A culture built upon the ideology of individual choice is a culture of alienation, loneliness, and violence. In this provocative book, A. J. Conyers shows that Western culture was once informed by a sense of vocation, that men understood life as a response to a call from outside and above themselves. Conyers reveals with stunning insight how the quintessential institution of modernity is slavery, for the slave is the ultimate autonomous individual whose ties to family, church, and clan are dissolved. Cogently arguing for the affections that constitute real community, Conyers restores a sense of vocation and thus what it means to be human.

A culture built upon the ideology of individual choice is a culture of alienation, loneliness, and violence. In this provocative book, A. J. Conyers shows that Western culture was once informed by a sense of vocation, that men understood life as a response to a call from outside and above themselves. Conyers reveals with stunning insight how the quintessential institution of modernity is slavery, for the slave is the ultimate autonomous individual whose ties to family, church, and clan are dissolved. Cogently arguing for the affections that constitute real community, Conyers restores a sense of vocation and thus what it means to be human.

The political dogma of toleration is little more than a tool of the modern state in its drive for power and wealth. In "The Long Truce," A. J. Conyers shows that by banishing questions of ultimate meaning from public life, the modern version of toleration has debased our politics and undermined social cohesion. He argues provocatively for a return to the authentic toleration found in pre-Reformation Christianity.

A. J. Conyers was an evangelical, Baptist theologian who helped found Truett Seminary at Baylor university. Conyers's theology drank deeply from the wells of the Christian tradition. In this volume, he provides what he found to be the most basic elements of Christian theology and demonstrates a methodology that is biblically informed, traditionally grounded, and contextually aware. this revised edition makes this excellent work available again, with some modified study questions, additional unpublished material from Conyers's archives, and helpful reflection and tributes from two of Conyers's best students-Brian Brewer and Brad green-who carry on his legacy