"Eerdmans' third edition of Dowey's The Knowledge of God in Calvin's Theology is both a welcomed and noteworthy publishing event, welcomed because its publication makes available for a new generation Dowey's substantive analysis of Calvin's thought and noteworthy because its author's breadth of scholarship, then and now, endows the work, with its expanded appendices, with a lively, penetrat-ing, and judicious perspective from which to assess Calvin's theological genius. With incisive clarity, Dowey both explains and criticizes Calvin's principle of the duplex cognitio domini, illuminating how the Reformer's concept of the knowledge of God the Creator and the knowledge of God the Redeemer controls and contributes to the whole of Calvin's thought. Although first published over forty years ago, Dowey's comprehensive study still remains the best on the subject." - Theology Today

Who was Jesus? A cynic-like figure? A political activist? Professor Marcus Borg, a nationally known Jesus scholar, here offers an accessible guide through the growing maze of literature and research on Jesus. This state-of the art volume will be a welcome resource especially for libraries, research specialists and students. The book is divided into three parts. Part One deals with Jesus scholarship in the 1980s, focusing on the renaissance in Jesus studies during that period and summarizing the portraits of Jesus offered by North American scholars. Part Two examines issues in contemporary Jesus research, particularly questions related to the "eschatological Jesus" and the "politics of Jesus." Part Three looks at the potential of current research for helping rethink Jesus' identity and the implications for the modern reader and the church. Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship represents a "summing up" of current research and an illuminating and important contribution to the ongoing debate. Marcus J. Borg is Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University, a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar, and the author of the recently published Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time.

This compelling study by J. Christiaan Beker provides a moving, triumphant answer to one of life's greatest mysteries - the presence of suffering in God's world. Now an established classic in the discussion of the problem of evil, Suffering and Hope plumbs the Old Testament's response to earthly pain as well as Paul's own dealings with 'redemptive suffering.' Beker seeks to understand how the Bible's view of suffering relates to our present experience of suffering and to the Christian hope for the future creation. His concern is with the quality and character of bothe suffering and hope in a world where the question of suffering is inescapable. This powerful new edition features a foreword by Ben C. Ollenburger that describes the story behind the book - the dehumanizing conditions Beker endured as a slave laborer during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and the ways in which they helped shape the particular poignancy of his view of suffering. Readers will be moved both by Beker's personal transparency and by his biblical vision of 'hopeful suffering' - the apocalyptic trust in God's eventual victory over the power of death that poisons his creation.

Suppose that one is presented with a report of a miracle as an exception to nature's usual course. Should one believe the report and so come to favour the idea that a god has acted miraculously? Hume argued that no reasonable person should do anything of the kind. Many religiously sceptical philosophers agree with him, and have both defended and developed his reasoning. Some theologians concur or offer other reasons why those who are believers in God should also refuse to accept accounts of miracles as accurate reportage. This book argues to the contrary. For Houston, miracle stories may contribute towards the reasonableness of belief in God, and, appropriately attested, may be accepted by believers in God. To bolster his case he examines historically and intellectually significant writings about the miraculous. And having argued for the rejection of Hume, he explores the implications of this rejection for science, history and theology.

Thomas Altizer, one of America's premier theologians, searches for a proper understanding of the Christian God, which he believes can only be explicated when the question of origin is raised. He begins with an investigation of Hegelian thinking, develops his insights in dialogue with such thinkers as Augustine and Nietzsche, and then focuses on notions generated by the Christian epic poetry of Dante, Milton, and Blake. By explicating the absolute origin of God that only Christianity knows, Altizer discloses the origin of a uniquely Christian freedom while also touching upon such important themes as predestination, the fall, evil, and eternity.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

"An excellent introduction to the prophets and the prophetic literature . . . The goal of the book is to understand the thought of the prophets in their historical contexts, and to communicate that understanding for our time. Its approach, while innovative, builds upon he best of contemporary analysis of the prophetic literature." --Gene M. Tucker Candler School of Theology Emory University "Koch's first volume on the prophets of ancient Israel displays his sound and creative scholarship and will fill a bibliographical gap.He displays the individuality of each prophet with perceptive insight, but he also compares and interrelates them in his various summaries. Furthermore, Koch relates his study of individual prophets to theological currents that have been flowing through the scholarly world in recent decades." --Bernhard W. Anderson Princeton Theological Seminary

With this book, Anna Case-Winters provides a reconstruction of the doctrine of God based on process theology and feminist thought. She takes a fresh approach to the problem of theodicy (the justification of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil) and contends that traditional attempts to address this problem are unsuccessful because they do not discuss the meaning of omnipotence. Once the dispute is recast, it is not a question of how much power is attributed to God, but what kind. Case-Winters provides a coherent and theologically viable doctrine of omnipotence that avoids the pitfalls of traditional beliefs.

Arguing that world religions represent different paths to the one divine reality, Jon Hick offers a conception of Christianity and the wider religious experience of humanity. He discusses the meaning of suffering, God and evil, and the literal interpretations of scripture.

