In his autobiography Joseph Turmel (1859-1943) has left an intensely personal account of his struggles to reconcile his Catholic faith with the results of historical-critical methods as those impacted biblical exegesis and the history of dogma. Having lost his faith in 1886, he chose to remain as a priest in the Church, even while he worked to undermine its teachings. He did so initially in writings published under his own name and, as his concl ...
If you have ever looked into the eyes of a parent who is heartbroken over a wayward child, then you have seen one of the worst types of pain imaginable. When the parent comes to that point, there is little you can do. As a pastor, I have seen that look in far too many parents' eyes. I have prayed with them, cried with them, and listened to them as they shared their pain. This book is written to help keep parents from ever having to endure ...
In this engrossing memoir, Christine Berghoef takes us on a journey exploring the simplicity and complexity of faith. Growing up certain she knew what life with God entailed, Berghoef soon found out otherwise. This vivid account, beginning in a conservative religious subculture that valued knowing the «right» answers over asking questions, will take readers on a voyage beyond dogmatism. No topic is off-limits, no stone is left unturned in this q ...
The disunity of the church is a social and theological scandal for it betrays the prayer of Jesus that we «will be one . . . so that the world will believe» (John 17:21). As a Baptist whose academic background focused on the Orthodox Church and whose teaching has included Catholic and Protestant contexts, this division is for Elizabeth Newman personal and professional. Attending to the Wounds on Christ's Body rests on the conviction that th ...
John Goldingay is an internationally renowned biblical scholar, teacher, and theologian whose writings have impacted Christians across the globe. In Conversations at the Edges of Things, Francis Bridger and James Butler bring together a wide-ranging collection of essays from John's friends and colleagues throughout his career and around the world in honor of his seventieth birthday and his lifetime's service to the church and the acade ...
Decoding Mammon is an exposition of the negative assessment of money implied in Jesus' statement, «You cannot serve God and Mammon.» On the basis of the theology enshrined in the Old and New Testaments and in the long-term tradition of the church, it is claimed that problems associated with money do not arise simply from the way it is used, but from the nature of money itself. Despite the fact that money has enabled great economic developme ...
They Who Give from Evil: The Response of the Eastern Church to Moneylending in the Early Christian Era considers St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa's fourth-century sermons against usury. Both brothers were concerned with the economic and theological implications of destructive and corrosive practices of lending at high rates of interest and implications for both on the community and the individual soul of lender and debtor. Analy ...
The idea of «salvation» tends to be interpreted as an exclusively religious category. The author of this essay believes that philosophy, the quintessence of human thinking, possesses a salvific power, as it offers the possibility of broadening the horizons of humanity, leading us out of the oppressive limits of our «hic et nunc.» However, philosophical salvation needs to be found in time and space. The edification of a society based upon the ide ...
In «Thoughts Upon Methodism,» John Wesley shared his hopes and fears for the future of his religious movement. The article contains this well-known passage: «I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid, lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case, unless they hold fast both the doctrin ...
