Get to Know Jesus as He Really Is Jesus Christ changed everything when he walked the earth. But we often miss the most significant moments. As you look deeper at his life and ministry, you might be surprised at what you find. Ideal for both individuals and groups, this guide is the perfect resource to help you engage with the topics found in 52 Weeks with Jesus. Walking chapter by chapter through the book, each lesson gives you the opportunity to... Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus with relevant scriptures and insightful questions Reflect on the Book with key quotes from 52 Weeks with Jesus and discussion questions Put It into Practice with inspiring ideas for applying the life-changing truths you learn As you interact with this study guide each week, you'll come to know, appreciate, and love Jesus more than you did the week before.

The recent rise of the New Atheism has aroused great general interest, thrown up questions of fundamental importance, and started a fascinating conversation. Why God Won't Go Away invites us to join in. The volume opens with a survey of the main ideas of the New Atheism, as expressed in the works of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. We then examine the core views of the movement closely, making due reference to its 'virtual community' of websites and blogs. Subjects explored include: whether religion is delusional and evil, the belief that human beings are fundamentally good, whether we should have faith only in what can be proved through reason and science, the idea that the best hope for humanity is a 'New Enlightenment' The result is a lively and highly thought-provoking volume that poses a number of interesting questions. Why is religion experiencing a resurgence in the twenty-first century, when we are meant to have grown out of such a primitive fixation? Has the New Atheism's fascination with rationality led to a fatal underestimation of the longing of the human heart to adore? And if, as Christopher Hitchens writes in exasperation, religion is 'ineradicable', doesn't this tiresome fact suggest that dismissing belief in God as irrational and unscientific might just be a waste of time?

What does failure mean for theology? In the Bible, we find some unsettling answers to this question. We find lastness usurping firstness, and foolishness undoing wisdom. We discover, too, a weakness more potent than strength, and a loss of life that is essential to finding life. Jesus himself offers an array of paradoxes and puzzles through his life and teachings. He even submits himself to humiliation and death to show the cosmos the true meaning of victory. As David Bentley Hart observes, "most of us would find Christians truly cast in the New Testament mold fairly obnoxious: civically reprobate, ideologically unsound, economically destructive, politically irresponsible, socially discreditable, and really just a bit indecent." By incorporating the work of scholars working with a range of frameworks within the Christian tradition, Theologies of Failure aims to offer a unique and important contribution on understanding and embracing failure as a pivotal theological category. As the various contributors highlight, it is a category with a powerful capacity for illuminating our theological concerns and perspectives. It is a category that frees us to see old ideas in a brand-new light, and helps to foster an awareness of ideas that certain modes of analysis may have obscured from our vision. In short, this book invites readers to consider how both theology and failure can help us ask new questions, discover new possibilities, and refuse the ways of the world.

In 2003 the British New Testament scholar N. T. Wright published The Resurrection of the Son of God, arguing vigorously that the Resurrection of Christ should be handled purely as a historical event - subjected to historical reason and critical-historical research. This book critically examines Wright's arguments. Peter Carnley demonstrates the flaws in the view that the Resurrection should be understood essentially as Jesus' return from the dead to this world of space and time in a material and physical body. Carnley argues that the Resurrection of Christ is a "mystery of God", which must necessarily be appropriated, not by reason alone, but by faith. Evidence relating to a past occurrence can be known only retrospectively. Yet Easter faith has to do with apprehending in the present a concretely experienced reality - which Saint Paul called "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom 8:2). An epistemology of the identification of the Spirit in faith as the living presence of Christ will be found in the companion volume to this book: The Reconstruction of Resurrection Belief.

It is often recognized that the title "servant" is applied to key figures throughout the Bible, culminating in Jesus Christ. In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume Matthew Harmon carefully traces this theme from Genesis to Revelation with the intention of seeing how earlier servants point forward to the ultimate Servant. While this servant theme certainly is significant in its own right throughout redemptive history, it also plays a supporting role, enhancing and enriching other themes such as son, prophet, and king. Harmon shows how the title "servant" not only gives us a clearer understanding of Jesus Christ but also has profound implications for our lives as Christians. When we grasp what it means to be servants of Christ, our love for him and our obedience to him deepen. Understanding that the ultimate Servant Jesus Christ indwells his people to empower them to serve others in love has the potential to transform how we interact with fellow believers and the world around us. Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

The book provides a solid introduction to the themes of creation, grace, and redemption, integrating classical and modern theological resources with perspectives from science, cultural studies, and interaith dialogue.

Fifty Key Christian Thinkers provides both valuable information and stimulating debate on the lives and work of fifty of the most important Christian theologians. Divided into five sections, it covers:
* Christian Beginnings
* Middle Ages
* Reformation and its aftermath
* Modern Theology and the Twentieth Century.
This guide provides an overview of Christian theology from the emergence of the faith 2000 years ago to the present day. Among the figures included in this accessible guide are Paul, Aquinas, Ockham, Luther, Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer.

