Reflects what traditional proverbs used in Christian catechetical, liturgical, and ritual contexts reveal about Tanzanian appropriations of and interpretations of Christianity.

God does not suggest, he commands that we do justice. Social justice is not optional for the Christian. All injustice affects others, so talking about justice that isn't social is like talking about water that isn't wet or a square with no right angles. But the Bible's call to seek justice is not a call to superficial, kneejerk activism. We are not merely commanded to execute justice, but to "truly execute justice." The God who commands us to seek justice is the same God who commands us to "test everything" and "hold fast to what is good." Drawing from a diverse range of theologians, sociologists, artists, and activists, Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth, by Thaddeus Williams, makes the case that we must be discerning if we are to "truly execute justice" as Scripture commands. Not everything called "social justice" today is compatible with a biblical vision of a better world. The Bible offers hopeful and distinctive answers to deep questions of worship, community, salvation, and knowledge that ought to mark a uniquely Christian pursuit of justice. Topics addressed include: Racism Sexuality Socialism Culture War Abortion Tribalism Critical Theory Identity Politics Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth also brings in unique voices to talk about their experiences with these various social justice issues, including: Michelle-Lee Barnwall Suresh Budhaprithi Eddie Byun Freddie Cardoza Becket Cook Bella Danusiar Monique Duson Ojo Okeye Edwin Ramirez Samuel Sey Neil Shenvi Walt Sobchak In Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth, Thaddeus Williams transcends our religious and political tribalism and challenges readers to discover what the Bible and the example of Jesus have to teach us about justice. He presents a compelling vision of justice for all God's image-bearers that offers hopeful answers to life's biggest questions.

Although Jesus was born in the western part of Asia it was not until 1500 later that Asia experienced the full impact of Jesus? person and teaching. Western missionaries, the primary transmitters of Christianity, left behind a Western understanding of Jesus. Today, Asians are seeking the face of the original Jesus?his Asian face. For them, all understandings of Jesus arise out of particular contextual needs. Enriching the Western understanding of Jesus they employ new interpretive resources and their own cultural symbols and thought patterns as they meet Jesus anew and make sense of his message for their own time and place. Contributors include: Ovey N. Mohammed, Seiichi Yagi, Aloysius Pieris, Stanley J. Samartha, Michael Amaladoss, C.S. Song, Kosuke Koyama, Michael Rodrigo, Chung Hyun Kyung, and Sebastian Kappen. R.S. Sugirtharajah, a Sri Lankan theologian and lecturer, is Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics at the University of Birmingham, England. Prior to his current appointment, he was Senior Lecturer in Third World Theologies at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. His other books include The Post-Colonial Biblical Reader and Voices from the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World.

In this incisive and important volume, Jacques Dupuis offers new insights on the most important issue facing Christian theology today -- giving an account of Christian faith as Christians go more deeply along the road of dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religious traditions. His task is to square a dogmatic circle. How does one do justice to the Gospel claim that Jesus the Christ is the final and universal savior of all humankind in every age, while also doing justice to the experience that truth, grace, holiness, and power are experienced in other religious traditions? In the first six chapters Dupuis reviews the history of the Western Christian tradition's teaching on other religious Ways through the breakthrough at Vatican Council II. In chapters 7 and 8 he reviews the critical issues of uniqueness of Christ and Christian proposals to account for the mediation of salvation in other religious Ways. He discusses also the relationship between the Reign of God, the Church, and the Religions. In chapter 9 he explores the nature and role of dialogue in a pluralistic society. In chapter 10 offers sage reflections on interreligious prayer.

How can we know if God is real? Does God truly cares about us? Why does God create people he knows will reject him? Why did God allow my friend to become a rape victim? Should I switch jobs? Is this person the one I should marry? If you have pondered these doubts, you are not alone. Sometimes we have intellectual questions about the plausibility of God. Other times we go through difficult life experiences that cause us to question our faith. Sometimes we simply struggle feeling confident with day-to-day decisions. Christina Powell knows what it's like to grapple seriously with challenges to faith. A trained scientist and cancer researcher, she struggled with the mysterious claims of a God who exists beyond what the scientific method could detect. Using personal stories from her own life, she explores how faith can be rooted in rationality, knowledge and facts, while coming to recognize the limits of science in evaluating matters of faith. Asking good questions can help us clarify and refine our faith. We can think critically about our doubts and learn to discern the true and the good. Powell probes the hidden factors that fuel our doubts to help us move beyond skepticism, disillusionment or painful life circumstances. We can live deeper into our questions in the context of Christian community. Ultimately we can work through challenges to faith and find a renewed confidence in our beliefs. It's okay to question your faith. But don't stop there. Question your doubts as well.

A multicultural conference has convened. Everything is in place, and the participants arrive brimming with goodwill and even better intentions. Surely this time...! But, no. Halfway through the meetings, communication grinds to a halt, and people retreat to the safety of their own groups. What happened? And how can we keep it from happening again? Those are the questions this book proposes to answer.

