Douglas John Hall's popular and acclaimed writings have inspired and challenged readers four over decades making him of the most widely known theologians in North America. This collection of readings from Douglas John Hall's essential theological works has been carefully chosen to highlight the author's most important work. Hall's work takes the measure of Christian belief and doctrine explicitly in light of North American cultural and historical experience. Hall's theological insights challenge churches to embrace change and develop genuine community, uncompromised theology, and honest engagement with the larger culture. To a failed culture and a struggling church, Hall shows the radical implications of a theology of the cross for the shape and practice of church, preaching, ministry, ethics, and eschatology.

What does it mean to profess the faith as North American Christians at the end of the second millennium? What is Christian theology as consciously crafted in light of the distinctive history, culture, and experience of North America? Hall marshalls doctrinal resources for a critical, creative response that stresses God's necessary involvement in an unfinished, dynamic, suffering world.

In these dialogues with doubt, Hall enters into an earnest search with a young inquirer a composite of undergraduates, graduates, clergy, working people, his own children who is on the edges of Christian faith. Half familiar with superficial aspects of Christianity, hopeful of there being greater depth than has been found so far, she or he is curious, insistent, looking for something to believe in but not ready to leap without good reason. Such a person is asking, "Why be Christian?" In a passionate and personal way, Hall probes fundamental religious questions and wrestles with the cogency of basic Christian convictions about Jesus and God, about religious belief and the human predicament, about inauthentic forms of Christianity, about what is missing in human life today. Quoting Unamuno's dictum that "Faith that does not doubt is dead faith," Hall's accessible and straightforward book helps readers to reclaim a Christianity of personal, intellectual, and moral integrity. This book may well prove a modern religious classic.

Professor Hall has written a major work on an agonizing subject, at once brilliant, comprehensive, and thought provoking. In contrast to many writers who gloss over one or the other, Dr. Hall is true both to the reality of suffering and to the affirmation that God creates, sustains, and redeems. Creative is his view that certain aspects of what we call suffering -- loneliness, experience of limits, temptation, anxiety -- are necessary parts of God's good creation. These he distinguishes from suffering after the fall, the tragic dimension of life. Unique is his structure: creation-suffering as becoming the fall--suffering as a burden redemption--conquest from within. Professor Hall succeeds in moving the reader beyond the customary way of stating the problem: "How can undeserved suffering coexist with a just and almighty God?" He also evaluates five popular, leading thinkers on suffering: Harold Kushner, C.S. Lewis, Diogenes Allen, George Buttrick, and Leslie Weatherhead.

Christian Theology after Christendom: Engaging the Thought of Douglas John Hall brings together contemporary thinkers to engage and build upon Douglas John Hall's work-and to take up his challenge to reclaim a contextual and de-colonizing theology of the cross as a means to speak of the realities of life and faith today. With a focus on contemporary issues, this collection of essays critically analyzes and deconstructs the centuries-old colonial triumphalism of Christian theology and the church in the West. This edited collection seeks to frame present day crises in ways that honor a deeply rooted theologia crucis that does not colonize the "other." It explores constructive decolonizing possibilities for Christian theology at the end of Christendom.

In a time of rapid change and global confusion, how are Christians to perceive God at work in history? The theme of God's presence among the nations is here addressed from different perspectives by two major theologians. Douglas John Hall explores foundational theological questions: the providence of God, the relation of global to national concerns, and the role of the church in relation to God's worldly work. Rosemary Radford Ruether raises the question of the presence of God in the context of three major crises of our times-the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, global poverty and the preferential option for the poor, and the ecological crisis.

