The work of a wonderful secular poet, Billy Collins, provides a great model for Christian writers. His Coleridge «conversation poems» allow for real play and comedy, all in the service of profundity. These are veins that have not been suitably mined by poets who have access to the larger humanity that only Jesus can provide. But there's more than comedy in this collection. The Sorrows of Mary offer a sober truth, as do the four Gospel sonne ...
The Bible has many stories about women. In these stories of women, we see a reflection of ourselves and our own reality–physical, spiritual, and social.Like these women, Hwain's mother possessed deep faith in her Lord. Korean Christian women build their lives on two foundations. The first is the hard reality of the lives of women in the Bible. The second is the long history of Korean women born into a system of Confucian belief. Blossom ...
Throughout history Christians have prayed for the dead. This book challenges Protestants, who seldom pray for the dead, to begin doing so, and Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, who pray only for the Christian dead, to include the unsaved as well. Gould discusses the meaning of prayer for final consummation of all things, growth of the blessed in heaven, purification of the imperfect in purgatory, and salvation of the unsaved in hell–identify ...
Many people ask, «How can I live a more spiritual life, a life that can ultimately lead to enlightenment?» And by way of an answer this book describes four of the most important steps that we can take along the spiritual path–staying open to suffering, living a generous life, cultivating mindfulness and wonder, and accepting death but affirming joy. The Spiritual Guide offers a clear discussion of basic spiritual themes. It does not assume the t ...
The prevailing consensus among historians is that natural theology within Protestantism was born in the eighteenth century as a byproduct of the Enlightenment and had a sharply diminished if not nonexistent role within Puritanism. Based on an exhaustive study of the writings of some sixty English and American Puritans spanning from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century, this book demonstrates that the overwhelming m ...
"In Overture to Practical Theology, Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner takes a new route to introduce theology students and others to the field of practical theology. Although she is certainly aware of relatively recent efforts to show the academic credentials of practical theology through careful definition (citing that of David Tracy), analysis of components, and linkages to other disciplines within and without the overall framework of theology, s ...
"Faith is the beginning of life, love is the end." "All things together are good, if you believe with love." "Faith and love are everything. Nothing is better than them." In his seven letters, Ignatius of Antioch puts the concepts of faith and love side by side in novel and gripping combinations. Olavi Tarvainen illuminates Ignatius's terse statements in this close study of his letters. In doing so, he sheds new light on a ...
This book offers an in-depth analysis and theological reflection on the thirteen books of Augustine's Confessions. It seeks to cover the major points raised by Augustine in his Confessions and discuss them in a way that will give insight and encouragement to the reader. This work does not propose to reflect on every section of every book of the Confessions, but rather to discuss the major points noted in each book. In addition, thoughtful q ...
This collection introduces and explores «watershed discipleship» as a critical, contextual, and constructive approach to ecological theology and practice, and features emerging voices from a generation that has grown up under the shadow of climate catastrophe. Watershed Discipleship is a «triple entendre» that recognizes we are in a watershed historical moment of crisis, focuses on our intrinsically bioregional locus as followers of Jesus, and u ...
