The book of Hebrews has often been the Cinderella of the New Testament, overlooked and marginalized; and yet it is one of the most interesting and theologically significant books in the New Testament. A Cloud of Witness examines the theology of the book in the light of its ancient historical context. There are chapters devoted to the structure of Hebrews, the person of Jesus Christ, Hebrews within the context of Second Temple Judaism and the Greco-Roman empire and the role of Hebrews in early Christian thought.

In hope, Christian faith reconfigures the shape of what is familiar in order to pattern the contours of God's promised future. In this process, the present is continuously re-shaped by ventures of hopeful and expectant living. In art, this same poetic interplay between past, present and future takes specific concrete forms, furnishing vital resources for sustaining an imaginative ecology of hope. This volume attends to the contributions that architecture, drama, literature, music and painting can make, as artists trace patterns of promise, resisting the finality of modernity's despairing visions and generating hopeful living in a present which, although marked by sin and death, is grasped imaginatively as already pregnant with future.

The central contention of Christian faith is that in the incarnation the eternal Word or Logos of God himself has taken flesh, so becoming for us the image of the invisible God. Our humanity itself is lived out in a constant to-ing and fro-ing between materiality and immateriality. Imagination, language and literature each have a vital part to play in brokering this hypostatic union of matter and meaning within the human creature. Approaching different aspects of two distinct movements between the image and the word, in the incarnation and in the dynamics of human existence itself, Trevor Hart presents a clearer understanding of each and explores the juxtapositions with the other. Hart concludes that within the Trinitarian economy of creation and redemption these two occasions of 'flesh-taking' are inseparable and indivisible.

The central contention of Christian faith is that in the incarnation the eternal Word or Logos of God himself has taken flesh, so becoming for us the image of the invisible God. Our humanity itself is lived out in a constant to-ing and fro-ing between materiality and immateriality. Imagination, language and literature each have a vital part to play in brokering this hypostatic union of matter and meaning within the human creature. Approaching different aspects of two distinct movements between the image and the word, in the incarnation and in the dynamics of human existence itself, Trevor Hart presents a clearer understanding of each and explores the juxtapositions with the other. Hart concludes that within the Trinitarian economy of creation and redemption these two occasions of 'flesh-taking' are inseparable and indivisible.

In hope, Christian faith reconfigures the shape of what is familiar in order to pattern the contours of God's promised future. In this process, the present is continuously re-shaped by ventures of hopeful and expectant living. In art, this same poetic interplay between past, present and future takes specific concrete forms, furnishing vital resources for sustaining an imaginative ecology of hope. This volume attends to the contributions that architecture, drama, literature, music and painting can make, as artists trace patterns of promise, resisting the finality of modernity's despairing visions and generating hopeful living in a present which, although marked by sin and death, is grasped imaginatively as already pregnant with future.

Change is inevitable in all communities: they both grow and decline. Planning is a means by which we have sought to manage this change. It has not always succeeded in providing the types of settlements and environments which many residents and others want, either because it is operating with the wrong policies or because it is failing to ensure that the right policies are effectively implemented. These failings have opened planning to criticism by a dominant neoliberal orthodoxy which shapes an increasingly difficult environment in which planning has to operate. Planning for Small Town Change builds on an underexploited selection of international research and the authors' English case studies to consider the efficacy of planning for change. Drawing on insightful small town experiences, three themes emerge: understanding and conceptualising change; appreciating the potential within place; and the mechanisms for planning and delivery. The research draws on many examples of how key actors have made a significant difference to specific places and provides important insights into how the planning process can be better matched to the long-term and complex challenges faced. Whilst small town experiences are often neglected, they are found to be particularly insightful in understanding the potential roles of local communities and the importance of place quality when planning for change.

Theology is inherently theatrical, rooted in God's performance on the world stage and oriented toward faith seeking performative understanding in the theatre of everyday life. Following Hans Urs von Balthasar's magisterial, five-volume 'Theo-Drama', a growing number of theologians and pastors have been engaging more widely with theatre and drama, producing what has been recognized as a "theatrical turn" in theology. This volume includes thirteen essays from theologians and pastors who have contributed in distinct ways to this theatrical turn and who desire to deepen interdisciplinary dialogue between theology and theatre. The result is an unprecedented collection of essays that embodies and advances theatrical theology for the purpose of enriching theological reflection and edifying the church.

Change is inevitable in all communities: they both grow and decline. Planning is a means by which we have sought to manage this change. It has not always succeeded in providing the types of settlements and environments which many residents and others want, either because it is operating with the wrong policies or because it is failing to ensure that the right policies are effectively implemented. These failings have opened planning to criticism by a dominant neoliberal orthodoxy which shapes an increasingly difficult environment in which planning has to operate. Planning for Small Town Change builds on an underexploited selection of international research and the authors' English case studies to consider the efficacy of planning for change. Drawing on insightful small town experiences, three themes emerge: understanding and conceptualising change; appreciating the potential within place; and the mechanisms for planning and delivery. The research draws on many examples of how key actors have made a significant difference to specific places and provides important insights into how the planning process can be better matched to the long-term and complex challenges faced. Whilst small town experiences are often neglected, they are found to be particularly insightful in understanding the potential roles of local communities and the importance of place quality when planning for change.