This workbook is designed to accompany the fifth edition of Bruce Shelley's Church History in Plain Language. Following the textbook's structure, this workbook offers discussion questions for group and personal reflection, assessments, activities, and resources for further study, all of which reinforce the textbook's teaching and support the students' learning experience. The newest edition of Bruce Shelley's Church History in Plain Language brings the story of global Christianity into the twenty-first century. In this fifth edition, Marshall Shelley assembled a team of historians, historical theologians, and editors to revise and update his father's classic text. As a result, it now includes important stories of the development of Christianity in Asia, India, and Africa, both in the early church as well as in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It also highlights the stories of women and non-Europeans who significantly influenced the development of Christianity but whose contributions are often overlooked in overviews of church history. Covering recent events, this book also: Details the rapid growth of Christianity in the southern hemisphere Examines the influence of technology on the spread of the gospel Discusses how Christianity intersects with other religions in countries all over the world Together with this workbook companion, the new edition of Church History in Plain Language provides an easy-to-read guide to global Christianity and promises to set a new standard for readable church history.

A Fresh Look at the Doctrine of Christ, Essential for Modern Theological Work Christology was the central doctrine articulated by the early church councils, and it remains the subject of vigorous theological investigation today. The study of the doctrine of Christ is a field of broad ecumenical convergence, inviting theologians from all denominational settings to fruitful collaborative exploration. In the contemporary setting, it is especially crucial for theologians to investigate the scriptural witness afresh, to retrieve classical criteria and categories from the tradition, and to consider the generative pressure of soteriology for Christology proper. The first annual Los Angeles Theology Conference sought to make a positive contribution to contemporary dogmatics in intentional engagement with the Christian tradition. Christology, Ancient and Modern brings together conference proceedings, surveying the field and articulating the sources, norms, and criteria for constructive theological work in Christology.

Theologians working in theological anthropology often claim that Jesus reveals what it means to be "truly human," but this often has little impact in their actual account of anthropology. ReSourcing Theological Anthropology addresses that lack by offering an account of why theological anthropology must begin with Christology. Building off his earlier study on how key theologians in church history have understood the relationship between Christology and theological anthropology, Cortez now develops a new proposal for theological anthropology and applies it to the theological situation today. ReSourcing Theological Anthropology is divided into four sections. The first section explores the relevant Christological/anthropological biblical passages and unpacks how they inform our understanding of theological anthropology. The second section discusses the theological issues raised in the course of surveying the biblical texts. The third section lays out a methodological framework for how to construct a uniquely Christological anthropology. The final section builds on the first three sections and demonstrates the significance of Christology for understanding theological anthropology by applying the methodological framework to several pressing anthropological issues: gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, and death and suffering.

In order to draw out the relationship between publicly-oriented Christianity and education, this book demonstrates that education is an important method and prerequisite of public theology, as well as an urgent object of public theology research's attention. Featuring work from diverse academic disciplines-including religion education, theology, philosophy, and religious studies-this edited collection also contends with the educational challenges that come with the decline of religion on the one hand and its transformation and regained public relevance on the other. Taken together, the contributions to this volume provide a comprehensive argument for why education deserves systematic attention in the context of public theology discourse, and vice versa.

The Latest Scientific Discoveries Point to an Intentional Creator Most of us remember the basics from science classes about how Earth came to be the only known planet that sustains complex life. But what most people don't know is that the more thoroughly researchers investigate the history of our planet, the more astonishing the story of our existence becomes. The number and complexity of the astronomical, geological, chemical, and biological features recognized as essential to human existence have expanded explosively within the past decade. An understanding of what is required to make possible a large human population and advanced civilizations has raised profound questions about life, our purpose, and our destiny. Are we really just the result of innumerable coincidences? Or is there a more reasonable explanation? This fascinating book helps nonscientists understand the countless miracles that undergird the exquisitely fine-tuned planet we call home--as if Someone had us in mind all along.

Throughout the twentieth century, Britain produced some of the most prominent evangelical theologians in both church and academic circles. This survey and introduction, edited by Thomas Noble and Jason Sexton, presents twelve of these theologians, exploring what made their work so influential and their continued relevance for today. As well as surveying each man's work, British Evangelical Theologians of the Twentieth Century considers what is meant by calling these theologians 'evangelical' Christians - taking into account their understanding of biblical authority, standing in the Reformation tradition and treatment of Scripture as well as their approaches to biblical criticism and liberal theology. As a result, it is ideal for students looking to deeper their understanding of British evangelical Christianity as a whole, as well as increasing their knowledge of the individual figures From James Orr and Lesslie Newbigin to John Stott and J. I. Packer, a range of perspectives within British evangelicalism is reflected. Along with brief biographies, each body of work is examined in three particular areas: stance on the Bible ('biblicism'), the atonement ('crucicentrism'), and concern for mission and evangelism ('conversionism'). British Evangelical Theologians of the Twentieth Century is a thorough introduction to twelve of the keenest and most influential minds in British evangelical thought. It will leave you with an appreciation of each man's contribution to English-speaking evangelicalism, as well as helping you to engage critically with their theology and understand how their work is relevant to the development and discussion of British evangelical theology today.