With one foot in the world of Scripture and another in the contemporary world, Karl Barth was both a modern and a confessional theologian. The intersection of these two worlds makes him a fruitful dialogue partner for thinking creatively about what it means to be faithful to Jesus Christ today. In this collection of essays both old and new, Kimlyn Bender explores Barth's understanding of Christ, church and world in conversation with American evangelicalism, Roman Catholicism, Reinhard H?tter, Adolf von Harnack, Bart Ehrman and Baptists, among others. Along the way he also engages the theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher. Bender's penetrating analysis of modern theology sheds light on both the task of theology and the witness of the church.

'The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares the way for this, or results from this.' This is the key statement of 'Miracles', in which C. S. Lewis shows that a Christian must not only accept but rejoice in miracles as a testimony of the unique personal involvement of God in his creation. Using his characteristic lucidity and wit to develop his argument, Lewis challenges the rationalists, agnostics and deists on their own grounds and provides a poetic and joyous affirmation that miracles really do occur in our everyday lives.

Of the different controversies that preoccupied Augustine during his lifetime, Pelagianism was indisputably the most important for the subsequent history and theology of the western Church. It touched on any number of issues central to Christianity, most notably grace, predestination, original sin and baptism, all of which in turn could be reduced to the fundamental question of the exact nature of the relationship between God and his human creation. The six major treatises presented in this volume amply illustrate Augustine's struggle with the theological problems that Pelagianism raised. They begin with the Miscellany of Questions in Response to Simplician. Although written in 396, before Pelagianism even appeared on the scene, this work shows in a few pages the remarkable evolution of Augustine's thought on the matter of grace and the position at which he arrived and to which he clung for the rest of his life. The two final treatises, The Predestination of the Saints and The Gift of Perseverance, written in 428/429 shortly before Augustine's death, indicate where the position that he had elaborated more than thirty years before was fatefully destined to take him. The three middle treatises show Augustine in the process of refining - but not altering - his thinking in the face of what he rightly saw as Pelagianism's terrible threat to orthodox Christianity's central tenets.

Find hope that lasts beyond earthly pain and spiritual encouragement to lead you into a deep relationship with the Healer himself. Our hearts, our bodies, and our world are desperate for healing. Whether we are experiencing physical, emotional, or financial brokenness, we rightfully look to Jesus to perform a masterful restoration. But how does healing fit into God's will, especially when God doesn't heal? And how do we catch ourselves from slipping into the trap of seeking God for what he can do for us, and not for who he really is? Author, pastor, and frequently sought speaker Costi Hinn provides clarity through thoughtful answers and biblical truths about Jesus and his healing ministry. Growing up immersed in one of the world's leading faith-healing dynasties, Costi witnessed the tragedy of people chasing after healing more than the Healer. And now he shares with others the true power and hope that comes from a genuine relationship with God. With captivating stories--beginning with the vivid memory of the night he discovered his son's cancer diagnosis--Costi empathetically unpacks the layered feelings and questions we have about God and his healing power and provides practical principles for growing close to Jesus. With gentle clarity and biblical wisdom, Costi explains how to pray for healing while submitting to God's sovereignty, navigate tough conversations about the topic, and hold on to faith even in the most painful trials. More than chasing after the Jesus we want, this hopeful and encouraging book will guide us to discovering the Jesus we truly need.

C. S. Lewis' Little Book of Wisdom offers more than 300 bite-size nuggets of inspiration and wisdom from the much-loved author, philosopher, and Christian theologist. Novelist, poet, critic, scholar, Christian theologist, and best-selling author of the Narnia series, C.S. Lewis was a deep thinker and a beautiful writer. His works have become timeless classics for adults and children around the world. Here, in one concise and inspirational volume, is the essence of Lewis' thought. This distillation of his feelings on subjects ranging from love and faith, to ethics and morality, to myth and literature will throw open the windows of the soul and provide readers with bite-size nuggets of wisdom and inspiration from one of the best-loved writers of the 20th century. This lovely little gift book will provide sustenance, wisdom, and hope for believers, seekers, artists and thinkers. It will provide an entry point for those unfamiliar with Lewis' thought; an entry point that will make them want to further explore his works of fiction and non-fiction.

Jim Wallis' major new book is a scathing indictment of the way that conservative evangelicals in the US have self-righteously attempted to co-opt any discussion of religion and politics. And, while the Right argues that God's way is their way, the Left pursues an unrealistic separation of religious values from morally grounded political leadership. God's Politics offers a clarion call to make America's religious communities and its government more accountable to key values of the prophetic religious tradition - pro-justice, pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-equality, pro-consistent ethic of life and pro-family. These are the values of love and justice, reconciliation, and community at the core of what many people believe, whether Christian or not.

An honest discussion regarding how devout Christians should react to the academic evidence and genuine personal experience that other religious ways result in engaged, loving and moral lives. Does being "saved," by the Christian definition, require a faith in Jesus Christ - meaning the historical person - or rather is it only important that human beings life their lives in accordance to His teachings. This books argues that one can be committed to a savior of "some other name," and simultaneously be aligned with Christian theologically and commitment.

