Karl Barth's famous account of the doctrine of election in his mammoth Dogmatics has been described as the heart of his theology–a great hymn to the grace of God in Christ. Discover the person who initially stimulated Barth's mammoth reworking of the «classical» view of the doctrine–pastor/theologian Pierre Maury (1890-1956). Their close friendship and especially a seminal paper Maury gave in 1936 entitled «Election and Faith» helped s ...
Can there be a greater folly than writing a book about love? But how can we avoid that most basic of all desires and commands? Yet we are very poor lovers, as our history demonstrates. If God is love, though, can we find help in considering the love of Jesus Christ, and the love of Jesus thought of in terms of what T. F. Torrance called «the vicarious humanity of Christ»? This would mean that we realize our inability and the Son of God's ab ...
The hour of Jesus is a fundamental theme running throughout John's Gospel (2:4–19:27) referring to Jesus' glorification (7:39; 12:16, 23, 28; 13:31, 32; 16:14; 17:1, 5) in his passion and death (3:14; 8:28; 12:32, 34). Immediately after the culmination of Jesus' hour (19:25-30) John provides a unique account of things that took place following Jesus' death (19:31-34), apparently important to his audience (19:35), in which he ...
We have too often missed the point that it is the community of faith, the church, that is called to be a sign, instrument, and in particular a foretaste of the reign of God. So what would an appetizer of God's coming reign look like anyway? The focus of this book is not only on what a church does but how it goes about doing what it does. The common life and shared ministry of the church are a powerful witness to God's loving and reconc ...
This book is an exercise in a thoroughgoing narrative theology. The social and legal validation of same-sex relationships in the West over the last two decades has presented an immense challenge to the church insofar as it seeks to remain faithful to Scripture. But it is not an isolated ethical problem. It is just one element–albeit a very important one–in the much broader, long-term overhaul and reorientation of Western culture after the collap ...
In a pluralistic world of competing truth claims, how can one discern what is truly representative of God? How can we live and communicate what is authentically «spiritual?» How do we bridge the religious impasse between believers and a post-Christendom and pluralistic context where individuals may consider themselves to be spiritual, yet are offended by the person of Jesus? Can relativism be an effective means of evaluating truth from falsehood ...
Are you living as God's burning bush, without being consumed? Or might you be headed toward burnout? We will rediscover the blessing of this mutual love relationship with God, overflowing to others, as God's sheer gift. Could it be that the first and greatest commandment is for our greatest joy, and not some mysterious burden to fulfill? One metaphor is the vine and the branches from John 15:1-11. Jesus is the vine and we are the bra ...
After Jesus glanced at the temple coin, he said, «Render to Caesar.» This book's title and theme are based upon Jesus' command to give allegiance to both the state and God. Coauthor David Bentley is the historian-theologian who reads and translates the coins' messages. Coauthor Brad Yonaka is the geologist-scientist who finds the copper, silver, and gold coins which are on display in nearly one hundred photo-figures throughout th ...
The language of perfection crops up regularly in the Bible, from Noah («a just man and perfect in his generations,» KJV) to Jesus («be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect,» NRSV). Is flawless behavior what God expects, the only standard of righteousness that can satisfy him? Jewish tradition has long questioned this Christian assumption. Since Sanders and the New Perspective on Paul, it has come under increasing challenge from ...