This work examines the theological relationship between creation and creativity in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. It does so by bringing together a synthesis of various disciplines and perspectives to the creativity of J.R.R. Tolkien. Hart and Khovacs provide a fresh reading of these important themes in Tolkien, and the result captures the multi-faceted nature of Tolkien's own vivid theology and literary imagination.

A look at life through the eyes of a cat named Oliver following the form of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, this little book will charm you as well as make you think.

The hopes by which the modern West has lived are widely understood to have failed. At the outset of the third millennium, we see the ideology of historical progress for what it is -- a myth that can no longer provide humanity with grounds for true hope. In "Hope against Hope" Richard Bauckham and Trevor Hart present a way forward -- through a radical faith in a global future that is in God's hands. Using the present failure of secular hope as the context for a renewal of the Christian vision for the future, Bauckham and Hart seek to re-source Christian hope from its rich heritage of biblical promises and their interpretation in the Christian tradition. In a fresh and skillful way they explore the major images of eschatology -- the Antichrist, the millennium, the last judgment, the kingdom of God, and others -- proposing the category of imagination as the key to understanding their significance today. The authors insist throughout on the cosmic scope of Christian eschatology, writing of God's future not just for human individuals but for the whole creation, and they explore the relevance of such an eschatology for Christian living in the present. A thoroughly interdisciplinary work that integrates biblical study, systematic theology, and astute analysis of contemporary Western culture, "Hope against Hope" is unique in offering a heartening look at the future from the perspective of life today.

This work examines the theological relationship between creation and creativity in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. It does so by bringing together a synthesis of various disciplines and perspectives to the creativity of J.R.R. Tolkien. Hart and Khovacs provide a fresh reading of these important themes in Tolkien, and the result captures the multi-faceted nature of Tolkien's own vivid theology and literary imagination.

The second annual St. Andrews Conference on Scripture and Theology brought leading biblical scholars and systematic theologians together in conversation, seeking to bridge the growing gap between these disciplines. Reflecting the convergence of the Old Testaments cultic theology, Hellenistic ideas, and early Christian thinking, the epistle to the Hebrews provides a perfect foundation for this fruitful dialogue. / The contributors examine a number of key theological themes in the letter to the Hebrews: the person and nature of the Son, his high-priestly work, cosmology, the epistles theology of Scripture, supersessionism, the call to faith, and more. Unlike many modern treatments, this substantial volume considers Hebrews in both its ancient context and against our modern backdrop. / Edward Adams, Loveday Alexander, Harold W. Attridge, Richard Bauckham, Markus Bockmuehl, Daniel Driver, Douglas Farrow, Trevor Hart, Richard B. Hays, Stephen R. Holmes, Morna D. Hooker, Edison M. Kalengyo, Mariam J. Kamell, Bruce L. McCormack, Nathan MacDonald, I. Howard Marshall, R. Walter L. Moberly, Carl Mosser, Mark D. Nanos, Nehemia Polen, John Polkinghorne, Ken Schenck, Oskar Skarsaune, Daniel J. Treier, John Webster, Ben Witherington III, Terry J. Wright.

The consideration of the person of Christ is often disentangled from his 'work.' But this doctrinal tidying can be misleading andtheologically dangerous. Christians contend that humans need to be rescued from an inescapable and uncontrollable plight that distorts and threatens to destroy their creaturely well-being under God. But how can a God who became flesh, taking on the form of one of God's own creatures and dwelling among us humanly, also be the salvation of humankind? The history of Christian doctrine reveals a remarkable variety and diversity of answers to this question.First, the biblical text itself offers a striking kaleidoscope of metaphors in its attempts to make sense of and develop the gospel message that salvation is at hand. Second, these images have, in turn, been taken up, interpreted, and developed within a vast range of different social and historical contexts, each bringing its distinctive questions, concerns, and expectations to bear upon the text.Finally, the christological identification of Jesus as God incarnate has been permitted varying degrees of purchase on the ways in which these images are unfolded and their entailments explored. In Him Was Life: The Person and Work of Christ is concerned with a series of core questions that arise when Christology and soteriology are deliberately brought together. How should we imagine and speak of what the intrinsically negative image "salvation"finally means in positive terms ifin Jesus God has, as various theologians over the centuries have dared to suggest, effected a marvelous exchange in which God has become what we are so that we in turn might share in God's own life? What does all this mean for our understanding of who God is, of our own creaturely nature and capacities, and of God's ways of relating to us and realizing God's own creative purposes? Andwhat might Christology itself have to say about the nature, possibilities, and constraints of theologyitself? Trevor Hart addresses these current and contemporary questions through a series of incisive engagements with Christian theologians spanning both centuries and ecclesial traditions, including Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius, Anselm, John Calvin, P. T. Forsyth, Karl Barth, J. A. T. Robinson, and T. F. Torrance.