American Evangelicalism is ablaze. This is an inevitable result of divisions along ethnic and cultural lines, which have long tarnished the movement's witness. Doctrinal identity unites black and white evangelicals, but rifts afflict the camp, so the movement is waning. In A Burning House, Brandon Washington contends that deliberate and sacrificial integration is the sole solution to bolster evangelicalism's foundation. In the 1950s and '60s, with desegregation on the horizon, Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I've come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house." As with the country, if we hope to move toward integrating the American Evangelical church, we must do so as firefighters. Washington is not calling American Evangelicalism to become something new. Rather, he challenges the movement to realize what it has always been in Christ. The selfless integration of Evangelicalism will result in a holy witness to humanity and a greater understanding of Shalom--peace, justice, wholeness--in the world. These are the inevitable fruits of espousing and preaching a comprehensive gospel message.

Raise Them to Value God's Design Starting at a young age, kids are being fed damaging misinformation about sexuality, gender identity, and human biology. As a parent, it's up to you to help your children understand God's truth about these integral concepts in the face of the candy-coated lies that saturate today's world. In the footsteps of the bestselling Mama Bear Apologetics comes this invaluable guide to training your kids to know and respect God's design in a world that has rejected it. This book will equip you to... understand God's design for gender, sex, marriage, and family as a beautiful portrait that reveals the nature of God Himself identify the tactics being used to trick children into adopting an unbiblical view of sexuality under the guise of Christian-sounding words like love, identity, tolerance, and justice teach your kids to treat those who hold different beliefs with gentle, Christlike compassion without compromising biblical values As society continues to blur the lines of what is good, true, and acceptable, God's standards remain clear and unchanging. This book will give you the wisdom to confidently raise your children to understand sex and gender through a biblical lens.

Imagine investigating a murder in which there was no crime scene, no physical evidence, and no victim's body. How would you identify a person of interest in such a case? Designed to be used alongside Person of Interest and the Person of Interest Video Study, this study guide will teach you the same investigative strategies used by detective J. Warner Wallace to examine the claims of history. Dateline featured cold-case detective and bestselling author, J. Warner Wallace, has investigated a number of these "no body missing person" cases and has successfully identified and convicted the killers, even without the victim's body or evidence from the crime scene. Can the historicity of Jesus be investigated in the same way? Can the truth about Jesus be uncovered even without a body or a crime scene? In Person of Interest, Wallace describes his own personal investigative journey from atheism to Christianity, as he employs a unique investigative strategy to confirm the historicity and deity of Jesus--without relying on the New Testament manuscripts. Imagine a scenario in which every New Testament document has been destroyed, Wallace carefully sifts through the evidence from history alone to reconstruct the identity of Jesus as the world's most important person of interest. Person of Interest will: Invite readers into the life of a cold-case detective as he uncovers the truth about Jesus, using the same approach he also employs to solve a real murder case Teach readers how to become good detectives, using an innovative and unique "'fuse' and 'fallout'" investigative strategy they can also use to examine other claims of history Help readers to explore common objections to Christianity Concrete, compelling, and unique in its approach, Person of Interest will strengthen the faith of believers, while engaging those who are skeptical and distrusting of the New Testament.

Part spiritual autobiography, part apologetics, Orthodoxy is G.K. Chesterton's account of his own journey to faith. Chesterton didn't set out to write a defense of Christian thought, instead he hoped to recount how he personally came to faith. However, in doing so, he penned one of the great classics of Christian writing, a book that has influenced countless people and continues to speak compellingly to our modern day. Chesterton writes about his journey of faith with wit, charm, and a razor-sharp intellect, undermining casual assumptions and lazy speculations in a relentless search for truth and meaning. Orthodoxy is the latest title in the Essential Wisdom Library, a series of books that seeks to bring spiritual wisdom - both modern and ancient - to today's readers. Featuring a foreword by Jon Sweeney, this new edition of the classic text is a must read for seekers and believers alike.

In a world indifferent or even opposed to Christian truth, followers of Christ must be better equipped to communicate the timeless of the Christian faith. But how do you have a conversation with someone who is intent on proving you wrong and won't accept the Bible as a source of authority? In Tactics, Gregory Koukl demonstrates how to artfully regain control of conversations, keeping them moving forward in constructive ways through thoughtful diplomacy. You'll learn how to maneuver comfortably and graciously through the minefields of a challenging discussion, how to stop challengers in their tracks, and how to turn the tables on question or provocative statement. Most importantly, you'll learn how to get people thinking about Jesus. Drawing on extensive experience defending Christianity in the public square, Koukl shows you how to: Initiate conversations effortlessly Present the truth clearly, cleverly, and persuasively Graciously and effectively expose faulty thinking Skillfully manage the details of dialogue Maintain an engaging, disarming style even under attack Tactics provides the game plan for communicating the compelling truth about Christianity with confidence and grace.

Ethics is approached as a study of a way of life that conforms to the will of God. Jones examines principles and casuistry in such matters as the sanctity of life, sexuality, economic justice, and truthfulness.