Over the last four decades, the focus of M. Douglas Meeks's work has placed him at the centre of many of the most important developments in theological reflection and education. As a political, ecclesial, and metaphorical theologian, Meeks has given witness to the oikonomia of the triune God, the Homemaker who creates the conditions of Home for the whole of creation, in critical conversation with contemporary economic, social, and political theory. The essays of this volume were written to honour Meeks, Cal Turner Chancellor Professor Emeritus of Theology at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, by addressing the theme of God's economy of salvation from biblical, historical, ecclesial, and theological perspectives. In an age of ecological devastation and economic injustice, Meeks teaches us how to place our hope - as disciples of Jesus, as members of local congregations, as stewards of institutional life, and as global citizens - in God's power for life over death through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. These essays will serve to enliven and clarify this hope for the sake of the world God so loves.

Jurgen Moltmann's The Crucified God is one of the most influential theological books of the twentieth century and a classic to be found on every reading list on Christian doctrine. Arguably the most powerful of Moltmann's books. The Crucified God is a seminal work on the crucifixion and its significance. The book takes death, despair and dreadfulness, the dark side of the human condition, with total seriousness and relates these to a liberating hope of redemption through divine agony and suffering. Influential for many years, especially with political and liberation theologians, but also much more widely, the book represents a concentrated blast of hard-edged doctrinal reflection and will continue to inspire upcoming generations who take seriously the life-changing notion that 'God was in Christ.' Reissued with a new foreword by the author himself.

Borrowing is a problem that Dietrich Bonhoeffer struggled with throughout his life and especially in active resistance to the Hitler dictatorship. We only "passively" share in the guilt of others (for example, in intercession), or we have to Become "actively" guilty (eg in resistance)? How is taking responsibility linked to responsible action? These and other questions are critically examined in relation to Bonhoeffer's entire works, especially his ethics.

Since the calls of the Second Vatican Council, Roman Catholic theologians have sought to overcome an overarching problem facing Jewish-Christian relations, the concept of "supersessionism"; the idea that God has revoked the spiritual and historical promises made to the Jewish people in favour of granting those same privileges to a predominantly Gentile Church. Israel, the Church, and Millenarianism breaks new ground by applying an ancient principle to the problem of Israel's "replacement": the early Church's promotion of millennialism. Utilizing the best in Patristic research, Aguzzi argues that these earliest Christian traditions made room for the future of Israel because Christ's reign in the Church was viewed as provisional to his historical reign on earth-Israel's role in salvation history was and is not yet complete. Aguzzi's research also opens the door for a greater Catholic understanding of the millennial principle, not shying away from its validity and relevance for understanding the importance of safeguarding Jewish particularity, while concluding that the Synagogue and the Church are indeed on a parallel trajectory; "...what will their...[Israel's]...acceptance be but life from the dead?" (Romans 11:15). Ultimately, the divine will is fulfilled through both Christian and Jewish means, in history, while each community is dependent, in different ways, upon the unfolding of God's future and the coming Parousia of Christ.

Since the calls of the Second Vatican Council, Roman Catholic theologians have sought to overcome an overarching problem facing Jewish-Christian relations, the concept of "supersessionism"; the idea that God has revoked the spiritual and historical promises made to the Jewish people in favour of granting those same privileges to a predominantly Gentile Church. Israel, the Church, and Millenarianism breaks new ground by applying an ancient principle to the problem of Israel's "replacement": the early Church's promotion of millennialism. Utilizing the best in Patristic research, Aguzzi argues that these earliest Christian traditions made room for the future of Israel because Christ's reign in the Church was viewed as provisional to his historical reign on earth-Israel's role in salvation history was and is not yet complete. Aguzzi's research also opens the door for a greater Catholic understanding of the millennial principle, not shying away from its validity and relevance for understanding the importance of safeguarding Jewish particularity, while concluding that the Synagogue and the Church are indeed on a parallel trajectory; "...what will their...[Israel's]...acceptance be but life from the dead?" (Romans 11:15). Ultimately, the divine will is fulfilled through both Christian and Jewish means, in history, while each community is dependent, in different ways, upon the unfolding of God's future and the coming Parousia of Christ.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus puts aside his usual parables and speaks plainly in language anyone can understand. Like Francis of Assisi and others, Arnold chose to live out Jesus teachings by embracing their self- sacrificing demands. In this collection of talks and essays, he calls us to live for the Sermon s ultimate goal: the overturning of the prevailing order of injustice. In its place, Arnold writes, we must build up a just, peaceable society motivated by love."

Modern humanity has accepted a truncated, impoverished definition of life. Focusing solely on material realities, we have forgotten that joy, purpose, and meaning come from a life that is both immersed in the temporal and alive to the transcendent. We have, in other words, ceased to live in God. In this book, renowned theologian Jurgen Moltmann shows us what that life of joy and purpose looks like. Describing how we came to live in a world devoid of the ultimate, he charts a way back to an intimate connection with the biblical God. He counsels that we adopt a "theology of life," an orientation that sees God at work in both the mundane and the extraordinary and that pushes us to work for a world that fully reflects the life of its Creator. Moltmann offers a telling critique of the shallow values of consumerist society and provides a compelling rationale for why spiritual sensibilities and encounter with God must lie at the heart of any life that seeks to be authentically human.

