It is now generally accepted that the nature of human thought has much to do with the structure and function of the human body. In Spirituality in the Flesh, Robert C. Fuller investigates how our sensory organs, emotional programs, sexual sensibilities, and neural structures shape religious phenomena. Why is it that some religious traditions assign spiritual currency to pain? How do neurochemically-driven emotions such as fear shape our religious actions? What is the relationship between chemically altered states of consciousness and religious innovation? The body has recently become a subject of investigation among scholars of religion. Many such studies focus on the concept of the body as a cultural construct. Whereas these treatments helpfully demonstrate how cultures construct ideas about the body, Fuller asks how the body itself influences religious concepts. Seeking to establish a middle ground between purely materialistic or humanistic arguments, he skillfully pairs scientific findings with religious truths. Both perspectives could learn from the other: Fuller takes scientific interpreters to task for failing to understand the inherently cultural aspects of embodied experience even as he chides most religion scholars for ignoring new knowledge about the biological substrates of human behavior. Comfortable with the language of scientific analysis and sympathetic to the inherently subjective aspects of religious events, Fuller introduces the biological study of religion by joining our unprecedented understanding of bodily states with an experts knowledge of religious phenomena. Culling insights from scientific observations, historical allusions, and literary references, Spirituality in the Flesh provides fresh understandings that promise to enrich our appreciation of the embodied religious experience.

In this volume von Balthasar turns to the works of the lay theologians, the poets and the philosopher theologians who have kept alive the Grand Tradition of Christian theology in writings formally very different from the works of the Fathers and the great Scholastics. This volume contains studies of Dante, John of the Cross, Pascal, Hamann, Soloviev, Hopkins and Peguy.

offers a series of earlier Christian theology when the aesthetic view was still held and appreciated. Drawing insights from some of the leading figures of the early Church such as Anselm, Augustine, Bonaventura, Denys and Irenaeus, von Balthasar presents his views with a freshness and vigour rarely excelled in contemporary theological writing about the Grand Tradition.

Juergen Moltmann reflects on theology and ecology."

This text opens with a critical review of developments in Protestant and Catholic theology since the Reformation which have led to the steady neglect of aesthetics in Christian theology. Then, von Balthasar turns to the central theme of the volume, the question of theological knowledge. He re-examines the nature of Christian believing, drawing widely on such theological figures as Anselm, Pascal and Newman.

This is an introduction to African Christian ethics for Christian colleges and Bible schools. The book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the theory of ethics, while the second discusses practical issues. The issues are grouped into the following six sections: Socio-Political Issues, Financial Issues, Marriage Issues, Sexual Issues, Medical Issues, and Religious Issues. Each section begins with a brief general introduction, followed by the chapters dealing with specific issues in that area. Each chapter begins with an introduction, discusses traditional African thinking on the issue, presents an analysis of relevant biblical material, and concludes with some recommendations. There are questions at the end of each chapter for discussion or personal reflection, often asking students to reflect on how the discussion in the chapter applies to their ministry situation.

With warmth and encouragement Pastor John Mark Comer, author of ECPA Bestseller The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, offers guidance and advice to help you recognise the lies and resist the forces that seek to steal your happiness, wholeness and holiness. As Christians, we're all at war with three fierce adversaries of the soul that feed us deceptive ideas to harm our spiritual well-being: the world, the flesh and the devil. Live No Lies parses out the tactics, strengths and weaknesses of these enemies, giving you a clear battle plan and spiritual practices to outwit and overcome these evils. Skilfully weaving together uplifting wisdom and reassuring, practical guidance, this is a book for anyone looking for everyday disciplines to help them care for their soul. Live No Lies will equip you with all you need to make practices for resisting evil an active part of your spiritual formation, and leave you motivated to find happiness and peace in Jesus. That tug-of-war in your chest for wholeness? Those lies that sabotage your peace? It's time to identify them, and defeat them.

Pastors and leaders of the classical church--such as Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and Wesley--interpreted the Bible theologically, believing Scripture as a whole witnessed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Modern interpreters of the Bible questioned this premise. But in recent decades, a critical mass of theologians and biblical scholars has begun to reassert the priority of a theological reading of Scripture. The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible enlists leading theologians to read and interpret Scripture for the twenty-first century, just as the church fathers, the Reformers, and other orthodox Christians did for their times and places. In the sixth volume in the series, Phillip Cary presents a theological exegesis of Jonah.

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.

Although most natural law ethical theories recognize moral absolutes, there is not much agreement even among natural law theorists about how to identify them. The author argues that in order to understand and determine the morality (or immorality) of a human action, it must be considered in relation to the organized system of human practices within which it is performed. In order to depict this structure and to explain how it bears upon the analysis of action, the author investigates a number of issues that have attracted the attention of Thomistic and Aristotelian scholarship. He examines the nature of practical reason, its relationship with theoretical reason, the derivation of lower from higher ethical principles, the incommensurability of human goods, the relationship between will and intellect, and the principle of double effect.

In 1950, the famous Dominican theologian Yves Congar stated that there were three kinds of reform in Church history, to cure three kinds of corruption. Doctrinal orthodoxy was reformed by General councils. Institutional shortcomings were reformed by administrative means (like codifying Church law). Moral failings were remedied best by the preaching of religious orders. He also added that in the 20th century, since the Church suffered neither heresy nor moral laxity, the only area was institutional reform. He died before the sexual abuse of children came to light. If Congar got it wrong, it suggests that the Church cannot reform itself: or can it? Michael Winter was ordained priest for the Catholic diocese of Southwark in 1955. He worked for nine years as curate and parish priest in a variety of parishes. Later he pursued further studies in theology at the universities of London, Cambridge and Fribourg (Switzerland), where he was awarded the Doctorate in Theology in 1977. He resigned from the clergy in 1986 and turned to university teaching, and writing. Subsequently.