In a time when organized religion is suffering an identity crisis, the author of The Last Presbyterian? examines the faith culture that shaped him and his family over the last half millennium. Filled with historical, theological, and spiritual reflections and set in the context of both old family stories and current trends, Cuthbertson's book addresses such timely issues as practicing faith within families, setting aside time for God, and t ...
Communication in Mission and Development identifies, unpacks, and articulates fundamental problems in communication in mission and development as it is being carried out in Africa and the majority world today. New technology, unique in the history of mankind, is throwing up vexing issues, to date barely recognized, in communication practice. This book reconsiders: –Previous work by mission scholars on communication. –Questions regarding mater ...
If you find books such as Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion compelling but your faith heritage is also important to you, this book shows how you can affirm both. Taking a cue from Marcus Borg's contention that «scriptural literalism» is for many people a major impediment to authentic spirituality, Carl Jech describes how all religion can and should be much more explicit about its symbolic, metaphorical, and artistic nature. With a part ...
"If a leader is a Christian, what difference does it make?" Giant strides have been made in secular leadership theory toward a Christian viewpoint. Priority is now given to character as well as competence, accountability as well as power, transformation as well as transaction, and servanthood as well as success. But these qualities apply to secular as well as to Christian leadership. So, the question remains, «What difference does it make?» ...
Unwilling on conscientious grounds to submit to the religious tests imposed by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the English and Welsh Dissenters of the second half of the seventeenth century established academies in which their young men, many of them destined for the ministry, might receive a higher education. From the eighteenth century onwards, theological colleges devoted exclusively to ministerial education were founded, while in S ...
While the concept of partnership between churches in the Global North and South has been an ecumenical goal for well over eight decades, realizing relationships of mutuality, solidarity, and koinonia has been, to say the least, problematic. Seeking to understand the dynamics of power and control in these relationships, this work traces the history of how partnership has been lived out, both as a concept and in practice. It is argued that many of ...
This book argues that problems with recognizing the State of Israel lie at the heart of approaches to nationhood and unease over nationalism in modern Protestant theology, as well as modern social theory. Three interrelated themes are explored. The first is the connection between a theologian's attitude to recognizing Israel and their approach to the providential place of nations in the divine economy. Following from this, the argument is m ...
No Longer Bound is about the intersection of reading comprehension and interpretation that leads to the development of a powerful and transformative sermon. Reading facilitates the interpretive process, which is the essence of any sermon. The sermon is an interpretation of an interpretation and as such presents itself as a new gospel message. The ability to write and preach a sermon is an exercise in freedom. The book is grounded in a narrative ...
In a wide-ranging meditation on the Cain and Abel narrative, Mark Scarlata draws out theological motifs relevant to Christian discipleship in a modern Western context. Taking his cue from Augustine's City of God, Scarlata brings to light what it means for a Christian to be a citizen of the heavenly city in this midst of a twenty-first-century globalized society. He argues that Christians can no longer think of discipleship merely as a perso ...