As an artist, Deborah Sokolove has often been surprised and dismayed by the unexamined attitudes and assumptions that the church holds about how artists think and how art functions in human life. By investigating these attitudes and tying them to concrete examples, Sokolove hopes to demystify art–to bring art down to earth, where theologians, pastors, and ordinary Christians can wrestle with its meanings, participate in its processes, and unders ...
Delio DelRio offers a fresh perspective on the contemporary quest for Paul by doing the hard work to uncover the milieu few have attempted to integrate into our understanding of Paul–the Jewish synagogue. By all accounts, Paul was centered in the synagogue. Paul himself in his own letters indicates his synagogue priority in preaching the gospel, and the narrative of Acts corroborates this emphasis. We have a window into that synagogue world, say ...
Bernard of Clairvaux is best known by many today for his mystical approach to spirituality and his eloquent sermons on the Song of Songs. In his letters, however, a different Bernard emerges–one who had fled the world for the cloister yet possessed a soaring vision for the Church on earth. By examining select letters and placing them in the larger context of the people and the world around him, we discover a man who loved the Church–but who real ...
What makes us religious? What is religion? This book presents relevant research and theoretical proposals for evolutionary theories of religion and socially and ecologically adaptive theories of religion. Most attempts to study religious behaviors through evolutionary biology and related disciplines are still very fragmentary. Mladen Turk brings those theoretical approaches in dialogue with religious studies and theology through interpretation a ...
As Christianity expands and grows in Africa, there is deep new interest in African theology in general, and the way in which some African theologians are interpreting the significance of Christ within African culture, in particular. This volume explores the Christology of two of the foremost African thinkers against the background of the West African Akan culture. The result is a rare and fascinating look at some of the key cultural symbols of A ...
In this book Dan Dunn proposes that the biblical theme of life is extremely important and thus provides a helpful foundation for the theory and practice of evangelism. He makes a strong case for Christ-followers to embrace a life-based evangelistic vision as a way to help non-believers choose the full and vibrant life that God intends for them in Jesus. While making this strong case, he also urges readers to avoid casting aside other evangelisti ...
Was America founded as a «Christian» nation? What role has the Christian faith of many of its leaders played in the course of its history? How has Christianity affected American culture and society? This trenchant critique of the role of Christianity in American history highlights both the ways in which Christians have made many valuable contributions as «salt and light,» and how they have caused a great deal of damage by trying to be «s ...
Here is the true story of a man from India who comes to the United States to go to seminary, which he finds to be both a demanding social environment and a vigorous philosophical and theological world. After four years of seminary he gets married and completes a doctorate in philosophy. Soon he finds himself in a profound spiritual crisis teaching philosophy in an ivory tower. He hears protests in the streets for civil rights, peace, and environ ...
Cordell Strug served as a Lutheran pastor for almost twenty-eight years in rural Minnesota. In these stories and reflections, he gives a picture of a pastor's life from the inside. He writes of sitting with the dying and meeting with the angry, of visiting shut-ins and writing sermons, of lonely drives over frozen roads, of work he can't finish and wounds he can't heal. He is candid about what surprised or bothered him, about his ...
