiedenis en erfenisterreine. Hy ontdek veral die arena vir die konflik tussen Christene en Moslems, 'n kwessie wat vandag die wereld aan die praat en vrees het. In opvolg van, God en die gode van Egipte, en Die God van Genesis, sluit hy die trilogie af met Geagte Jahwe. Meesterlik besluit hy om direk 11 briewe te rig aan God op sy Bybelse noemnaam, Jahwe. Hierin kan Willie vlymskerp die kernsake van ons tyd oopsny en basiese lewensvrae oopboor, soos die stryd tussen gelowe, ineenstorting van samelewings. Hy bied ook rigting vir soekende denkers oor 'n ander kyk op God vir ons tyd. Willie daag ons uit om verder te dink: met die "gees van omgee" wat verby die stukkkend en seer kyk - na 'n wereld wat menslik en leefbaar vir almal is.

"God Crucified" and Other Essays on the New Testament's Christology of Divine Identity The basic thesis of this important book on New Testament Christology, sketched in the first essay 'God Crucified, is that the worship of Jesus as God was seen by the early Christians as compatible with their Jewish monotheism. Jesus was thought to participate in the divine identity of the one God of Israel. The other chapters provide more detailed support for, and an expansion of, this basic thesis. Readers will find not only the full text of Bauckham's classic book God Crucified, but also groundbreaking essays, some of which have never been published previously

Karl Barth (1886-1968) was a prolific theologian of the 20th century. Dr Gorringe places the theology in its social and political context, from World War I through to the Cold War by following Barth's intellectual development through the years that saw the rise of national socialism and the development of communism. Barth initiated a theological revolution in his two "Commentaries on Romans", begun during World War I. His attempt to deepen this during the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic made him a focus of theological resistance to Hitler after the rise to power of the Nazi party. Expelled from Germany, he continued to defy fashionable opinion by refusing to condemn communism after World War II. Drawing on a German debate largely ignored by Anglo-Saxon theology, Dr Gorringe shows that Barth responds to the events of his time not just in his occasional writings, but in his magnum opus, the "Church Dogmatics". In conclusion Dr Gorringe asks what this admittedly patriarchal author still has to contribute to contemporary theology, and in particular human liberation. This book is intended for undergraduate courses in theology and history of doctrine.

This STUDY GUIDE is a companion resource to Wayne Grudem's Christian Beliefs, revised edition. Not every Christian needs to go to seminary, but there are certain teachings of the Bible that every Christian should know. Whether you're a relatively new believer in Jesus or a mature Christian looking for a better understanding of basics of the faith, the Christian Beliefs Study Guide can help you reflect on and deeply internalize the core teachings of Christianity, when used in conjunction with Christian Beliefs, revised edition (sold separately). This STUDY GUIDE will help you think through important topics like: The Bible and its authority for our lives The characteristics of God The importance of prayer Angels and the reality of spiritual warfare What it means that we are created in the image of God What God has done for us in Christ The purpose of the church What happens when Christ returns The biblical understanding of heaven And much more Chapter by chapter, this STUDY GUIDE will lead you to examine and reflect on Christian Beliefs, revised edition (sold separately), by providing: Summary: A short summary of the chapter to help remind readers what they read. Key terms: Definitions of important terminology introduced in the chapter. Key quotes: Selection of one or two key quotes from the chapter. Central Scripture Passage: An important biblical passage related to the chapter for reflection or memorization. Content Questions: Questions that reflect on the theological content of the chapter. Practical Application Questions: Questions that help tie the theological content of the chapter to real-life situations. For Further Reading: Lists where to find more information on theological topics in Systematic Theology, second edition, by Wayne Grudem so readers know where to go for a deeper dive into specific subjects they want to know more about. The Christian Beliefs Study Guide is the ideal resource for every Christian who wants a solid foundation for understanding the most basic and essential teachings of the Bible.

The book provides an original and important narrative on the significance of canon in the Christian tradition. Standard accounts of canon reduce canon to scripture and treat scripture as a criterion of truth. Scripture is then related in positive or negative ways to tradition, reason, and experience. Such projects involve a misreading of the meaning and content of canon -- they locate the canonical heritage of the church within epistemology -- and Abraham charts the fatal consquences of this move, from the Fathers to modern feminist theology. In the process he shows that the central epistemological concerns of the Enlightenment have Christian origins and echoes. He also shows that the crucial developments of theology from the Reformation onwards involve extraordinary efforts to fix the foundations of faith. This trajectory is now exhausted theologically and spiritually. Hence, the door is opened for a recovery of the full canonical heritage of the early church and for fresh work on the epistemology of theology.

This book sets out to present a Christian understanding of God in terms of the fundamental category of 'God as Spirit'. It shows that such an approach offers an alternative and preferable way of interpreting the biblical revelations as compared with the traditional account in terms of orthodox trinitarian and incarnational theology.