How do we hope in the face of modernity's failure and postmodernity's absence of foundations? How do we hope when the future seems fearful and no clear way forward appears? How do we hope when despair, indifference, and cynicism dominate the psychic landscape of English-speaking North America? In dialogue with theologians of the cross George Grant and Douglas John Hall, this book unmasks the failure of hope in our time and the vacuum of meaning that remains. As an exercise in the theology of the cross, Waiting at the Foot of the Cross explores the North American context as one in which true hope is discovered only when life's negations are engaged from a posture of waiting trust. Such hope is not passive or blind. Rather, it is attentive, active, open, and spiritually grounded in the One who meets us when all hope is spent. The final chapter proposes a way toward hope for today that inspires subversive resilience in the face of the ambiguities and vicissitudes of life. Readers interested in the theology of the cross, in thinking theologically in our time and place, and those interested in the character of Christian hope will find this book compelling. "Pamela McCarroll makes an eloquent plea for North American Christians to commit a subversive and countercultural act. Her creative application of the theology of the cross effectively reinterprets our primary vocation in terms of waiting in hope, open to a hidden God whom we cannot master. This book is important for all who are caught in systems of modernity that limit hope to what we can imagine." --Sarah Travis, Adjunct Professor of Homiletics, Knox College, University of Toronto, Canada "Waiting at the Foot of the Cross is a compelling invitation to reconsider the theology of the cross in a North American context through the complementary lenses of George Grant and Douglas John Hall. Far more than simply a recapitulation of Grant and Hall, however, the discussion turns over new theological ground and offers a thick account of hope as 'waiting' that is both prophetic and consoling. McCarroll has written an important and timely book." --Thomas E. Reynolds, Associate Professor of Theology, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto, Canada "Her focus is 'hope at the end of hope' when crises of violence, poverty, and ecological devastation threaten as never before. Elaborating Grant's and Hall's criticism of technological mastery, she proposes a theology and practice of hope which is the converse of mastery, which both waits and acts, in a posture of trust and openness to the God of the cross. An important contribution to North American theology today " --Harold Wells, Professor Emeritus, Systematic Theology, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto, Canada "Ultimately, McCarroll envisions practices of a hope that waits at the foot of the cross. Hers is a crucial word for the once-mainline-church in a postmodern world." --David Schnasa Jacobsen, Professor of the Practice of Homiletics and Director of the Homiletical Theology Project, Boston University School of Theology "McCarroll's unique contribution shines through as she advances 'waiting at the foot of the cross' as a posture of receptivity that eschews easy cynicism while anticipating a hope not seduced by the official optimism symptomatic of American exceptionalism. A must read " --Allen Jorgenson, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, Assistant Dean, Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo Ontario. Pamela R. McCarroll is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology and Director of Field Education at Knox College in the University of Toronto. She is certified as a Teaching Supervisor by the Canadian Association of Spiritual Care (CASC) and ordained in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Pam's interest in hope grows out of her clinical work in spiritual care and her yearning to think and live the faith amidst rapid changes in church and public life.

Synopsis: What reallyisChristianity? If all thereligiouspackaging in which it is wrapped were removed, what would remain? These were Bonhoeffer's questions, and they must be ours today--even more urgently For in many quarters Christianity is being so narrowly identified with some of its parts, cultural associations, and past ambitions that like all militant religion, it represents a threat to the planetary future. We may no longer speak clearly of the essence of Christianity, as von Harnack and other nineteenth-century thinkers did; but perhaps we may still have a sufficiently shared sense of the kerygmatic core of this faith to be able, in the face of these misrepresentations of it, to say what Christianity isnot. Endorsements: "Those who know the work of Hall will know what to expect in this book: wisdom that comes from long years of faithful discernment, pathos about foolish fickleness in the name of the gospel, and buoyancy because he trusts the God of the gospel. Readers who do not know his work may take this book as an access point. In his critique of idolatrous misconstruals of the faith, Hall is himself a forceful antidote to the dysfunction of our society and to the dismay of the church." --Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary "As one of this generation's most profound theological thinkers, Douglas John Hall reveals his magisterial grasp of the depth and complexity of the Christian tradition. His elegance is] matched only by profound understanding of human longing in his presentation of the God of steadfast and loving kindness. He is a master craftsman whose building blocks are the broad themes of systematic theology, which he brings together with his legendary stylish and grace-filled writing." --Patricia G. Kirkpatrick, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, McGill University Author Biography: Douglas John Hall is Emeritus Professor of ChristianTheology in McGill University, Montreal. He is the author of twenty-five volumes, including two recent offerings from Cascade Books--TheMessenger: Friendship, Faith, and Finding One's Way (2011); andWaiting for Gospel: An Appeal to the Dispirited Remnants of Protestant "Establishment" (2012).