The First Council of Ephesus (431) was the climax of the so-called Nestorian Controversy. Convoked by the emperor Theodosius II to restore peace to the Church, it immediately divided into two rival councils, both meeting at Ephesus. Attempts by the emperor's representatives to get the bishops on both sides to meet together had no success, and after four months the council was dissolved without having ever properly met. But a number of decrees by the larger of the two rival councils, in particular the condemnation of Nestorius of Constantinople, were subsequently accepted as the valid decrees of the 'ecumenical council of Ephesus'. The documentation, consisting of conciliar proceedings, letters and other documents, provides information not only about events in Ephesus itself, but also about lobbying and public demonstrations in Constantinople. There is no episode in late Roman history where we are so well informed about how politics were conducted in the imperial capital. This makes the Acts a document of first importance for the history of the Later Roman Empire as well for that of the Church.

This book analyses the discourses of Orthodox Christianity in Western Europe to demonstrate the emerging discrepancies between the mother Church in the East and its newer Western congregations. Showing the genesis and development of these discourses over the twentieth century, it examines the challenges the Orthodox Church is facing in the modern world. Organised along four different discursive fields, the book uses these fields to analyse the Orthodox Church in Western Europe during the twentieth century. It explores pastoral, ecclesiological, institutional and ecumenical discourses in order to present a holistic view of how the Church views itself and how it seeks to interact with other denominations. Taken together, these four fields reveal a discursive vitality outside of the traditionally Orthodox societies that is, however, only partly reabsorbed by the church hierarchs in core Orthodox regions, like Southeast Europe and Russia. The Orthodox Church is a complex and multi-faceted global reality.Therefore, this book will be a vital guide to scholars studying the Orthodox Church, ecumenism and religion in Europe, as well as those working in religious studies, sociology of religion, and theology more generally.

Augustine and Modernity is a fresh and challenging addition to current debates about the Augustinian origins of modern subjectivity and the Christian genesis of Western nihilism. It firmly rejects the dominant modern view that the modern Cartesian subject, as an archetype of Western nihilism, originates in Augustine's thought. Arguing that most contemporary interpretations misrepresent the complex philosophical relationship between Augustine and modern philosophy, particularly with regard to the work of Descartes, the book examines the much overlooked contribution of Stoicism to the genealogy of modernity, producing a scathing riposte to commonly-held versions of the 'continuity thesis'.
Michael Hanby identifies the modern concept of will that emerges in Descartes' work as the product of a notion of self more proper to Stoic theories of immanence than to Augustine's own rigorous understandings of the Trinity, creation, self and will. Though Augustine's encounter with Stoicism ultimately resulted in much of his teaching being transferred to Descartes and other modern thinkers in an adulterated form, Hanby draws critical attention to Augustine's own disillusionment with Stoicism and his interrogation of Stoic philosophy in the name of Christ and the Trinity. Representing a new school of theology willing to engage critically with other disciplines and to challenge their authority, Augustine and Modernity offers a comprehensive new interpretation of De Trinitate and of Augustinian concepts of will and soul. Revealing how much of what is now thought of as 'Augustinian' in fact has its genealogy in Stoic asceticism, it interprets the modern nihilistic Cartesian subject not as a logical consequence of a true Christian Trinitarian theology, but rather of its perversion and abandonment.

As society becomes more concerned with the future of our planet, the study of apocalypse and eschatology become increasingly pertinent. Whether religious or not, peoples' views on this topic can have a profound effect on their attitudes to issues such as climate change and social justice and so it cannot be ignored. This book investigates how different approaches in historical and contemporary Christian theology make sense in reflecting about the final things, or the eschata, and why it is so important to consider their multi-faceted impact on our lives. A team of Nordic scholars analyse historical and contemporary eschatological thinking in a broad range of sources from theology and other related disciplines, such as moral philosophy, art history and literature. Specific social and environmental challenges, such as the Norwegian Breivik massacre in 2011, climatic change narratives and the ambiguity of discourses about euthanasia are investigated in order to demonstrate the complexity and significance of modes of thinking about the end times. This book addresses the theology of the end of the world in a more serious academic tone than it is usually afforded. As such, it will be of great interest to academics working in eschatology, practical theology, religious studies and the philosophy of religion.