The inerrancy of the Bible--the belief that the Bible is without error--is often a contentious topic among mainstream Christianity. Like other titles in the Counterpoints collection, this volume gives those interested in theology the tools they need to draw informed conclusions on debated issues by showcasing the range of positions in a way that helps readers understand the perspectives--especially where and why they diverge. Each essay in Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy considers: The present context, viability, and relevance for the contemporary evangelical Christian witness. Whether and to what extent Scripture teaches its own inerrancy. The position's assumed or implied understandings of the nature of Scripture, God, and truth. Three difficult biblical texts: one that concerns intra-canonical contradictions, one that raises questions of theological plurality, and one that concerns historical authenticity. Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy serves not only as a single-volume resource for surveying the current debate, but also as a catalyst both for understanding and advancing the conversation further. Contributors include Al Mohler, Kevin Vanhoozer, Michael Bird, Peter Enns, and John Franke.

Description: Jurgen Moltmann and others contend that Christian theology and the church face a dual crisis--one of relevance and the other of identity. Despite making this pronouncement nearly forty years ago, the church in the West continues to struggle with this crisis. Several proposals have been espoused, from the way of wisdom to the way of ecclesial praxis. Yet, little attention is given in Protestant theological discourse to the role God's beauty plays in bringing theology and ethics together. By neglecting God's beauty for theological discourse, we risk diminishing Christian worship, witness, and wisdom. God's Beauty-in-Act addresses these issues, in part, by arguing that the redemptive-creative suffering and glorious resurrection of Christ are the nexus of God's being, beauty, and Christian living. God's beauty, understood as the fittingness of the incarnate Son's actions in the Spirit to the Father's will, radiates God's glory and draws perceivers into the dramatic movements of God's triune life. These movements serve as the patterns that shape the imagination, enabling participants to perform their parts creatively and fittingly in God's drama of redemption. In doing so, human beings flourish as they jettison false identities and realities of their own making that are incommensurate with God's purpose found in Christ by the Spirit. Endorsements: "Garrett's book is an altarpiece with two panels and a hinge, a fitting structure for a work that depicts the cross as the enactment of God's beauty. . . . This study of Trinitarian theology presents the Son as the expression of the Father's glory, and the Spirit its impression. God's Beauty-in-Act describes how Christ's cross transforms our imaginations, enabling the church to participate in the dramatic movement that defines the beat of God's own heart." --Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School "Stephen Garrett has provided us with a deftly constructed and compellingly argued case for the centrality of beauty for a faithful doctrine of God, and indeed for the whole theological project." --Samuel Wells, Visiting Professor of Christian Ethics, King's College, London "Stephen Garrett presents a thoughtful Protestant appropriation of the work of Balthasar, which stresses the supreme importance of imagination in the contemplative reception and ethical imitation of the beauty revealed in the cross of Christ. Of particular value is the deeply scriptural and resolutely Trinitarian context of Garrett's reflections. This work is rich in ecumenical potential and makes a significant contribution to the task of shaping Christian ethics in light of the beauty 'ever ancient, ever new.'" --Francis Caponi, Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova University About the Contributor(s): Stephen M. Garrett, PhD, is an Academic Fellow with the International Institute for Christian Studies and Lecturer/Researcher of Public Theology and Philosophy of Religion in the Social Communications Institute at Lithuania University of Educational Sciences.

Introducing readers to the conversation between Christian theology and the arts, this handbook offers a survey of the current research in this field, and opens avenues for future work. Across the chapters there is a concern for the cultural and political embeddedness of theology and the arts, the relationship between form and content (in both art and theology), and a robust understanding of the world as the theater of God's glory. A thorough-going commitment to Scripture is also woven into the many different habits of thought that are represented in this volume. Part I surveys different approaches to the theology-arts conversation. Part II focuses on how particular art forms bringing theological issues to the surface and how theological and denominational traditions shape the making and receiving of the arts. Part III delves into key topics in the current theology-arts scene and asks how artistic and theological performance can both speak to theological and artistic knowing and help to celebrate and interrogate embodied, lived reality. Overall, this volume presents the theology-arts conversation from a distinctly Christian perspective, as a witness of the gospel of Christ to the world.