Ted Peters brings Trinitarian theology conversation to a new level by examining the works of Karl Barth, Karl Rahner, Eberhard Jungel, Jurgen Moltmann, Robert Jenson, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Catherine Mowry LaCugna. He highlights talk about the becoming of God by process theologians, sexism in Trinitarian language by feminists, and divine and human community by liberation theologians. Peters addresses the relationship of God's eternity to the world's temporality, and claims that thinking of God as Trinity affirms that the word "God" applies to both eternity and temporality.

Alvin Plantinga has done much to stimulate the resurgence of interest in the philosophy of religion. This collection of essays is written in response to his seminal paper, "Advice to Christian Philosophers", in which he issues a powerful, and inevitably controversial, challenge to religious philosophers to serve their own religious communities more faithfully. Plantinga advises Christian philosophers to expend more effort on issues of importance to the Christian community and, by implication, the particular Christian communities of which they are members. In addition he urges them to use their distinctively theistic and Christian perspectives in working in the many traditional areas of philosophy, a task on which the present volume focuses. The book begins by presenting Plantinga's essay, and the chapters that follow address issues in three traditional areas of interest to philosophers: epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. The first section, on epistemology and theism, contains essays by Alvin Plantinga, Jonathan Kvanvig, Richard Otte, and Stephen Wykstra. The next section, on metaphysics and theism, has papers by Linda Zagzebski, Del Ratzsch, Christopher Menzel, Charles Taliaferro, and Eleonore Stump. The final group, including Philip L.Quinn, William P.Alston, Scott MacDonald, and Carlton D.Fisher, addresses the subject of moral theory and theism. While certainly intended for Christian philosophers, other instructors and students of philosophy may be interested as well, because the book discusses several traditional philosophical issues in innovative ways, such as the nature of probability, scientific rationality, religious rationality, the logic of counterfactuals, and free will and moral responsibility.

Although the triune God is the heart of our faith, not much scholarship exists in recent years regarding it. The very depth of the mystery itself inclines us to silence. Also, feminist critiques of male symbols and language about the Trinity make it easier to say nothing.

This small volume takes a first step toward answering the need for contemporary scholarship on the Trinity. It opens readers to the meaning of the triune God for our concrete human lives, and in giving a taste of the vast riches of this God, to make the reader hunger for more.""

This book is gift-wrapped as a present. God's Gifted People is a present to yourself or to someone you love because it helps you discover the gift that you are as a person the gift that others are the way our personality gifts can be used to make Life more enjoyable, Love more exciting, Relationship more fulfilling, Work more satisfying, Spirituality more alive. God's Gifted People is an application of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). According to Consulting Psychologist Press, the Myers-Briggs has become "the most widely used measure of personality dispositions and preferences." The MBTI is used in industry, education, counseling, and over health services, and -- increasingly -- in religious life. In a practical and easy-to-read way, Dr. Gary Harbaugh combines the psychological perspective of the Myers-Briggs with a biblical understanding of gifts -- particularly the often overlooked gift of one's own unique personality.

This collection of essays, which originated in 1987 at a symposium entitled God and Creation: an Ecumenical Symposium in Comparative Religious Thought, is devoted to the doctrine of creation in the three Western monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Scholars from all three traditions investigate the historical and constructive aspects of this doctrine within an ecumenical environment. Several comparative dimensions, especially on the relation between creation and emanation, have been highlighted.

Offering an alternative to classic Christian theodicies (justification of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil), Wendy Farley interprets the problem of evil and suffering within a tragic context, advocating compassion to describe the power of God in the struggle against evil.

Jean-Luc Marion is one of the world's foremost philosophers of religion as well as one of the leading Catholic thinkers of modern times. In "God Without Being", Marion challenges a fundamental premise of traditional philosophy, theology, and metaphysics: that God, before all else, must be. Taking a characteristically postmodern stance and engaging in passionate dialogue with Heidegger, he locates a "God without Being" in the realm of agape, or Christian charity and love. If God is love, Marion contends, then God loves before he actually is. First translated into English in 1991, "God Without Being" continues to be a key book for discussions of the nature of God. This second edition contains a new preface by Marion as well as his 2003 essay on Thomas Aquinas. Offering a controversial, contemporary perspective, "God Without Being" will remain essential reading for scholars and students of philosophy and religion.

Luis de Molina was a leading figure in the remarkable sixteenth-century revival of Scholasticism on the Iberian peninsula. Molina is best known for his innovative theory of middle knowledge. Alfred J. Freddoso's extensive introduction clears up misconceptions about Molina's theory, defends it against both philosophical and theological objections, and makes it accessible to contemporary readers.

In this award-winning text, theologian Sallie McFague challenges Christians' usual speech about God as a kind of monarch. She probes instead three other possible metaphors for God as mother, lover, and friend.

In "Religion and the Unconscious," Ann and Barry Ulanov provide a thoughtful study of the relationship between religion and depth psychology. An insightful contribution to the entire area of pastoral counseling, this book demonstrates how to combine religion and depth psychology in order to provide more effective counseling.

How can an omnipotent God allow suffering and violence to pervade the world? Arthur McGill approaches this disturbing question by examining the concept of power that is violent, destructive, and dominative, and the power of God that is creative, totally open, self-giving, and expansive. Through consideration of power, McGill provides reflections on the nature of God's inner life in the Trinity and concludes that "service" characterizes God's relationship to the world, not "domination."