Synopsis: "Christianity, as faith centered in Jesus as the Christ came to be called, got a foothold in the world, and for a vital and vocal minority changed the world, because it proclaimed a message that awakened men and women to possibilities for human life that they had either lost or never entertained. That message the first Christian evangelists (and Jesus himself, according to the record) called euangellion--good news, gospel. For its first two or three hundred years, Christianity was largely dependent for its existence upon the new zest for life that was awakened in persons who heard and were, as they felt, transformed, by that gospel; and at various and sundry points in subsequent history the Christian movement has found itself revitalized by the spirit of that same 'good news' in ways that spoke to the specifics of their times and places. "The lesson of history is clear: the challenge to all serious Christians and Christian bodies today is not whether we can devise yet more novel and promotionally impressive means for the transmission of 'the Christian religion' (let alone this or that denomination); it is whether we are able to hear and to proclaim . . . gospel We do not need statisticians and sociologists to inform us that religion--and specifically our religion, as the dominant expression of the spiritual impulse of homo sapiens in our geographic context--is in decline. We do not need the sages of the new atheism to announce in learned tomes (and on buses ) that 'God probably does not exist.' The 'sea of faith' has been ebbing for a very long time." --from the Introduction Endorsements: "Douglas John Hall is a treasure, a man I have known whose intellectual depth is matched only by his spirit of kindness. . . . So to is Waiting for Gospel. As people continue to discuss the place of the church in North America leaning on sociology and cultural studies, Doug Hall reminds us that in the end it will be only theology, a lived theology of existential depth, that will help. All the contemporary talk of church in North America has so often failed to provide truly unique and insightful thoughts . . . about how God's revelation in Jesus Christ is encountering people in this context, at this time. Waiting for Gospel propels us in that direction and therefore shines brightly, giving the reader value upon value." --Andrew Root Olson Baalson Associate Professor of Youth and Family Ministry, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota Author of The Promise of Despair: The Way of the Cross as the Way of the Church (2010) Author Biography: Douglas John Hall is Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology in the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University in Montreal. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including Lighten Our Darkness (1976, 2001); Why Christian? (1998); God and Human Suffering (1986); The Steward (1990; Wipf & Stock, 2004); and The Messenger (Cascade Books, 2011). He has lectured widely in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Japan, and is the recipient of many honors, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Union Theological Seminary, the Joseph Sittler Award for Leadership in Theology, and the Order of Canada.

Description: This is a book about the importance of mentors in the lives of the young. But rather than developing the theme of mentoring theoretically, Douglas John Hall demonstrates its significance quite personally, autobiographically. In his twentieth year and hoping to study music professionally, Hall met a young minister whose ""different"" Christianity both surprised and intrigued him. In the end, this friendship altered the course of his life. The book traces the story of this friendship of more than half a century, and the impact of the times upon the lives of its two principal figures. Endorsements: ""Doug Hall weighs in again with his characteristic gracefulness and his mature, uncommon wisdom. He bears witness to the incarnational way of faith that impinges upon real life in the world. Hall is no saint-maker, but he knows one when he sees one "" -Walter Brueggemann Columbia Theological Seminary ""More than any other person, Robert 'Bob' Miller, as Travelling Study Secretary of the Student Christian Movement of Canada and bookman par excellence, brought home to the generation of Canadian university students of the 1950s through 1970s the religious and philosophical debates, the art and literature, and the social and political turmoil of post-second world war Europe. It is not surprising that he should have become the mentor of Douglas John Hall, Canada's pre-eminent Protestant theologian, who here tells that story with great sensitivity and insight."" -Richard Allen McMaster University ""Above all, this book is about friendship between two prophets, both ministers of the United Church of Canada whose honor in their own country, or beyond, is impossible to assess. In The Messenger, Douglas John Hall's tribute to his friend, the reader also learns a good deal about Canada's foremost Protestant theologian who provides a fascinating window on what happened to postwar European theology as it made the transition to North America."" -Margaret Prang University of British Columbia About the Contributor(s): Douglas John Hall is Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology in the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University in Montreal. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including Lighten Our Darkness (1976, 2001); Why Christian? (1998); God & Human Suffering (1986); and The Steward (1990; Wipf & Stock, 2004);. He has lectured widely in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Japan, and is the recipient of many honors, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Union Theological Seminary, the Joseph Sittler Award for Leadership in Theology, and the Order of Canada.