For a time of peril, world-renowned theologian Jrgen Moltmann offers an ethical framework for the future. Long distinguished as the architect of political theology and father of the theology of hope, Moltmann has shown how hope in the future decisively reconfigures the present and shapes our understanding of central Christian convictions, from creation to New Creation. Now, in an era of unprecedented scientific advances alongside unparalleled global dangers, Moltmann has formulated his long-awaited Ethics of Hope. Building on his conviction that Christian existence and social matters are inextricably tied together in the political sphere, Moltmann unfolds his ethics in light of eschatology, clearly distinguishing it from prior and competing visions of Christian ethics. He then specifies his vision with an ethic of life (against the dominant ethic of death), an ethic of earth (against todays utilitarian ethic), and an ethic of justice (against todays social injustice and global conflicts). In the process, he applies this framework to concrete issues of medical ethics, ecological ethics, and just-war ethics. A creative and programmatic work, Ethics of Hope is a realistic assessment of the human prospect, as well as its imperatives, from one who stakes everything on Gods promise to rescue life from the jaws of death.

Description: This delightfully multifaceted volume, comprised of thoughtful essays by an esteemed array of cultural critics, probes the intersection of Christian faith and culture to honor the memory of A. J. ""Chip"" Conyers, a remarkably ecumenical Christian scholar and cultural ""warrior"" whose premature death in 2004 cut short a remarkable career in teaching and writing. As those who knew him can attest, Conyers lived his life at the intersection of Christian theology and cultural concern with a singular blend of astuteness, gracefulness, and Christian conviction. This festschrift, as esteemed theologian and Conyers's mentor Jurgen Moltmann indicates in the foreword, is intended to mirror Conyers's own commitment to incisive cultural criticism and theological faithfulness in the mold of the ""great tradition."" This is no small achievement even for so venerable a cast of scholars as the contributors to this volume, as Conyers crossed interdisciplinary boundaries--in a day of escalating hyper-specialization--with the greatest of ease. He was comfortable discussing contemporary church life or the christological controversy of the patristic era, Heideggerian hermeneutics or human dignity and the imago Dei, faith and the Enlightenment or the fatherhood of God, Catholic ""substance"" or Protestant reform. Yet Conyers always did this through the lens of historic Christian orthodoxy. Though he was a most incisive student of culture, in a most refreshing way he steered clear of being co-opted by the currents of culture. Neither retreating into pious devotionalism nor opting for the theologically unreflective activism that has become so chic in our post-consensus climate, he embodied a theological perspective that blends responsible cultural engagement with eschatological hope. The reader is sure to encounter the same blend in this festschrift, and to come away both challenged and edified toward fulfilling the message and hope of Conyers' life and work: to faithfully thrive in Babylon. Endorsements: ""Chip Conyers was a remarkable Christian scholar, one who combined an intense desire for God with an unbounded love of learning. Like a meteor against the night, he illuminated the world around him and showed the church a more faithful way to follow Christ. The essays presented here give a sense of Conyers' breadth and wisdom and his courage to engage the culture for Christ's sake. This is a worthy tribute to one of the most generous, insightful, and humane theologians I have known."""" --Timothy George Dean, Beeson Divinity School General Editor of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture About the Contributor(s): David B. Capes is Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the School of Theology at Houston Baptist University. He has authored a number of books including Old Testament Yahweh Texts in Paul's Christology (1992) and Rediscovering Paul (2007). J. Daryl Charles is Director and Senior Fellow of the Bryan Institute for Critical Thought & Practice at Bryan College. Among the number of books he has authored are Retrieving the Natural Law: A Return to Moral First Things (2008) and The Unformed Conscience of Evangelicalism: Recovering the Church's Moral Vision (2002).

In these essays, written during the fertile years between Theology of Hope and The Church in the Power of the Spirit, world-renowned theologian J?rgen Moltmann demonstrates the remarkable depth and rhetorical power so characteristic of his major works. Here collected in one volume are brief, vital articulations of Moltmann's thought on such topics as eschatology, transcendence, hope, creation, the theology of the cross, the Trinity, development, the practice of liberation, justification, and biomedical progress.

The astonishing theological creativity of J rgen Moltmann continues in this new work, a vision of the Christian future, centered in God, God's reign, and God's justice or righteousness.Moltmann here brings together the biblical, historical, and theological elements of a new integrated Christian vision of the world, especially in light of our contemporary understandings of nature and the evolving universe. Anchored in the resurrection of Jesus, such a vision affirms that God is the God of resurrection promise, God is present in justice and righteousness, Jesus is the son of righteousness, and nature can be seen as the site of God's work toward the fulfillment of life. Here is a theological vision that can integrate our faith, inform our worldview, and fuel our life engagements.

"The following efforts bear the title Theology of Hope, not because they set out once again to present eschatology as a separate doctrine and to compete with the well known textbooks. Rather, their aim is to show how theology can set out from hope and begin to consider its theme in an eschatological light. For this reason they inquire into the ground of the hope of Christian faith and into the responsible exercise of this hope in thought and action in the world today. The various critical discussions should not be understood as rejections and condemnations. They are necessary conversations on a common subject which is so rich that it demands continual new approaches."

This collection of provocative essays by one of the world's most distinguished theologians deals with topics as diverse as the right to work, nuclear war, the Olympic Games, Lutheran and Reformed political thought, and the "common hope" of Judaism and Christianity ???????????? all within the framework of human rights. J????????rgen Moltmann believes that the dignity of the human being is the source for all human rights; if this dignity is not acknowledged and exercised, human beings cannot fulfill their destiny of living as the image of God.