2009 is the 500th anniversary of the birth of Calvin, the Reformed theologian whose legacy has played such an important role in the shaping of modern South Africa. The popular understanding of him as grim moralist, proponent of predestination and a tyrannical God is a caricature, but one that does spring from aspects of Calvin's legacy. In this book, De Gruchy attempts to restate the Reformed tradition as a transforming fo ...
There is a virtual epidemic of addiction in the United States, both traditional addictions to drugs and alcohol but also newer addictions, like sex, gambling, rage, work, and food/eating. Some authorities have labeled addictions the number one mental health problem in America. We are spending millions of dollars annually trying to prevent, understand, and treat this epidemic–and yet by any measure of success we are losing this «war.» In this cul ...
Honesty. Humility. The purpose and future of the church. Useful and not useful parts of the Bible. A doctrine of salvation that includes mosquitoes. These are some of the topics dealt with in this controversial book. Written for those who still have hope for the church as well as those who don't, Wes Bergen's aim is to cast a vision of the church beyond divine fire insurance. Bergen's contention is that salvation is somet ...
How are we to see the Old Testament's characters–typically a tangle of both virtue and vice–as models for our own ethical living? It is clear that Scripture intends for us to embody some qualities while eschewing others, and at times these are immediately obvious: David's wholehearted pursuit of God is admirable, while his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah are deplorable. But more often than not we are left with shades of gra ...
Who was Papias, who did he know, and what did he believe about the writings that now comprise the canonical New Testament? Very little can be objectively known about him, his ministry, and his work, and yet he demands the attention of any scholar, student, or layperson who desires to understand the origins of the New Testament. This book explores Papias as a source and what he wrote about the origins of certain New Testament books. It a ...
Most Christians worship on a regular basis on the Lord's Day. They have done so from the beginning, and their worship has centered on the Eucharist, following Jesus's words, «Do this in remembrance of me.» Over the two millennia of the Christian tradition there have been shifts of emphasis and understanding about the Eucharist. This book attempts to point out, by providing accessible accounts of both liturgies and liturgists across the ...
Every culture has a way of perceiving and practicing marriage. Many contemporary Western Christians mistake what their culture prescribes regarding marriage with what the Bible portrays, and thereby take as biblical what is merely cultural. Uncritical conformity to cultural imperatives of marriage then becomes a Christian virtue, and a sweet surrender. Few recognize, much less question this confusion, even when its consequences are unhealthy. In ...
The book of Jonah remains an engaging part of the religious lives of Jews and Christians. On the human level, the dramatic story speaks to us of the possibility of second chances in our lives. On the spiritual level, it describes the paths an individual and a people can take leading them back to God. Medieval Jewish commentaries unfold new perspectives of meaning beyond the surface of the biblical text. In explaining the verses of the book of J ...
For almost two millennia, Jesus' story has been retold in various forms and fashions, but in the last century a new way of reimagining the man from Galilee and rewriting the canonical Gospels has sprung up in the form of Jesus novels. While the novels themselves are as varied as their authors, this work aims at introducing readers to some common literary strategies and theological agendas found in this rewriting phenomenon by surveying a fe ...
